Karma's Web
by Copper Clouds
Summary: In a world where a nukenin lived and Karma is... unkind, things go astray. Most ninja pray that Karma never has anything to do with them. Ever. Naruto finds out why early in life.
1. Chapter 1

I have a "few" words before I cut you loose on my work. Bear with me.

If you take anything given by any character as fact you have only yourself to blame since they are unreliable and biased. Assuming that I will state things openly is also a grave mistake.

The M rating is due to violence.

I don't presume to be a romance writer, so leave me out of your pairing wars. If you have an issue to share with me, please provide a specific reference (i.e. quote).

I own only what is not from the canon Naruto universe (i.e. the OCs). Naruto and all media stemming from that manga belong to their respective owners.

* * *

Chapter 1: Two Fools on a Tightrope

_It came down to one breath._

_Time ran smoothly up to the moment just after she scratched at her bald scalp, fingering the broken scab oozing pus and blood. All it took was one breath—one breath and a pebble._

_If the pebble had been asked, it might have told a strange tale about coming from a rock that had once been pounded with water on a daily basis until a pair of bastards had decided to blow the place to hell in order to settle some stupid quarrel. As far as the pebble was concerned, the red-eyed bastard and the man that brooded over killer trees could have fought somewhere else. The resulting explosion had carried this pebble far from its native rock and to this moment when it was grinding against the other pebbles in the riverbed under the sandal of the bald woman. Warm blood coated the pebble, flowing through the sandal's cracked sole into the water._

_This moment changed things. That pebble worked its way into the crack because a breath caused the broken ribs to pain the woman, so she changed her weight distribution. The path of the pebble diverged in time due to that one breath._

_In the world that might have existed without that breath, that woman would have never made it past the developing village of Konoha. She would have died. The pebble's presence wouldn't have forced her to stop and pry it out of her sandal with a kunai, and a patrol would have caught and executed her on sight as a missing-nin._

_The wayward woman kept the pebble as a good luck charm. It found its way much farther south than Konoha, and the woman lived to lose the pebble due to a hole in her pocket._

_One breath changed everything and nothing._

* * *

Nariko stood before the enormous gates, blinking in awe. She could honestly say she had never expected this. She had heard of Konoha, hadn't everyone? However, she had never expected that her advancement in the accounting firm would take her _here_. She had hoped to be sent to one of the bigger cities, longing for the secure anonymity within a hoard of people. It seemed it was not to be. Konoha was a hidden village of shinobi. As such, it needed to be accessible to clients, yet out of the way of trouble, so its population was equivalent to that of a medium-sized town rather than a large city.

Despite how unique Konoha with its death defying ninja may have been, it was not exempt from taxes and financial matters. So there she was, goggling at the gates and trying to work up the courage to enter. The carter behind her cleared his throat, impatient to get rid of her belongings and to take a break. Moving back into action, she pulled out the appropriate papers.

Cause and effect. Karma. Was rushing to appease the carter good, or was impatience getting the better of her again at his prompting? If the former, well, that was good for her account. If the latter though… She hated going in the red. If she had, well, she had been blessed in a way; paying it forward would certainly help.

The ninja scanned her documents while his partner checked out the carter and her belongings. She flushed as he unzipped her suitcases and searched for whatever dangerous objects he was required to check for. When he winked at her, she grimaced and grumbled about ninja under her breath. Auntie Kasumi would have spit on these ninja, but karma would see that they got what they deserved. She would simply help things along.

Just as she was leaving the gates, the guards yelling threats alerted her to the chance. Turning, she spotted a colour-blind young boy (after all, what sane person wears _orange_?) sporting a fragile, fake smile as he scrambled away from the jeers and the fists of the two at the gate, tripping often in his blind haste.

Nariko glanced about the main street, searching for someone who would defend the boy. Instead, horrifyingly, everyone looked vindictively pleased at his torment. Even she knew that stepping forward in this situation would have consequences. However, impulsiveness was hard to curb and karma was her excuse.

"Hey you!" she roared, putting her impressive lungs to work. Her cousin had always said that the amount of noise she could generate was disproportionate to the size of her thoracic cavity. She trusted Shiro to know. "Stop that! What did that kid do to deserve that? A simple scolding would have sufficed."

People stopped and stared at her. The carter subtly tried to ally himself with the crowd, which was decisively against her now.

She couldn't have cared less. All she could see was a pair of the bluest, loneliest eyes in existence. They tugged at her. How could his desperate lonesomeness exist in the crowd?

She tried to convey that, for this moment, she was on his side. He seemed incredulous, something she couldn't understand. Most children were more than willing to accept any sort of alliance with an adult, especially in a struggle against another. That he didn't want one hinted at something very sinister. She smiled and held out her hand. She had the strangest feeling that she was coaxing a wild animal to feed from it. "Come here. Shall we go?"

He could not have been more than five, yet he approached with the caution of an abused old mutt, only taking her hand after seeing her glare around the street with contempt clearly written across her face. It matched the intensity of the anger they were throwing at her.

Her face cleared when she felt his small hand hesitantly grasp her own. It was dusty from when the guard had pushed him to the ground and as scrawny as the rest of his bony frame. He was too young to look like a beanpole. Someone must not have been feeding him properly. She wondered what sort of asshole would deny a child proper food.

So this was the world beyond the clan compound. This never would have happened at home; word would have gotten around too quickly, and the council would have stepped in. Glaring about once more, she beckoned the carter, who grimaced unhappily while he clucked to his horses, and stalked off with the boy in tow.

A few streets away, she slowed and allowed the boy to catch his breath. He had been forced to run to keep up with her. That crowd had made her uncomfortable though. Still, she couldn't actually believe that they would have been openly hostile. To raise a hand to strike another was something out of myth. Sure, people yelled, squabbled, and could be nasty to each other, but she had never seen real intent to cause lasting harm.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that he was still eyeing her warily as he panted. So cursedly suspicious, but apparently, he had reason to be. He was a ragged looking child: a grimy orange shirt, threadbare shorts, and thin sandals adorned his body. "What's your name, kid?"

He seemed to regain some spark. "Me? I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" He shot her the most blinding fake smile she had ever seen.

She smiled genuinely in return, which seemed to transform some of his falseness into reality. It hurt that he had resorted to lying with his smile in the first place. If he wasn't happy, she hardly expected him to pretend to be.

"Uzumaki Naruto, eh?" She noted his slight panic at her sly tone and quickly turned it sweet and bright. Obviously, blatantly sarcastic forms of expression weren't something he trusted. "I'm Nariko. What did you do back there that had them sniping at you like that?"

The boy's smile turned mischievous. She recognized that smile, having seen it on her cousins' faces many times. She hoped that he would share the joke. "I put superglue on their chairs a couple days ago."

Ah, a good prank and she had only been in the village for ten minutes! What a creative little kid: most children didn't even know how to get the childproof lids off superglue canisters. Motivation was important though. Light-hearted pranks were all good fun, but using those skills for revenge was petty. "Why did you do that?"

"For fun." He shrugged, obviously not telling the whole truth.

"Hmm," was her noncommittal response, "Well, where should I take you?"

"What?" _Such suspicion!_

"Where's your home?"

There was a good chance he wouldn't answer, but she really did need to get him somewhere safe before she could see to moving in. Her conscience would allow nothing less than that. Apparently, this Naruto was only cautious right off the bat because he didn't waste any time jabbering. That or he was really lonely and wanted somebody friendly to talk to. She was willing to fit that bill.

"The ladies at the orphanage kick me out during the day and won't let me back in until after it gets dark. I run around the village during the day. Some days I go visit Old Man, and when I have money, I go to the best ramen stand in the world!"

_No home during the day? _ She stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was lying or not. Yet, the matter-of-fact way he spoke seemed to indicate that he wasn't. Still, this warranted future investigation. He was guileless, especially when it came to ramen. She had a bad feeling about the worshipful tone he spoke about that ramen stand with. Her wallet seemed to be cringing against her thigh, almost as if it knew exactly what she was going to do.

"Well, if that's so, then I guess you'll have to come with me."

"What? Why?"

She flinched at his frightened tone. Damn, she was going to have to be _really_ earnest and careful when dealing with him, poor mite. "Well, since I got you out of trouble back there, the least you can do is help me move into my apartment. Shou-san, the carter lugging all my stuff around, is sure to be sick of dealing with me by now"—she ignored the man's half-hearted protests—"and I'm sure he would love to ditch my stuff. Personally, I'd like to settle my belongings in quickly, and then you and I can talk. Therefore, as the first part of your repayment, I shall commandeer your services for the next two hours."

"Commander?" _Big words were apparently out of style here…_

"No, it's 'commandeer.' It means I'm going to make you work for me."

Naruto pondered this for a moment. "Okay, lady, I guess that's fair."

She smiled and pulled him into the building with the address that matched the one written on the slip of paper. Sharp-eyed Auntie Kasumi had some contacts in Konoha, and, looking at the building with full knowledge of how much rent she was paying a month, Nariko had to say that she was grateful that Kasumi was not above using her connections to secure what she wanted. It was not appropriate behaviour for a member of the clan, but Kasumi had married into the family. She had leeway. After a meeting with the landlord, during which Naruto suspiciously disappeared, Nariko opened her door for the first time.

Naruto reappeared out of nowhere and whistled. "Wow, lady, you must be loaded!"

He skipped into the room and spun on the hardwood floor. As she prowled the rooms, Naruto trailed behind her, looking out all the windows, delighting in the echo of his voice, and inspecting all the closets and cupboards, apparently disappointed to find them empty.

Satisfied with the quality of the pipes (her father had insisted that she check that; she really didn't want to know what experience had led to that suggestion), she rounded up her helper and began to unload her belongings from the cart. She and the carter hauled up her meagre furniture while Naruto handled the least fragile of her belongings: the linens and the pots and pans. She discharged the carter with a generous tip and hauled her bones up the stairs.

It seemed so empty to her. Oh, the space was beautiful, especially those tall ceilings, but it was so sparse and dreary. The walls were all blandly white. She could fix that though.

This suite's previous tenant must have been a ghost because the landlady had told her that even the neighbour downstairs had been happy with how quiet he had been before he had passed away in the third bedroom. He must have been a photographer and used the main bathroom as his darkroom or something; she hoped the chemical smell would fade away. No one liked renting apartments that had had their previous tenants die within them, but Nariko wasn't wealthy enough to be fussy or worried about ghosts.

Naruto stashed away the linens in one of the closets as she reassembled her beloved desk and filing cabinet. She unpacked her dishes and keepsakes while he chased packing paper all over the floor before reluctantly bagging it.

The main rooms seen to, she dragged her bags into the room at the end of the hall across from the room her predecessor had died in. There was a room off the dining room oddly enough, but it hadn't felt like it was hers when she had stepped into it, not the way this room did. It had windows facing south—the direction that home lay in—and west. She supposed that this room was intended either as the master bedroom or the guestroom since the partial bathroom was attached directly to it.

She stifled a chuckle when Naruto pounced with a thud in the living room and glared skywards when the neighbour downstairs hit the floor with a broom and screeched about quiet and proper silence. _Oh, joy._ High-density housing was always much better with crabby neighbours, she thought.

Shaking her head, she kicked her closet door open. With her clothes out of the way, she hauled her bookcase into the room, grabbed a box of books, and kicked another ahead of her while Naruto messed with the door to the small balcony. She left him to it, shelving her books and scrolls. Theology was tucked alongside accounting manuals and calculus and physics textbooks. It was a good balance: the esoteric, the mundane, and the mathematical.

She stood in the centre of the room and spun in a slow circle. Shiro would have teased her about how boring it was. Hmm, she mused, what colour? _Green? Blue?_ No, she knew those would get dreary very quickly. She wanted something earthy… Tan would work: it wasn't yellow, which would have driven her to tears eventually, or a cool colour like the deeper shades of blue and green. She needed some warmth to tide her over with her family so far away.

Satisfied, she headed back into the kitchen and deftly kept Naruto from climbing over the balcony railing. Why did boys always find the quickest ways to kill themselves the moment they were unoccupied? Falling four stories would not have been good for his health. Beckoning him back inside, she slid the glass door shut and grimaced as she realized that Konoha was a lot farther north than her hometown. It would get cold here. Cold and lonely.

Sighing, she headed over to the kitchen sink and demanded her helper wash his hands. "Where is this ramen stand you were talking about?"

That question animated him as nothing else had. Even he seemed to be able to smell that food offering. "Ichiraku's is awesome! It's not far from here, just a few streets over. Come on, I'll show you!"

He grabbed her wet hand and dragged her out the door, barely pausing to allow her to lock up. He then forced her to trot to keep up with him. They weren't going fast enough that she didn't have a chance to look around. Trees grew gnarled and twisted in the unpaved streets, augmenting the urban canopy. The buildings were mostly earthen-hued blurs. Naruto skidded to halt suddenly and, unprepared, she tripped over him was forcefully introduced to the fact that the ground in Konoha was just as hard as it was everywhere else.

"Ouch." She turned around to find Naruto cowering away from her, his hands upraised as if to ward off a blow. That simple defensive stance ignited rage. It decided her; he would benefit from her good fortune.

He began spewing apologies at rapid rate, perhaps hoping that the incomprehensibility of his speech would delay "the inevitable." She noticed the crowd gathering around them as though in preparation for a show.

"Geez, Naruto, warn me next time you do that please. I'm not as resilient as you."

He continued his fervent stream of words as she approached. The almost eager expression on a couple faces disgusted her. She put a hand on his stiff little shoulder and crouched in front of him. He froze at her proximity, so she smiled patiently.

"Calm down; it was obviously an accident. I doubt you meant to trip me. I was just unprepared. Don't worry about it." Naruto seemed to be stunned to silence. The crowd seemed incredulous. _What was with these people? Didn't they have other things to do? _ "Let's eat. I owe you for helping me." The disappointed crowd dispersed.

At first, Naruto seemed totally gung-ho, but then he paused as they settled on the stools in front of the counter. "Wait a sec, lady; I thought you said I owed you for helping me out?"

"I'm not 'lady.'" She set her elbow on the counter and donned a stern expression as the chef watched them, obviously amused. "Would you like it if I called you 'brat' or 'boy' all the time?"

Naruto shook his head fervently.

"Then call me by my name. Say it with me: Nariko."

He muttered it quickly.

"What was that? I didn't hear you."

"Nariko-oneesan," he enunciated mockingly.

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "No need to be so formal, but that'll do for now." He stuck his tongue out at her, and she laughed. She raised an eyebrow at him when he pouted at her and swung back and forth on his stool.

He grimaced at her. "You said you owed me, but you said before that I owed you and that I had to help out."

"I did. You helped a lot. I want to reward your efforts. Don't complain."

Naruto snapped his mouth shut after quickly ordering three bowls of miso ramen. From the pitying look the chef sent her, Nariko figured she was going to regret it if she didn't stem his orders now.

"Three's enough for you I hope?"

Naruto blinked for a moment, trying to hide disappointment.

"Despite what you said about my apartment, I am not 'loaded,' as you put it. I don't start my new job until Monday. The banks here probably aren't open on weekends, and I still have to buy groceries, so what little cash I have now has to last."

Naruto nodded and dug into his ramen with relish. Nariko was both impressed and disgusted by how much he could stuff into his mouth. He reminded her of her cousin Itsuki at eleven. Worried that he would choke on either some noodles or his chopsticks, she dragged him into conversation.

"Tell me; why do all the villagers seem to dislike you?" The sooner she heard the reason for the animosity, the sooner she would be able to allay her misgivings.

Naruto curled into himself and stopped his demolition of miso ramen. "I dunno. I think Old Man does, but he won't tell me. He says that I don't need to worry about it."

_Pfft, didn't need to worry about it, eh? There was no need to worry why some ninja had cuffed his ear and why everyone glared at him?_ After allowing him another two rounds at his bowl, she probed him again. "Why are you in the orphanage?"

"Well, I don't really know who my parents are. I guess they're dead." She winced slightly at just how nonchalantly he said that. _How could he be all right with that?_ "Old Man said that I have to stay at the orphanage until I'm eleven. He's gonna help me get my own apartment if nobody adopts me by then. I've only got six more years until I get my own place like yours; Old Man told me, dattebayo. Then the other boys won't pitch my stuff out the window, the girls won't hide my clothes from me, and Misako won't wake me up before everyone else then and make me go outside. When I get my own place, I can stay home during the day and have ramen all the time!"

"Is that so? What do they feed you at the orphanage?" _Why was he so damn skinny if he ate like a horse?_

"They try to make me eat these squishy things they call vegetables." _Vegetables weren't usually squishy…_ "They're weird colours and they smell really bad. When I eat them, I get sick sometimes. That's why I like ramen so much better than anything they give me at the orphanage: ramen never makes me sick, dattebayo!" He gave her a real megawatt grin with his answer.

She smiled back and gingerly ruffled his grimy, matted hair. She would need to wash her hands… It was too perfect, too convenient that he was here and she had run into him so soon. Such convenience couldn't be real. She allowed the Uzumaki boy to go back to his ramen for a moment before she indulged her curiosity again. "Who's this old man you keep mentioning?"

"Old Man Sarutobi," he said, as though that answered everything.

Seeing that she was not going to get anything useful out of the boy, she turned to the aging chef, Teuchi. He explained that the boy was talking about the Third Hokage, the leader of the ninja in the village. Teuchi-san pointed out his younger face on the mountain. She smiled her thanks and went back to her ramen, occasionally glancing at the monument. It would be a good idea to understand the position that the Konoha those faces had shaped took on various issues and local history would help prevent her from getting lost in conversations. She almost shook her head wryly: always so disgustingly practical. Shiro-nii would have swatted her, and Itsuki would have sighed disappointedly.

When she asked Naruto to show her the orphanage, he grimaced a little, but she smiled at him and said "please" so winsomely that he caved. He hopped off his stool with a little difficulty—he was so short in comparison—and, after waving goodbye to Teuchi-san and his daughter, led the way through Konoha at a much slower pace than before.

She trailed after him through multitudes of unfamiliar sights, attempting to form a mental map of the village. Why had she come here again? Whatever the reason had been, it was rapidly losing ground against the harsh waves of homesickness.

Naruto occasionally pointed out spots. There was the big store with the cold places, the toy store that he wasn't allowed into, and the quiet place with all the stuffy people and the books. She saved her fascination for the last one (the library) for later.

"That's the orphanage," he said. The sign above the door of a well-appointed building in the middle of a side street agreed with Naruto's assertion. It seemed cheerful: the giggling group of girls playing with dolls on the front lawn were evidence, but Naruto's reaction contradicted this. He curled up on himself again. She set a hand on the poor mite's shoulder. Using her gentle grip to get him moving, she approached the building.

The girls glanced up when she lifted the latch on the gate and sneered upon spotting Naruto. He stuck his tongue out at them, but Nariko pulled him along behind her to keep an argument from starting. One of the girls seemed determined though.

"What are _you_ doing here?" she demanded. "You're not supposed to be here!"

"He's here because I asked him to be," Nariko informed the girl over Naruto's gibbered snarls, keeping him from lunging at the child. "Where is Misako-san?"

The girls traded looks and shrugs. "Probably in her office, oneesan," the snide girl said politely. Nariko couldn't blame the girl for wanting to butter up a potential guardian. Naruto had met her first though. The group seemed to understand this because they scowled at the boy as she led him towards the door. Knocking elicited minimal response.

"You've got to hit the door really hard after lunch," Naruto whispered after tugging on the hem of her shirt. "Everybody's really loud, and the doorbell's broken."

Nodding, she uncurled her fist and slammed her palm against the wooden door. She smirked to herself when the girls in the yard stared incredulously. Just because she looked like a stick, it didn't mean she would snap like one. People always underestimated wiriness…

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Pick that up. Ume-chan, carry that hamper downstairs! Someone's going to trip over it if you leave it lying around in the hallway." Nariko got her first look at Misako when the door flew open. Naruto flinched against her side. Misako-san was a pleasant looking woman in her early forties, if harried and on edge. "Good afternoon," she managed to say after noticing Naruto. "What has he done this time?"

_A constant troublemaker, huh? _Perhaps he was an attention seeker. That wanted a firm hand, but essentially exiling Naruto from the orphanage surely wasn't the answer.

Naruto ducked behind her when Misako-san tried to grab him. Nariko casually blocked her seeking hand and smiled politely at the frustration that suffused the woman's façade. "Done?" Nariko asked, keeping her tone light and friendly despite all feelings to the contrary.

The orphanage director's eyebrows sought her greying hairline as she straightened. "Yes, what has he done to you? I promise that he'll be properly punished for whatever inconvenience he has inflicted upon you—"

"You misunderstand me. I have no complaint with your ward. I was simply interested in seeing where Naruto-kun lived."

Misako-san sent a nasty glance at the boy before smiling up at her, looking mystified, as though Naruto didn't get asked after. Such a thing almost appeared to herald the end of her world. "Are you quite certain? I mean, we are very well aware of his penchant for pulling malicious pranks upon citizens. You need not worry about offending us. I have dealt with this troublemaker before."

Nariko arched a brow at the woman. _Why wouldn't Misako just let them inside?_ "No, it's all right. He's been very helpful actually. I just wanted to see—"

"Oh, it's nothing special," the director assured her hastily, "just a bed and a trunk…" Naruto opened his mouth, disbelief etched in his face, but the woman shot a quelling look at him.

"Is that so?" Nariko asked blandly. "Then you'll have no problem letting me in to look—"

"It's quite messy at the moment. He didn't clean up before he left this morning."

"Ah, yes, before dawn. I can see him forgetting to clean up when heading out before the sun." Nariko guiltily took a bit of malicious pleasure in watching Misako squirm. "It's quite all right. I hardly mind a bit of mess. I just wanted to—"

"Hours for visiting are on weekday mornings from ten until three. It's hardly a weekday, it being Saturday and all. I'm afraid I simply can't let you in right now. Perhaps on Wednesday?"

Nariko stared, not quite capable of believing the lengths this lady was going to prevent her from seeing where Naruto slept. _Why Wednesday? Why not Monday?_ Such delay was not reassuring, but she couldn't do much to gainsay her. There was another route to take though. Pleasant retreat was the order of the day. "Oh, of course. I'm sorry; I didn't know."

"Oh, it's quite all right." Misako-san looked a little relieved. "Naruto, perhaps you'd like to come inside?"

"Actually, do you mind if he sticks around with me a bit longer?" Nariko asked as Naruto glared and stuck his tongue out. "He's helping me find my way around. I still need my guide or I'll get completely lost." She rolled right over the orphanage director's protests and steered Naruto back out the gate with farewell's rolling sweetly off her tongue. Nariko kept up a purposeful pace until they were four houses away. "I see what you mean."

"I told you," he crowed. "You shook the door! How did you do that?"

She snorted and cleared away her mischievous expression when he turned back to look at her. "It's not that hard. You just have to know how to apply the force. My brother taught me. Shiro used to be able to make houses rattle, but he's stronger than I am. Anyway, that proved rather useless."

"What were you trying to do?" he asked as he stumbled over a mostly buried rock that wasn't quite willing to be kicked. Nariko stifled snickers at his close call. "Why did you want to see my room?"

"I just wanted to know if they were treating you right. You're a good kid, but you don't look healthy to me. I wanted to see whose fault it was. Those girls look healthier than you, so I guess I know who's responsible." He grinned proudly at being called a good kid, letting the rest of her explanation pass in one ear and out the other. "Do you have a bed and a trunk?"

Naruto snorted and shook his head as he scooped up a pebble and tossed it at some trashcans. "Don't got a trunk. I got a cardboard box 'cause the trunks were too heavy to carry all the way up the stairs. Misako said so. It's falling apart now and it's got fuzzy stuff all over the bottom. It got wet too many times."

"All the way up the stairs?"

"Yeah, they put me in the top of the house where the roof slopes. The other guys didn't like sharing," he mumbled sullenly. "I didn't like sharing with them either. Being up there doesn't stop them from messing with my stuff though."

Well, she had tried the conventional route and it hadn't worked. It was about time to go make a fuss at a higher level. "Hey, Naruto, I want you to drag me to meet the old man."

He stared, obviously not understanding why she had specified dragged.

"If you drag me in there as you usually go in, I have a feeling that it will get us past any security faster. You hardly ever have to wait to see him, do you?"

He shook his head.

"You see? If you go in as you usually do, it will help get me in faster to see him. It'll be fun!"

Eager to obey the nice lady that had bought him lunch, Naruto grabbed her hand and took off with her in tow.

Naruto's manner did get them past security faster, but she was still forced to submit to checks. However, she noted that they went a lot faster for her than they did for anyone else trying to see the Hokage. As she pondered this twisted logic, Naruto's haste scorched the carpet. Only Nariko's intervention kept him from breaking the door off its hinges when they finally got to the office. Nariko knocked, but Naruto barrelled through the door only a second afterwards.

"Hey, Old Man!" he shouted happily as he approached the cluttered desk. "You've got to meet my new friend, Nariko-neesan!"

The Hokage appraised her with distrustful eyes half hidden behind folds of skin marred by liver spots and hairs that had randomly decided to relocate from the top of his head. She had a feeling that karma had had great dealings with this man, not all of them happy. Worse still, she had the uncomfortable feeling he knew something about her, which was ridiculous.

Naruto rambled on about their meeting and she watched the slow change that came over the old man. The distrust receded slightly, but a healthy dose of caution maintained it.

"This is wonderful, Naruto," the old man said firmly, stemming Naruto's profusion of words. "I am glad you have had such a good day. However, I think that my secretary would be grateful if you passed him these files. On your way down, perhaps you should snitch some sweets from the waiting room. Remember, the ANBU are waiting for you there, so be careful."

Naruto seemed on the verge of protesting when the Sandaime passed him a handful of scrolls, but a stern look sent him out the door. Nariko tensed.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A Chalice Half-Full

As soon as the latch clicked behind Naruto, a staring contest commenced. Nariko and the Sandaime sized each other up, trying to judge such qualities as intelligence, strength, cunning, and determination. Nariko had the feeling that he found her lacking. He was probably at least three times her age: naturally, he would.

His tone was cracking with age and what her nose told her was a tobacco-related habit. "So, Matsuku-san, what brings you here other than your clan's insatiable need to intervene?" he asked as he gestured that she seat herself. _How did he know her clan name! What else did he know about her?_

"I recently was selected by my manager for advancement in my accounting firm. The new position was here, so I was required to move. I just arrived today from Kaijin no Mura. As Naruto-kun told you, the scene that met me at the gate was not impressive. Karma demanded that I step in." Her finishing statement made her want to laugh. What sort of zealot was she making herself out to be? She hadn't even gotten to her point and she could see that he already had plenty to cross-examine her about.

"You are a follower of the principle of karma?" _Why did he sound so wary?_

"Yes, it has never led me wrong before." Hyperbole was not lying, per se. Just how long she had followed karma made her statement easily defendable. "Just before I entered Konoha, I was wondering what I should do to pass on my good fortune. I've found the answer." _Gods_, Shiro would have smacked her three times by now. Officiousness was supposed to be his area of expertise.

"Is that so? What answer is that?" She had the horrible feeling that he could tell exactly what was going through her head.

"I believe it is Uzumaki Naruto. I have the feeling that karma has not been kind to him." _Stick to karma: karma sounds good._ "She wishes to pay him back through me." _Now that just sounded stupid._ Why the hell was she so intimidated by this meek-looking man? He was making her spout utter garbage.

"It sounds like you speak more of fate than karma." _Oh great, now fate had been brought into it. _The possibility of having a non-diverging, predestined path made her ill. This man seemed to be jumping about according to no logic she could read, but perhaps age had that effect.

"No, karma is changeable through action. Fate is fixed and doesn't suit me at all." He was weeding for answers; it was a good thing that she didn't have anything to hide.

"Perhaps, but it seems that you wish to have a hand in Naruto's fate." Now he was starting to sound odd as well. Sure, she wanted to help Naruto, but the Hokage made her sound like some avenging spirit come to right the fated path of the world. The image amused her.

"In Naruto's future, not his fate; taking him on as a ward would be accurate," she said, sticking with the partly philosophical tone he had imposed on the conversation. Her father would have happily kept this completely above the material plane, but she was not her father. Such language sounded odd slipping off her tongue. She was more connected to the mundane than the esoteric. Obviously, the Sandaime was no stranger to either plane. "He seems a good enough child, and the way your village treats him rubs me the wrong way. The fact that he believes ramen to be healthier than vegetables is appalling."

"Are you determined to take him on no matter what I may tell you?"

Nariko thought it over. This hinted at something very terrible. It would be just typical that she would land in trouble on her first day in the ninja village. Shiro would be so amused, and Itsuki would be so exasperated. "Ah, Sandaime-sama, he's just a child. What kind of follower of karma would I be if I blamed him for my folly? It's hardly his fault that he piqued my interest right off the bat. I'll see this through. He seems to be a good kid for all that everyone seems convinced he needs to be beaten."

The Sandaime's gentle smile made her skin crawl. "Very well, I will tell you something since the moment you interacted with Naruto you were placed under observation by ANBU."

She stilled a flinch. She had been watched just because she had defended a kid. How paranoid were these people, and what the heck was ANBU?

"They have found nothing suspicious in your behaviour, so I feel safe enough letting you know what everyone around you knows already, save the children. It is against the law to reveal what I tell you to any ignorant children."

Nariko finally understood that she was in far over her head. If she drowned, somebody was going to pay for it… Aunt Emi had a long letter coming at her in the near future if Nariko had anything to say about it for sticking karma in her head. Gulping, she nodded.

"Five years ago, on October 10th, Naruto was born. On that very same day, the village was under attack by one of the bijuu, Kyuubi. You may have heard of this. My successor at the time, the Yondaime, was the only one capable of dealing with the attack. Konoha by that time was ravaged by the power of the beast and many were dead. The Yondaime stopped the destruction by sealing Kyuubi into newborn Uzumaki Naruto." The old man paused, allowing her to process this information.

No wonder the Sandaime had no problem including myths and philosophy in a simple discussion about taking care of a hard-done-by kid.

Kyuubi was the stuff of legends made real, a being of fire. Yes, she had heard about the attack on Konoha, who hadn't? It wasn't every day that a bijuu decided to lay waste to her nation's foremost military power. A seal was the only thing standing in the way of the return of this Kyuubi though. There should be more of a safeguard than this. She told the old man as much. Shiro would have smacked her, but he wasn't here to hold her in check.

Sandaime gestured to the pictures behind her depicting four men. The first had long black hair… Wait; she had seen these likenesses on the mountain. The third picture was obviously of a _much_ younger version of the Sandaime. The Yondaime's appearance startled her. For a moment, she thought that she was looking at a kempt, older Naruto. She looked at the Sandaime, who seemed to comprehend her thoughts, just as she had suspected.

He shrugged, refusing to confirm or deny her conclusion. "The Yondaime was a genius ninja. Trust in the knowledge that everything he did to keep Kyuubi sealed was carefully planned to the last detail. He did sacrifice his own life to complete the seal, after all. Before he died, he requested that Naruto be seen as a hero. From your experiences today, you can see that this has not happened. People are more inclined to view him as Kyuubi himself rather than as Naruto, Kyuubi's jailor. I am given to understand that you and yours should understand the difference."

_So he knew of her people's philosophy? Where from? _Her response would dictate her success. She stared out the window behind him as she weighed every syllable. "Naruto was a newborn when the Kyuubi was placed inside him. As such, he was complete before the bijuu parasite was attached to him. Naruto is a separate being from the beast. It seems that the karma of the fox has been added to his own though. The village has certainly been paying him back for the fox's deeds. I wonder what karma will return to them for heaping trouble on the wrong victim. I also wonder what karma will dish out to the fox later. For now, it seems he is beyond the reach of karma."

The Sandaime smiled at her. Six hours in and she had already been grilled by the highest authority. Such an auspicious beginning to her life in Konoha…

"Very well then, I welcome you to take Naruto on, on one condition." Conditions always plagued her. _Why could nothing simply be simple and straightforward?_

"What is that?" She was sure the Sandaime spotted her masked exasperation, but he gave no sign.

"I would rather you did not pass on your beliefs about karma to him."

_Huh?_

"Considering how he has been treated, if he ever learned that he possessed the fox and he chose to consider himself the fox, he would be terrified at what karma would bring him for the fox's wrongs."

Nariko thought it over. It was no great sacrifice. Naruto was bound to pick up similar morals from her anyway; they would simply be under a different name and purpose. "Very well, I have no objections to that."

"Good, I am glad. I will ensure your protection from any backlash directed at you in response to your taking over the care of Naruto."

She hadn't considered that. Now that she thought about it, she should have. She wondered how far this punishment would go.

"Thank you, that greatly reassures me. What is the worst I can expect?"

"On his birthday, things get much worse than usual. Keeping him out of sight is best. Several gang beatings have been attempted." _Gang beatings…!_ She couldn't even imagine what those entailed. "I have no doubt they will grow worse as he grows more able to take care of himself."

One final time, Nariko wondered just what she was getting into before she shrugged her trepidation off. She would handle things as they happened. She nodded just as Naruto barged in the door again, his small hand full of peppermints. Grinning, he handed her one of his prizes and proceeded to suck on his own as he tossed a candy to the Sandaime. "That was hard work, Old Man! I thought you were joking when you said ANBU was watching the lounge. The chuunin are way easier to get past, dattebayo!"

Sandaime smiled and fiddled with his candy before gesturing to Naruto that he should sit. He then waved his hand and, to Nariko's surprise, a masked ninja appeared in a cloud of smoke. People appearing out of nowhere, demons stuck in little boys, ninja leaders mocking her clan, and her father's studies actually proving to have practical applications—these things simply would never cease to put her off balance.

"Dog, would you please go to the orphanage and get the appropriate papers and signatures for Matsuku-san here? I would like to delay the backlash that will be directed at her as long as possible." Without a word, the ninja disappeared again. Nariko wondered how Misako-san would deal with that creature. Sandaime turned to Naruto, who was looking a little confused. "Naruto, Nariko-san and I were discussing your future. She would like to offer you her home as an alternative to the orphanage."

Naruto's eyes grew to the size of saucers as he turned to her. Ah, poor kid looked as though someone had nailed him with a door.

"That's right, Uzumaki-san. I would not mind sharing my new place with you until you decide you wish to move out. I am unlikely to drop your things out the window or hide them from you, and I would like to think that I am a fairly good cook. We can even get you a better cardboard box if you require such a hefty bribe, if you have no other objections of course."

Naruto sat stalk still for several minutes, not blinking or taking his eyes off her. She became nervous at his lack of response, wondering if perhaps her box jab had been misinterpreted, until all hell suddenly broke loose. He launched himself at her with a shout that would have bowled her over had the impact of his body not done the job. They both tumbled out of her chair onto the floor as Naruto tried to squeeze the air out of her with the force of his embrace alone.

The ninja reappeared as Naruto's watery expression of joy rendered her shoulder decidedly damp. Dog handed partially completed papers to the Sandaime, who filled in what he could. Nariko got back into her chair and Naruto settled himself onto her lap with her permission, refusing to be separated from her as she finished filling out the forms. As a final gesture, she handed the pen to Naruto to let him show his consent. Just as he was about to sign, he paused.

"Nariko-neechan, what's my last name?" _Didn't he like his name enough to want to keep it?_

"Uzumaki. I think that your parents deserve the right to give you their last name. After all, it was their first gift to you. Your first name was their second gift, I think. You should never throw away those gifts or be ashamed of them, even if they are unique."

He asked for much far too soon, but then she supposed she did too. They barely knew each other, but he trusted her. It frightened her a little. She had thought that she was the impulsive one, the naïve and foolishly trusting one, but he seemed just as bad. Forging connections quickly was a gift of the innocent. It was good that he still qualified, just as a child should. She would have to protect that for as long as possible. Houseroom and protection were small things to give to a child.

"But then no one will know that we belong to each other," he protested.

Ah, that was why. He wanted a connection that he could prove with a piece of paper. She couldn't really blame him. Binding ties must have been very hard to come by as an orphan. Name ties hadn't kept people close in other cases though. He would learn that soon enough. Friends, real friends, didn't need a name binding them together. Family, real family, didn't need a blood or a name bond to exist. No, blood and name meant nothing, or they did unless there was no other possible link.

"That is true, but then you would lose your last link to your parents. I think that preserving that link is more important. As long as you and I know that we belong to each other, then it doesn't matter what other people think, does it?" That would have to be enough for now. Explaining all of it to him was unnecessary just now, and the Sandaime and the one called Dog were waiting.

"I guess not," he grumbled.

She ruffled his matted hair. "I'm sorry if that makes you feel sad now, Naruto. Maybe you will understand why I want this for you someday."

He nodded, still a little miffed, and signed his name as instructed. Nariko plucked Naruto off her lap and offered him a piggyback ride home. He smiled at that word and quickly jumped up on her back the moment she crouched down. They bid the Hokage a good day and Naruto saluted Dog, who tilted his head to the side in farewell.

* * *

The two ninja waited until they sensed them exit the corridor.

"Are you sure this is wise?" asked Dog.

The Sandaime rubbed at his wrinkled forehead and pulled the papers towards him, studying them intently. "No, I am not certain. She is sincere though, in her own way, and terribly open. It is not hard to read her. She may disappoint him, but there is a good chance that not all this careful preparation was in vain. We will simply have to wait and _watch_. Getting him out of the orphanage is safer than letting him stay."

Dog nodded, understanding that command. "Upset may stress the seal. If she betrays him, it will be dangerous."

"No one else would take him even if I asked them to, and forcing his care upon someone has not worked. She has offered, naively, just as our agent in the south predicted, allowing us to kill two birds with one kunai. We shall just have to take precautions. You watched her all day. What did you think?"

"She was offended by the actions of the villagers and protected him despite the obvious ire that was directed upon her for her actions. That she continued to defend him even after the obvious displeasure of the crowd was admirable, if stupid. She is taking an awful risk. She has no base of contact in the village. By adopting him so early on, she has placed them all very firmly against her. She is a fool and is impulsive. If she is a representative Matsuku, there may be nothing to be concerned about."

The Sandaime nodded, agreeing with Dog's assessment, and called for his secretary. "She's a typical member of her generation: sheltered and naïve. The elders are wiser, craftier. At least, the clan branches in Wind and Earth Countries are. Their success in getting their proposals past their Daimyo indicates as much. Fool or simply naïve, only time will tell if she has the will to stick it out. The least we can do is to prevent her from losing her new job."

Understanding his task, Dog bowed and left. A knock at the door announced the arrival of the poor man in charge of coordinating his paperwork.

"It would be good of you if you could spare a moment to forward a bonus to Daichi and tell him his instincts for solving my chance-mentioned problems are still good. Thank Intel and those chuunin at the gate for cooperating on such short notice."

The secretary folded up his glasses, nodded, and shut the door.

The Sandaime leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, mulling over the job interview Matsuku-san hadn't realised was going on. The information the ever-efficient Intel had presented him from Daichi's reports matched up with her story. An accountant fresh from the south come to take up a post presented her for being a little too quick. Work at that firm was always available: not so easy to come by, but easy to lose. Some were even eager to lose it…

He nearly chuckled. The entire situation was almost funny. If she did a good enough job patching Naruto up and fostering the desired attitude in him, perhaps he would pay her for her trouble just to offend her and her troubling family.

* * *

The second time Naruto set foot in the apartment, his belongings sat in the centre of the living room. Their presence startled Nariko. In fact, she looked slightly frightened: her eyes were wide, her lips were compressed into a pale line, and her knuckles were white.

Realizing that she probably didn't understand ninja all that well, Naruto explained. "Old Man probably sent Dog to bring my stuff. Ninja can do stuff like that real easy. Breaking in and picking locks is a snap, dattebayo. Dog's really good at it; he used to have to pick the lock on the orphanage when they forgot to let me in. You can always tell it's him because of his weird grey hair."

"Oh," his new guardian said. Glancing about the room again seemed to help. "Well, I want to you to take your stuff to your room and put it all away how you like it. I'm going to go shopping quickly. I need some groceries to make supper with, and I need to get you a futon. I should have enough to afford that. We'll talk some more when I get back, okay?"

Naruto gathered up his stuff as she waved over her shoulder and left. He headed into the room off the dining room and shoved his clothes into the closet. The place felt much more welcoming with his collection of rocks on the shelf.

He was still in shock. He didn't know Neechan all that well—he had only met her this morning—but he knew she was different from most of the village. She had _looked_ at him. There had been indignation and fury for him. Such emotions had only been directed at him before. He knew safety lay in the halo of such emotions. It also helped that old man Teuchi had smiled at her when she hadn't been looking and had nodded to Naruto. Naruto knew that he could trust Teuchi and Ayame simply because the Ramen God he worshipped made sure that they were trustworthy.

His five-year-old mentality could only handle so much time being inactive. Being kicked out of the orphanage every day at dawn had forced him to develop a habitual restlessness. Rock toss palled after ten minutes. He ventured out into the sitting room and looked over the things that he had helped Nariko arrange not long beforehand.

She had several intricate puzzles made of metal rods and rings. There were several figurines as well, mostly of woodland creatures: an ivory rabbit, a wooden deer, a jet boar, a soapstone bear, and several others he couldn't name yet. He resolved to ask Neechan about them later. One seemed especially familiar; he was sure he had seen the things with the bushy tails in some of his dreams. A couple paintings yet to be hung were partially unrolled on the desk. One was of a blue and green peacock, and another was of a dog dancing about a fire.

By the desk, blank sheets of paper filled a large box. Naruto itched to scribble all over them, but he knew that wouldn't be a good idea. Neechan only had brushes and inkpots out, and he had been shouted at the last time he had meddled with things like that. He rubbed the skin behind his ear where he had bruised; Misako hadn't been happy at all.

He was just about to poke around Neechan's bedroom when the door opened. Nariko entered, burdened with several bags, followed by Dog, a strangely shaped shadow. Dog was loaded with bags and the promised futon.

Bouncing excitedly, Naruto scrambled to help Neechan with her with the groceries, ignoring Dog, who let out an aggrieved sigh. Nariko waved Naruto off to help Dog. "He's got things I got for you. I want you to see if you like them."

"What if I don't?" he asked.

"Then we'll compromise."

Confused, but willing to wait to see what she meant, Naruto helped Dog move his futon and four other bags into his room. Dog watched quietly as Naruto dug through the bags to find _new_ clothing all in his size. He tried to remember if he had ever been given something new, brand new, to wear before. He was just about to try some on when Nariko walked in.

"Wait." Her brown hair swayed as she glanced nervously at the ninjatou in the katana sheath on Dog's back. "You are not trying any of those clean clothes on until you have had a bath."

"A bath? What's that? Like the hose Misako-san uses when I'm all brown or like how she washed me in the big sink when I was really little?"

Nariko blinked. "No wonder you are such a mess. Well, this is going to make things a little more awkward." Nariko hesitantly turned to Dog. "I suppose you were assigned to look out for him for today? Would you like to stay for this? I can manage either way."

Dog shrugged and headed out to the living room, where he stationed himself near a window.

Nariko turned away from Naruto's confusion. "Grab some clean clothes that you want to wear. I'll meet you in the bathroom."

* * *

Nariko looked over her ward's scrawny five-year-old body with a critical eye. Compared to five-year-old Itsuki, he was malnourished. That, she could fix in a few weeks. What bothered her were the bruises speckled here and there in various stages of healing and the faded scars. Sighing away her futile anger with some difficulty, she scrubbed the grime off his face, ignoring his protests. When she was at last satisfied with his level of cleanliness, she passed him the towel and gestured that he settle himself on her lap, which he did happily, having no idea what torture she had planned for him.

Naruto found that he really didn't like having his hair brushed for the first time in a good long while if his yowls and curses were any indication. He expressed deep disbelief when she told him that if he repeated the process every day instead of every month or six, it would be less painful. When he informed her of this distrust, she flicked his nose and sternly told him that he would if he knew what was good for him.

She ended up having to trim a couple misfit locks before she was satisfied. Naruto's hair now spiked in tufts rather that in spines a stegosaurus would have envied. Patting his much softer head, she set him on his feet and told him to get dressed as she gathered up his old clothes to toss into her closet hamper. She wondered if she could throw them away without Naruto noticing. She dismissed the notion with a laugh. She could tolerate one orange shirt.

She found her charge in his room idly going through his new garments. After inspecting his closet, she gave him an intense lesson in folding and putting away his clothes. _What had Misako taught him?_ It took him several tries before he managed to fold his sweaters, but other than that, he had little trouble picking up the lesson.

She sat down on his new futon and gestured that he do the same. She would have to teach him how to fold it up later. "I know that this was all very sudden, but there are times when you just know what is right, so you do it. You needed a protector, and I needed someone to care for here. I need someone willing to fill this place with noise because I hate the silence, and you need houseroom, which I have almost to excess. We fill the needs of the other. That is the basis of our bond. Do you understand?"

"Not really," he replied, fiddling with his comforter.

She stilled an amused grin. She would need to find an excuse to get him outside or else he would start running up and down the walls. "I come from a very close-knit family. My family values the young very much. I was taking care of my younger cousin from the time I turned seven. It is good and natural for me to have to look after someone. Because you need someone like me and I need someone like you, it's important that we stick together. It is very simple."

"Okay."

"Good. Now, we will have to learn how to be around each other. We can set some rules now. Do you want to start?"

"Um, how about I get to eat ramen all the time?"

Nariko shook her head. "I won't allow that. My first rule for you was to be that you would have to eat whatever I made you. We'll compromise. I offer to have ramen with you every Saturday. In return, I want you to eat whatever else I may offer you during the week."

Naruto mulled over this proposal. She could well imagine his struggle. She was guaranteeing him his beloved ramen, but who knew what horrible food she would make him eat? She had to stifle chuckles at his businesslike expression. "Will it be Ichiraku ramen?"

"I can't afford that every Saturday right now. However, I promise that we'll go there next Saturday so long as you agree to try my own ramen on Wednesday."

He thought it over and shrugged.

"Good. Now, I would like for there to be a rule about your responsibilities."

"My what?"

She was going to have to expand his vocabulary. "The jobs you have to do and the things you have to watch over while here. For example, it will be your duty to make your bed every morning."

"I can do that," he gushed, painfully eager to please. She doubted very much that that would last. Siblings had spats all the time: even she, an only child, had engaged in those. Shiro and Itsuki had gotten on her nerves just as much as she had gotten on theirs. She and Naruto would hardly be different. She would try to keep this going though.

"Good. I would appreciate it if you kept your room tidy, but after the first month, I will cease to check as long as you bring your laundry out when it is time. Your room will be your place, and I'll leave it alone if you want me to after the first month."

"Why?"

"I need reassurance that you know what you are doing. The first month will give me a feel for how you're going to care for this room. Is that all right?"

"I guess so."

"Good. Now, I don't mind if you go in my room so long as you leave it how you found it. You can place your dirty clothes in the hamper in my closet so that I don't have to chase you down for them on laundry days. However, I want you to leave the bathroom attached to my room alone. I keep medicines and other things in there that I would rather you didn't touch because they can be dangerous."

Nariko found it odd that she and Naruto were discussing this so reasonably. It was ridiculous to expect a five-year-old to respect these rules. She knew this from experience. However, Naruto had been mostly independent for a long time. Taking that away from him would cause resentment. She would trust him for now and take precautions when she was sure he wouldn't notice. A lock on her bathroom door wouldn't be amiss. She could keep all the dangerous cleaners in there so the kitchen could be a safe zone.

"I have the other bathroom; it doesn't matter."

"That's good too then. Do you have any other rules?"

"I don't want to be kicked out during the day anymore. I want to be able to come here during the day."

The discrepancies between his expectations and hers were becoming appallingly apparent. She didn't let him see this though; it would simply confuse him. "That's fine. I was going to allow that anyway. I'll get you your own key so long as you promise to lock up after yourself when you go out."

"I want you to teach me like the parents teach their kids."

Nariko blinked at him, taken aback. "I should have time to do that. What do you want me to teach you?"

"I don't know, maybe what the funny symbols mean in my name and stuff." So, he didn't know how to read. She wasn't surprised; she was impressed that he could approximate the characters of his name as well as he could.

"Okay, that's no problem. I have one question though."

"What?"

"You are old enough to start school next year. Where do you want to go?"

"Oh, I'm going to the Academy."

Nariko cocked an eyebrow.

"Old Man promised I could. I'm going to be the best ninja ever, dattebayo!"

…

_What? No!_

But she was stuck: the promise had already been made. If she denied him, she would lose his trust, not that that would stop her from arguing with the Sandaime. Reluctantly, she agreed for now. She had the horrible feeling that this would cause her much grief in the future. It directly went against clan policy. It was a good thing that she hadn't given in to his desire to have her name. The clan would have suffered for it. Names could be dangerous.

"Any more rules I should know about?" When he screwed up his face in thought for several minutes, she laughed. "Well, we can add to the list later. There are still a few hours before dinner. How about you show me around Konoha? I need to get some paint for my room. White is a nice colour, but only as a starting point."

As they left the building, Dog slipped out of sight to tail them from afar. Naruto got lost twice in his attempts to guide her to a hardware store. They switched roles when they got there: he followed her as she stalked through the aisles to find paint. He gaped at the colour cards as she assessed the shades of tan with narrowed eyes.

"What colour do you want?" she asked him when she found the right hue. She could almost foresee his finger poking at the most brilliant shade of orange there was. Forcing down a shudder, she shook her head. "Please not orange. Pick something that won't burn your eyes out after three months. I'm afraid mine will be lacerated just by painting that colour on your walls. Your rocks will melt into sludge."

He stared at her, wide-eyed at the potential abilities of his favourite colour.

She was going to have to tone her mild sarcasm down if she wanted to get through to him. "Intense colours can make rooms dreary too," she cajoled, scanning for a pale blue or green that would work.

"Light orange then!"

She sighed and looked over paler shades of the evil colour. Smirking internally, she pointed.

"That one?" he asked incredulously.

She smiled innocently and nodded.

"Isn't that white?"

"No," she told him, struggling to appear serious, "it's _corn silk_. That's a big difference." She laughed at his defiant pout.

"Orange," he grumped, scowling at her.

"In the middle then." He set his finger on the shade he liked and she kept hers on the pale, creamy colour. They drew a line between the two and landed on… "_Pith's reject_," she read, fighting to keep from sniggering. Whoever had come up with these names must have been having loads of fun.

"What does that mean?"

"You know the white stuff on oranges under the peel? That's the pith. When they say it's a reject, it means that it doesn't quite belong. This shade's too orange and not pale enough to be a proper colour for pith. Is it good?"

His mouth twisted into a grimace, but he shrugged stiffly. Struggling to keep her lips in a straight line, she had two cans mixed up in each of the chosen colours and had Naruto grab the other materials she wanted as her wallet shrivelled up against her thigh again, poor thing. She desperately hoped that her few remaining ryou would last until Monday. She lugged the paint cans while Naruto scurried ahead with the bag of paintbrushes and such in hand.

"Where are we going now?" he called back to her. She shrugged to the best of her ability, cursing the narrow wires used as handles to hell. "Can we go paint then?" he gushed, hopping up and down at her side.

"Sure." She was more than willing to set these buckets down somewhere.

Hissing and shaking the strain out of her finger joints, she glanced around Naruto's room as Naruto ripped through the packaging on the paintbrushes and rollers. Drop sheets were the order of the afternoon. She rummaged through her linen closet for a couple threadbare sheets that Kiku had mockingly presented her as a leaving present. She had resented it initially, but it looked like Shiro's older sister knew what she was doing.

After tying her hair up in a loose bun, she helped Naruto moved everything into the living room so that it wouldn't get coated with dust. She pushed his window open and glanced furtively at the ninja leaning against the counter separating the kitchen from the dining room. He was tall. If he would help… no, that probably wouldn't work. He was here to guard Naruto, nothing else. What he was guarding Naruto from was what worried her though.

Sighing, she resigned herself. Supper would be very late and Sunday would be spent painting too.

She showed Naruto how to sand with the pole arrangement and set to spackling the dings in the walls. He handled what he could reach and she did the rest with the help of a chair. When the tall ceilings proved resistant to her limited height, she cajoled the landlord into letting her borrow a ladder.

When the sky finished going through the colours of the day's death throes and settled into true twilight, Nariko set down her sandpaper and stepped back to survey their work. Not bad, but not great; Sunday would be a busy day. At least the sanding was done. She cajoled Naruto into washing his hands while she got as much dust out as possible before pulling his futon back in. His other things could hang around the living room for now. Those rooms were just as empty as everywhere else was. _What to fill them with…?_

Naruto perched on her desk chair, which he had dragged into the kitchen, and watched as she boiled rice and steam fried vegetables and pork cuts. She made a mental note to pick out a nice dining table. Shiro had offered to make her one, but there hadn't been room in the cart. Maybe she could get him to ship it to her. Naruto wrinkled his nose at the vegetables, but a stern look from her quelled any protests and smoothed the skin beneath the set of whisker marks. She had first assumed they were grime trails, but now knew they were permanent.

Dog stood in the corner again, watching. He made her nervous; he was way too quiet, too young too: he seemed to be in his late teens, a year or two younger than she was. His help in the market had been welcome. Naruto's pitiful pile of belongings had made her realize that she needed to get him some things. Dog had solved the problem of how by appearing in front of her with an envelope that contained a note explaining Dog's offer of assistance and enough money to cover her immediate needs. Happily, she had loaded him with things as if he were a packhorse. Even through his mask, she had managed to detect his longsuffering sigh.

After pulling plates from the cupboard, she served out two dishes as she wondered if she should offer some to Dog. He shook his head when she tried to retrieve a plate for him. Shrugging, she called Naruto over and watched as he poked at his meal suspiciously. Rolling her eyes, she began to devour her own.

"Neechan, what's this?"

"That is a carrot slice."

He pointed to something else.

"That is onion; that is rice; that is red pepper; that is pork. Try it. If it makes you sick, it will make me sick as well."

Gulping, he pushed a piece of pork into his mouth. When a carrot piece followed, Nariko returned to her own dinner, still trying to push down the sourness. She wasn't that bad of a cook, was she? No, of course not. Her mother wouldn't have let her out of the door if she hadn't been convinced she would survive off her own meals.

Once she cleared the dishes away, Nariko grabbed several pieces of paper and a couple pencils from a drawer in her desk. She set the paper down in front of Naruto on the counter. "You asked me to teach you, so we shall start today. We will work on this for an hour every day even after you enter the Academy. We'll start with our character sets and perhaps work our way over to foreign characters, so that if you ever work overseas you will not be totally lost. We'll start with _ichi_." She drew the line and waited for him to copy it. "_Ichi_ is the symbol for one."

This was so odd, she mused as she scrubbed the pan after Naruto had gone to bed, ignoring Dog's surveillance. She couldn't believe she was doing this again. She had thought that fostering Itsuki would be the end of it. It was right though; she hadn't been lying about that. Watching out for Naruto would give her the stability she craved now that she could appreciate how far from home she was.

Dog was gone by the time she finished washing dishes.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Eight Swords to Fence

The alarm brought awareness. Nariko was tempted to simply burrow under her covers and stave off the morning, but the alarm wouldn't shut up. Spotting the strange treetops out the window reminded her that she was no longer in her hometown, on the road, or in a hotel. The blur of a ninja hopping along the rooftops across the street reminded her that she had painting to finish today. A glance at the clock confirmed that it was only six and that she had enough time for a run to the market to see what morning news she could pick up.

She almost screamed the moment the bone white mask with green tracings turned towards her. The reptilian face was just too creepy for her to handle for long. ANBU, she reminded herself as yesterday's events flooded into her mind. At least Dog's mask couldn't hide his hair, which gave him some sort of personality. This Lizard-san wore a cowl, so all she could tell about him was that he was short and thickset, if he was even male. "Good morning, Lizard-san."

"I have taken over for now. Dog's shift ended when you went to bed. Cat-164 was on duty last night. He said that there was nothing untoward. News hasn't traveled far yet." His voice was barely a whisper, so it would be impossible for her to place him if she met him on the street. Still, she was grateful that he had spoken to her. She had a feeling that he wasn't supposed to if Dog's behaviour was any indication.

"I am glad for that, I guess. I am going to go out to the market for a bit. I suppose you will stay here and keep watch for Naruto?"

He nodded.

"Did you want anything?"

He shook his head.

A little miffed, she slipped on some shoes and headed out the door, carefully locking it after her. She jogged through the mostly empty lanes. The few people awake were mostly ninja, but there were a few civilians scattered in, most of them store owners, street vendors of some sort, or farmers in town to sell their produce.

Slowing to a walk, she moved through the market square's gossiping crowds, pretending to inspect goods. Her mother had taught her that purposeful looking people were rarely interrupted or picked out of a crowd.

"Did you hear?"

"…can't believe that such a wise man would do something so foolish… boy is going to get it someday, I swear. If I ever find out where he is sheltered, I won't hesitate to tell that idiot woman…"

"Osamu-san, what do you think?" one old woman called to a passing man carrying several loaves of bread.

"Of what?" he asked, more clueless than Nariko was.

"Of the protector that the demon boy has suddenly gained! I heard that the ignorant bint told off the two ninja guarding the gate for giving him what for. They say she's an outsider. If she knew what he was, she would obviously have nothing to do with him." Nariko was surprised that the woman hadn't spit.

The futile desire to shake the woman's ignorance out of her was overwhelming, but Nariko was the "ignorant bint." Even if she screamed that Naruto was not Kyuubi at the top of her lungs until she was blue in the face, they would not believe her. If she had waited a couple days and made some contacts, then maybe she could have done more, but it was too late.

_I am so very dumb._

* * *

Someone was blowing in his ear. He growled in irritation and batted at his ear as though trying to displace a fly. Evil retreated.

Naruto sat up and rubbed at his eyes when someone shaking his shoulder roused him to confusion. It was far too late for the ladies who ran the orphanage to be kicking him out; they usually did it before dawn. Also, the cold bucket of water or the sharp slaps that usually woke him were absent. Worried that they had devised something even more spiteful, he hunched and looked around. The moment he saw Nariko, it all came rushing back to him. He blinked for a moment, having thought that yesterday had simply been a dream.

"It's kind of hard to accept, isn't it? One day, you're in the attic with a mouldy box and then you're here in a horribly dust room."

"Yeah, I mean, I thought that it was a weird dream."

"A_ weird _dream, not a good one?" she asked slyly. Sly tones usually meant that he was about to find out where the sucker punch was hidden, so he instinctively curled up a little, preparing for the blow, and didn't notice how his reaction appalled her.

"Well, um, yah…" he trailed off, not ready to use his brain.

"Oh well, only time will tell. Come on. You're going to help me make breakfast, and then we're going to finish painting."

* * *

"Matsuku-san?" the trim secretary mused aloud, her brows pulling together as she searched for papers. "Oh, yes, here you are. Ii-san is waiting for you. Just go up the stairs; it's the first office on your left." The secretary went back to looking harassed, the universal expression for a Monday at work.

Sighing away her disquiet at the monotony of the off-white walls and the burgundy carpet designed to discourage potential distraction, Nariko tried to ignore the staleness of the air and the typical softness of the light for those that spent the day staring at columns of numbers. Windows were in short supply.

"Matsuku Nariko?" the rakish man with dark shadows under his eyes asked brusquely when she came in, waving at the chair in front of his utilitarian desk and ignoring her polite greeting. His office was certainly not made to impress. Somehow, his willingness to be as productive as his employees didn't quite reassure her.

"Yes," she said, unruffled by his rudeness. She had expected worse.

"I've already had trouble with you," he almost snarled. "Hokage-sama has taken a special interest in your state of employment. I don't suppose you know who he is yet."

_What? Why on earth…?_ "I met him yesterday briefly. I have no idea why he would worry about my job, Ii-san."

"Cut the crap!" He shook a handful of documents under her nose. "Your efficiency and your work ethic were highly praised by the southern firm's manager, which is why you came to me. I don't care how many asses you licked to get those kinds of reviews. Here, they mean nothing. Here, you are nothing more than a pair of hands and a brain attached to them to make sure everything is in order.

"We deal with the toughest cases here. Ninja don't know crap about accounting. Wonderful as the bastards are at stopping flying projectiles, most of them couldn't balance their bankbook or do their taxes without turning into a blubbering mess. That's why we're here. We pick up the slack and make sure Konoha stays on the map. We need fast people here. Shinobi make up more than three fourths of the population: we need to be able to handle lots of clients to keep things happy. Got that?"

"Of course, sir." What else was she going to say? No? No wonder her old supervisor had given her pitying looks when he had informed her of her promotion. She was going to have to cultivate a demure demeanour if she wanted to survive here. _Wonderful._

"Good. I'm expecting more than a hundred percent from you. According to Hokage-sama, I'd better have a damn good reason if I want to let you go. Don't give me one. Go see Inoue on the third floor. He'll set you up. I don't believe in babying a newbie. Get through the first week without mishap and you can stay."

_Conditions, there were always conditions._ She had moved all the way out here, and he was threatening to pull her job out from under her feet already. Future contact with this man was going to be heavily avoided.

"That's excellent, sir." That smile cost her dearly. She hated faking smiles for assholes. "I was hoping to be kept busy." He glowered as she bowed her way out of the office.

When she found Inoue-senpai, he glared and pointed to a tall stack of documents. "I don't care if the Hokage thinks the stars shine out of your ass," he told her loudly enough that the entire floor heard. "Sort those out by Friday."

She nodded as he stalked away, leaving her before what was apparently her new desk. _So much for making a good impression. Why couldn't the Hokage have kept himself from interfering?_ She didn't even know what was wrong with these papers.

Writing soothed her when she finally escaped home. Naruto was out again, but she wasn't worried. ANBU seemed like qualified enough babysitters, and the best thing was that they were free, if reticent. Sipping at a cup of tea, she scratched out the required greeting, "_Dear Whitey,_" and paused, wondering how much teasing she could bear to include without being able to watch Shiro's reactions. Full force should salve tattered pride.

"_If I had a ryou for every pair of chopsticks I'm going to be breaking in the next five years, I do believe I would be a rich woman. This boy I met in Konoha, he is as much of a ramen freak as you love umeboshi. Unfortunately, ramen is slightly pricier stuff._" That would snag him. She could imagine him whining about how she was dragging it out. He would know she had done something worthy of dread.

"_The boy that currently has me twisted around his little finger is called Uzumaki Naruto. I met him coming in the gates. It was so classically me that you would have laughed. Imagine the horror that greets you when you step into a bar and demand to know why women are not allowed to drink before noon. Now, multiply that by four and add some distaste and a dash of incredulous rage. That is what I caused. Are you proud of me? Emulation is said to be a form of flattery._" He would laugh at that. Shiro was nothing if not trouble on two feet.

She had to tease him about his probable assumption:"_Has she gone and fallen in love, you may be asking yourself._" Someone had to make sure he was embarrassed often enough that he thought outside that particular box."_Nay, Aniki, he's only five, but I keep thinking that there's this wise old soul peeking out through his blue eyes, though those instances are few and very far between._"Now for more teasing: "_His hair is yellow. Yes, I know that the proper term is blonde, but this is such a golden yellow blonde that describing it as yellow does it more justice, just like describing your hair as platinum blonde is stupid when it is so obviously the colour of last year's wheat stalks._" That would irk him, but describing Naruto sapped her mirth.

"_This boy, Shiro, you wouldn't believe how skinny he is and how active he is despite that frailty. Who are you to talk, you'll probably ask, but at least you can't count my ribs. The bruises, Shiro, I couldn't believe it when I saw them. What kind of place is Konoha if they let a young boy be so abused? I wish I had an answer for that question, but I write this on the evening of my third day and all has yet to become clear to me._"

Now she could touch on what had rocked her; "_What I do know is that Konoha will allow me to be just as clumsy as I was at home. I've already hit the dirt once. Don't laugh; it wasn't quite as funny as you think._" She ground her teeth as she described the crowd's disgusting reaction. The knowledge that Shiro would share her fury was comforting enough that she moved on to lighter things.

She described Konoha—bigger, its palate contrasting with Kaijin's cool shades of blue and green, and bustling—and its people—distant and too "worldly" for her taste. At home, everyone had known every face to some degree. Shiro would see her homesickness, so she hurried on.

"_The ninja, Shiro, you should see the ninja. They hop from roof to roof the way you taught me to hop from stone to stone by the stream in the gardens. The vast distances mean nothing to them. I think I begin to understand Yuuyake better when I watch them._

"_Work is as it always is. They ask simple things of me and expect it to be hard when it is only adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. You could have done some of these tax forms in your sleep. The laws are different, yes, but I'm getting to know them. I'll tell you more about this in my next letter when my impatience and mortification are farther away. I cannot give a proper accounting at the moment, no pun intended."_

She heard a familiar voice outside, so she wrapped the letter up quickly. Supper needed to be started. "_You must tell me all about what is happening at home and perhaps tell me more about that table you were planning to make me. I could really use both: this place makes me homesick, Naruto especially. Though he looks nothing like Itsuki, they are very similar. Both are very much boys. How is he by the way? Is he still angry with me? I explained it to him the best that I could, but he didn't want to hear me. At least tell me that Okano-chan is keeping his spirits up despite her duties to Irezumi. He's only fifteen and on his first year of work, but I needed to go. I promise I'll come back. Home is home._"

That would have to do. Shiro's response couldn't come soon enough, especially if he managed to get Itsuki to write to her, as she had been unable to.

When Naruto burst in and dropped a bundle of junk coated in dirt on her floor with an expectant grin, she set aside her pen and wracked her brain for an appropriate response. "Where did you dig that up?" slipped past her teeth, and she winced, but Naruto's grin only became prouder and slightly guarded.

"I can't tell you where my _secret_ supply caches are, duh!" he scolded her before carting the pile into his _clean_ room. She swore Dog sniggered at her bewildered expression. That caching behaviour though… foxes cached supplies. Setting aside that ridiculous thought, she grabbed a broom.

* * *

Three weeks was the maximum reprieve that she had. At the end of the third week, the gradual change that had swept over the village was complete. She had noted the signs—the stares, the whispers, and the pointing fingers—but she hadn't really realized what would come of them. She got her first taste on her way home from work.

It seemed like just a simple accident; people tripped over each other's feet all the time. She had her first inkling when the man smirked at her as she picked up her papers and dusted off her pants. When he walked away without a word, she glanced around at the street and that was when she _knew._ The glares and the firm opposition she remembered from her first day stared her in the face again. It made her skin crawl. _Was this what Naruto faced?_

It stunned her so much that she didn't even comment when someone else ran into her and another person elbowed her in the crush of the market. So this was where Naruto's bruises came from. The unconditional hatred made her eyes sting. She had never been loathed before. It was a horrible thing, she thought.

Somehow, it didn't surprise her when the vendor, on the pretext of courtesy, deftly kept her from choosing all of her own produce as his assistant quickly filled several other sacks "for deliveries to regular customers." Somehow, most of what remained was definitely below par, but this late in the day, there were no alternatives to his stand unless she was crazy enough to think that going to a supermarket would be any better.

"That much for _these_?" she asked. "That's far more than your sign says."

"The price has changed," the weathered man insisted, his jaw set. "I just haven't had time to change it."

"Just spit it out. Come on, I _dare_ you to say why the price has changed. I'm sure it would make all these people very happy to hear it. Go on; tell them."

His eyes became colder still, and she could tell that he was retreating behind the wall of his self-justification. Spitting on him would only make him more certain that he was doing the right thing, appealing though the impulsive reaction was. "The price has changed, lady."

Her hand twitched towards the opening of the bag. Though it would be immensely satisfying, throwing the tubers into his stony face would only waste food and money. _What to do?_ Her hand had unconsciously gripped the squishy potato, well on its way to becoming starchy pulp. She only had to pull it back and send it flying…

Nariko jumped when Lizard-san appeared next to her. Lizard-san stared at the frightened vendor for a long time before he flicked his gloved fingers at the sign, pulled the potato out of her hand, and dropped it onto the counter of the stall with a dull, squishy thud. When the vendor didn't react quickly enough, the ANBU agent pointed a black digit at the rotten produce. "_Well?_"

Nariko relaxed when the man sprang into action despite the support of the crowds. When they finally got away from the market with a proper bag of spuds, one of the delivery bags, she turned to Lizard-san. "Thank you so much."

"Only this time. This intervention will not happen again. Such protection will not be tolerated by the village." As usual, Lizard kept sending her mixed signals: one moment Nariko was half convinced he was a man and the next he did something that made Nariko positive he was a woman. Either way, his disgust was evident.

"I understand."

He disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

* * *

Nariko curled up in the branches of a tree and studied the villagers in the street below intently. She was on her lunch break, so it was the perfect time to practice. She wasn't stupidly going to let herself stay a sitting target. If she could become better at reading people's faces, she could avoid those that would lash out physically and figure out which vendors were the least predisposed against her. _Hah, if only it were that simple._

Taking another large bite out of her lunch bun, she watched a vendor bargain with an elderly man, noting his expression as each offer and counteroffer was made.

Today, she noticed something a bit strange. She had unconsciously divided Konoha into two basic groups: those that hated Naruto and those, like the Sandaime, that didn't. Her current object of study reminded her that such a black and white analysis was never accurate.

Her clan had (arrogantly she had sometimes thought) stood above cliques and had welcomed everyone into their compound and in their dealings with the village. The Matsuku had played the role of the "bigger person." That was what her ancestors had wanted, which was fine so long as the Matsuku didn't tote it out and expect the initiative to be praised all the time, as Aunt Emi had. It had not made the Matsuku very popular, but such was the distance between clan and village that few within the compound had cared. She had certainly been too caught up with her gaggle of cousins to. Family had been the be-all end-all of her world. She had left partly because of that.

There was just as much petty discrimination and clique formation here as there had been in the village at home, though on a much larger scale. One group seemed to be at the bottom of the pile. Most that wore the red and white uchiwa fan were dark-eyed, dark-haired, and moderately pale-skinned. Many of them seemed to belong to the Military Police.

The clan member she had spotted today was treated much the same way she was. Among those he interacted with there was no deference, lots of suspicion, and mild distaste. She could just barely see the jerkiness of his movements that hinted at severe indignation. _Why was this clan treated so poorly if they worked so hard for the village?_

That question nagged at her even when she returned to work, but she shelved it to pursue later and soon forgot about it in the face of trying not to drown in the face of near total social isolation.

* * *

An unparalleled oddity awaited her when she reluctantly dug out the key to her box in the building's mailbox. It wasn't empty. No, instead a _bundle_ of letters waited.

Resisting the urge to squeal with joy, she snagged the letters, snapped the box shut haphazardly, and pounded up the stairs two at a time. Grabbing a knife since the scissors had mysteriously disappeared again (Naruto was using them to set up another excellent prank that she was reluctant to discourage when it was so sweet watching the villagers pay; she avoided thinking about how against karma's principles this was), she sawed through the coarse twine and eagerly flipped through the letters. Mother, Father, Okano, Irezumi, Aunt Emi, Uncle Hibiki… Nothing from Itsuki. Shoving away her disappointment, she ripped open Shiro's letter.

"_Dear Ugly,_"—the typical opening made her snort—"_You shame me. My hair is not the colour of mouldy wheat stalks! In return, I say that yours is the colour of my oldest can of varnish. Why is it that you are only brave enough to say this when you are safely away and out of my reach? If you were here, I would dunk you in the pond. Cheeky as ever, though you sound oddly subdued. What is that Uzumaki doing to you? Where is the bite that you shared with the four of us? Has the Uzumaki made you heel as a good dog should? Are you mothering him, Riko-chan? Yes, I mock you. Bite me._

"_Itsuki is still pouting._" She groaned. He could hold a grudge. "_It is his way, though why you let him stay that way is beyond me. You always were too soft and too willing to bend, little reed. He plays morose little ditties on his stupid flute all day. Even Okano-chan is disgusted with his moping. She always was intelligent for an eleven-year-old. Oddly, this intense brooding is gaining him the attention of the village girls. I am afraid that he will be even more set into this idiocy without you around to beat it out of him._"

Typical moody Itsuki was disrupting utopia. "_Aunt Takara complains that he is curdling the nectar in the garden and Auntie Haruka is beginning to show signs of agreeing. If you don't do something, your mother will, and we both know how dangerous that can be. Itsuki's parents would like him to be able to reproduce, so allowing Takara-obasan to come up with an "appropriate" punishment for him would not be healthy for his balls considering just how rural her family's methods are._" Now that was only too likely. She would have to take Shiro up on his offer to attempt to knock sense into Itsuki.

"_Yes, I am being crude on purpose. Write to your mother and save me from Itsuki's cloud of depression or I will get even more graphic. We can't have you losing that aplomb of yours. I still need to be able to relate those crude stories to you without having you go all girly on me like Itsuki does sometimes. How will he ever become a proper poet if he doesn't see all aspects of life, I ask you? I will never forgive you if you suddenly become all prudish as he pretends to be now. It took years of careful work to bring you to this point, little hoyden of my creation. Don't spoil our efforts. You will thank your dear older cousins for this someday._

"_Your work sounds as lovely as ever. Yes, the heavy sarcasm is completely intended. Do you still blame me for teaching you math? Or have you finally come to blame Uncle Yasu? Your father always was the one into paperwork, not me. Cabinetry is hardly the same as taking care of hundreds of scrolls. It's obviously his fault. What have they done to unbalance you so that you cannot emulate our ever stingy aunt and 'find the inner calm that comes with enlightenment,' as Emi-obasan is still very fond of saying? You cannot blame me for poking fun at her. She converted you against my will. Don't you dare start using it as an excuse the way she does; your mother will blame me, and then I'll never hear the end of it. There is no way I will forgive you if you get me caught in the middle of their never-ending argument._

"_Life here goes on. The earth shakes; the mountains spew fire, ash, and sometimes lava if we are particularly unlucky; and the locusts wreak destruction upon our poor crops. Alright, I'll admit to exaggeration. Your father advances as quickly as can be expected in his studies under the tutor as far as I can tell. He spouts more nonsensical crap every day, though it is amusing crap, and he does explain himself very handily when anyone cares to ask._"

Shiro went on for a time about Father's different studies before getting back on track. "_Your mother complains about it as much as ever, and my mother complains about her complaining. Such a wonderful circle of complainers we have here, though it isn't quite complete without you._" Shiro would say that.

"_Though you will tease your dear guardian terribly, I do believe I have the right to gloat._" She cocked an eyebrow. She sensed teasing fodder ahead. "_Yes, you heard me rightly: the village idiot has officially caught the eye of a female in a more permanent manner than usual. I always knew I was given this unbelievably handsome face for some reason. No, I haven't told her about the books. No, I am not whipped. Go dunk your head in a toilet and laugh down it if you need to. No gloating!_"

"What are you laughing at?" Naruto asked, appearing out of nowhere and dropping the scissors on the counter.

"My brother."

"Oh. When are we having supper? I'm hungry."

Grimacing at the interruption, she skimmed quickly through the last bits.

"_I imagine that this letter is arriving with twenty others since you did send five letters with mine—exponential growth and all that. By the time that fifth year rolls around, you should be able to say that whatever post office Konoha has belongs to you simply because you are the only person getting three thousand letters through it a year. Shall I send the table you want through that poor office as well? Pick a wood; I've got plenty of good pieces in stock. Describe the table in more detail in your next letter._" Hah, she thought, as if he didn't already have a plan in mind! He never would have offered if inspiration hadn't bitten him. He hated having his creations travel too far from home. They were his children.

"_You'd better not change your mind about home being home. I'll never forgive you if you leave us completely. Who else is going to pull my hair now that I've finally stopped shaving it off to save myself from you? Take it as incentive to visit._"

_So he was growing his hair out for this girl… That was serious. Hmm…_

As she peeled potatoes into the sink, Naruto sat at the table, scribbling on some foolscap and muttering the syllables. At least she thought he was until he called to her. "Neechan, what's 'whipped'?"

"Huh?"

"It's in the letter here, see?" She peered over Naruto's shoulder at the part he was pointing at. Swallowing down curses, she snagged a fresh sheet of paper. "What is it?"

"It means that she has him doing what she wants, that's all," she assured him as her pen danced across the page.

"_Shiro,_

_Don't you dare send stories in these letters! The last thing I want is for Naruto to come across your lewd descriptions! I've been teaching him to read and the last thing I need is for him to ask me what certain words mean before he turns twelve. Cease or I shall destroy. 'What will you destroy?' you may ask haughtily. Well, Okano-chan is ever loyal. Perhaps I shall have her pass along word of your crimes to that foolish girl that you claim admires you so…_"

* * *

Having a safe haven was a relief, much better than losing attackers in the crowds. Naruto retrieved treasures from various caches around Konoha that constantly astounded Neechan: precious rocks, small change, broken toys that he reluctantly agreed weren't actually worth keeping, and ragged clothes he had grown tired of having thrown out the window. Lots of the last were salvaged by Neechan's needle, but some were simply too stained and torn. He hated throwing them out, but it was true that he had other things now. His habit of needing to keep himself supplied was hard to break.

Having his sister figure away during the day was no great burden. He was used to being alone, though he didn't like it much. The attention Nariko paid him when she was home was almost enough to satisfy him. Though he would never tell her, he loved her lessons. She seemed to understand that he couldn't stay still long and thus organized them so that he could actually absorb the material without becoming bored.

His favourite lessons were on Saturday afternoons. They would go to the park and Neechan would push him on the swing and would have him list the brushstroke order of characters and words that used them. After, they would go to Ichiraku Ramen. He was glad because her ramen was nowhere near as good. When he had told Nariko this, she had been offended, but he had explained to her that of course her ramen couldn't be as good as Chef Teuchi's: she cooked many things while Teuchi only made ramen. Nariko had laughed at his logic and had ruffled his hair. It had been a close shave; she was touchy about her cooking.

"You need to try and make friends your own age," she insisted one evening in early June, explaining herself at last after their usual pointless argument about how little effort he was making to bridge the divide between him and the village. "I cannot always be here for you. Dog and the other ANBU will be moved to other important assignments soon too. I'm worried that you are becoming too content and relaxed with me around. I won't always be here. What happens to you if I suddenly go away?"

He became frightened, worried that she was hinting at something. It turned out that he was right, but it was not as bad as he had thought. He was always half terrified that everything he had gained was going to be ripped out from underneath him.

"You told me once that you wanted to be Hokage like the old man, right?"

Naruto nodded.

"A Hokage's word is not always law. Sarutobi-sama has all sorts of people he must work with and compromise with."

"Like who?"

"He has a council that can gainsay him. He must answer to the Daimyo of Fire Country because he too is a citizen under his rule, as are you and I. Your Hokage must also compromise with his clients to ensure that his ninja get the best missions: if he charges too much, they will go elsewhere. Also, Fire is not the only country on the continent. There are many other hidden villages like Konoha. There have been wars between them before. Your Hokage must work with all the other Kage to ensure this doesn't happen again."

She noticed him gaping at her, so she tweaked his nose, which made him rub it and scowl petulantly as she laughed. "A Hokage must also work with all his people to ensure that the village moves in a good direction for all of its inhabitants. A Hokage isn't simply the best ninja being recognized by the entire village for his skills. He is the best _leader_, or he should be."

Naruto didn't really understand what she was talking about—she always used such big words—so he had her explain again and again until he sort of got it. "But they yell and don't like me."

"That isn't your fault. The villagers dislike you for a stupid reason that you can't change. In fact, they are disobeying the last wishes of your hero, the Yondaime, by treating you as they have."

"Old Man told you why, didn't he?"

Nariko nodded. "He did, but he has forbidden telling you. Now, I want you to get back on your feet. You're being far too meek for a future Hokage. Win them over."

He did his best and lashed out with pranks again when the villagers reacted violently to his amicable overtures. Nariko scolded him if the victim caught up with them in the streets, but she always snickered as soon as the supplicant left. If his reasons weren't "malicious or petty," she would warn him to be stealthier next time and ruffle his hair before "rewarding" him by making him write out better plans on top of written apologies she made him deliver in person.

Oddly enough, straight-laced Neechan occasionally had good advice on how to make "harmless pranks" more devastating. Naruto knew better than to question her because she would quickly retreat into her sanctimonious mode when she realized what she was doing. In that way, she reminded Naruto of the geezer, who had a wicked sense of humour buried under all that tobacco smoke and paperwork.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Four Swords to Lean on

"Hey, Naruto, get in here!" He grimaced as their neighbour underneath whacked their floor with a broom and shouted about quiet. Neechan hadn't been that loud, but the hussy always complained. He put aside his scribbles and scurried out of his room and down the hall towards hers.

"Yeah?" It always made him feel odd to be in her room. It wasn't like any of the other girls' rooms in the orphanage. For one thing, there wasn't a scrap of pink anywhere. Her walls were tan, her floor was wood, and her curtains were white and plain. The only colourful things were the clothes in her closet and the three paintings on her walls: one of a fountain in a garden, another of a big cat sleeping in a tree, and the last of a wolf on a cliff howling at the moon.

"Get in here," she commanded as she dragged the laundry hamper out of her closet. He raced forwards and helped her pull the heavy thing into the middle of the room. "Today you are going to start learning how to take care of yourself. I'm going to teach you how to do laundry. You can help me every time I do it from now on."

He nodded under her intent gaze. _This might be fun._

"First, we have to sort colours. All the lighter colours go together, as do the brighter colours, the intense colours, and the dark colours." After a quick demonstration, they sorted until the hamper was empty. "The reason we separate the clothes out is because the different colours are made by different dyes."

"Dyes?"

"Like the inks we use for writing. They change the colours of clothes. Every colour can only be washed in a certain temperature." He made a mental note about that. Changing the colours of things could be useful in his next pranks. He would have to ask her later where he could get some of these dyes and how to use them.

"Temperature?" he asked, unfamiliar with the word.

"How hot or cold something is. The light colours like whites and pale pastel shades don't have much dye in them, so we wash them at a much hotter temperature. Here, let's put the whites back into the hamper and wash them first."

He led the way down the steps to the basement. He froze when he found their neighbour from upstairs using one of the dryers.

"What's the matter?" his sister asked as she used her hip to shove the door open a bit wider. She froze too. "Good afternoon, Ryusaki-san."

He kept glaring, stopped the dryer, pulling his half-finished load out, and shoved past them.

Naruto stuck out his tongue at Ryusaki's back. He would have loved to yell horrible things after the man, but Riko-nee had made him promise to ignore their neighbours' rudeness. He didn't all the time, but ignoring her rule in front of her would get his ear twisted.

"There's no changing him," she grumbled as she whipped the door to the washing machine open. "Good thing you held your tongue or he'd start using permanent markers to deface our door instead of chalk."

"I don't like him, dattebayo. Why is he always so mean? We didn't do anything to him."

"Don't worry about it. So long as he doesn't smack you around, you leave him alone. He's holding himself back. He's very angry all the time because he lost his wife almost six years ago in the attack. She was a ninja, so he's always grumpy when someone reminds him of her. Just be polite to his face and you should be all right. If something else does happen, you tell the ANBU or me. We'll deal with it." She nodded determinedly to herself before starting to explain about the magic of stain remover.

* * *

Summer was hot, muggy, and evil and seemed to make Riko-nee vile. Naruto hadn't thought it was possible for an adult to have more energy than he did. He was proven wrong on a Friday afternoon in late July. He had been napping in his room, lethargic in the heat, when he heard the key scrape in the lock. He glanced up at Dog, who crouched against the wall in the kitchen that Naruto could see through his open door. Dog's weird hair was drooping in the heat; it was a blistering thirty-two degrees outside according to one of the guys in the market, whatever that meant.

The wave of cooler air that the opening door brought in was beautiful. Dog relaxed and Naruto was appalled when his sister almost bounced into the room from the sound of her soft shoes on the wooden floor.

"Naruto, you here?"

He reluctantly rolled off of his futon and staggered over to lean against his door. His sister was unbearably hyper. He couldn't believe it. It was almost as if the heat was making her happier.

"Why do you look so tired? Rough day?"

He shrugged wearily, yawning widely

"It's nice and warm outside." His sister was insane. _Nice and warm? Had she even been outside?_

"You're crazy," he told her with a scowl.

Her happy mood dampened significantly. "Hmm, maybe so, but it's far warmer where I come from. We're nearer to the equator there. Thirty-two degrees isn't bad when it gets over forty down there. Anyway, we're not staying here this weekend."

"But I like it here!" he protested petulantly, rubbing at his eyes, and wondered if maybe he could go jump in a stream.

"I've been stuck around here for almost three months now. I need to get out of this village or I'm going to explode. Deskwork is _boring_. Doing math all the time is _boring_. Reading books all the time is _boring_. We're getting out of here." Something about her tone suggested that there were reasons she wasn't saying.

"I don't want to come," he whined. He liked the village. He didn't want to leave. Who knew if there would be ramen where they were going? They were supposed to go to Ichiraku's tomorrow too. She had promised every Saturday.

"It'll be cooler where we're going. Pack some clothes that you don't mind getting really dirty."

Naruto glared at her back as she headed for her room and sent a beseeching look at Dog, who stared back blankly from behind his mask. Stomping his foot angrily, Naruto headed back into his room and sat down firmly on his bed. He wasn't going to go!

"Naruto?" His pout deepened and he clutched at his bed when Riko-nee appeared in the door with a bag slung over her shoulder. "Please pack," she cajoled.

He shook his head. He refused to be cowed even when she stepped into his room. "You can't come in!"

Her forward momentum slackened, but her expression stilled. Naruto suddenly had the feeling that this was going to be worse than her monthly weird week. She pivoted abruptly and stalked out his door, past Dog, and into the kitchen, where she began packing food into her heavy canvas backpack. He watched her with a worried scowl, wondering why she had changed into the clothes she used when she went running and why she had carefully tied her long hair up. She usually left it down except for her clip.

Once she finished with whatever she was doing in the kitchen, she disappeared into the living room, and he heard one of the closets in the hall opening up. Something clanked as she stuffed it into her pack and then a heavy thump echoed by the door. He anxiously peaked out his door and stared at the hiking boots that she had dropped.

"Naruto," she said calmly, "I'm going. Do you want to stay here by yourself and cook by yourself and pay for ramen by yourself, or are you going to come with me? You have thirty seconds to decide or I'm walking right out this door without you."

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"I've heard that there are some lakes and marshes nearby. I want to go see them. I think you can keep up with me, so I want you to come too. I thought it would be fun, but you obviously don't agree."

"Lakes?" he muttered, glancing at Dog.

"Fifteen seconds," she told him, her voice sterner than her face.

He wavered for a moment, torn between needing company and needing ramen and home.

"Ten seconds."

He raced into his room, tossed several articles of clothing into his pack, and dove out the door to slip on his sandals.

Neechan shifted some items around in her pack and glanced at Dog. "Coming?" she asked, but it wasn't really a question. She didn't spare the agent another glance as she opened the door. Naruto furtively followed in her wake, watching Dog slip down the stairs ahead of them in a dark blur. Neechan locked the door and clattered down the steps. Dog had already found the rooftops by the time Naruto made his way out the door of their building.

Naruto trotted half-heartedly in Riko's wake. He didn't know how she could handle that heavy pack. He almost forgave her for being so weird when she stopped and held out a hand to him with an apologetic smile on her face. He took her hand and made her drag him along behind her. His hand got sweaty, but hers stayed the same. It was strange. _Just how much hotter was it where she came from?_

Once they made it out of the gates, he kept up a steady stream of whining while his sister consulted a map and then set off along a mostly overgrown hunting track. Naruto stumbled along in her wake, not appreciating how the bracken tickled and scratched his legs. He envied Dog, who leapt slowly from tree to tree alongside them.

"Are we there yet?"

"No," she called back, pausing again to grab his hand. Naruto really wished she would just carry him, but she had to carry her pack. He didn't think she was strong enough to carry both. Dog could have, but she wasn't as strong and cool as Dog. _Neechan was evil._ "We've got eight kilometres to cover before we reach the first of the lakes." _Eight kilometres?_ Naruto didn't know how far that was, but he didn't like the sound of it.

Naruto sat down at the foot of a tree with a loud pout. "I wanna stop!"

Neechan turned around and stared at him, her happiness at being out of Konoha evaporating. "Why are you being such a whiny brat?" she asked, her hands on her hips. "Geez, even Itsuki knew better than to get like this with me… Maybe I'm too soft with you. I thought you were energetic. Itsuki was lazy, but even he could cover this distance in half the time at your age. You're out of shape or you're lazy; I'm not sure which is worse. I thought you would be able to keep up with me. Obviously, I was wrong."

Naruto stared at her. The mention of Itsuki worried him. _What if she thought Itsuki was a better brother than he was? What if she left him here and went home so she could go look at lakes there with Itsuki?_ "Don't go home!"

She blinked at him, puzzled. "Why would I go home? I want to be out here. You're the one that doesn't want to be here with me. You go home."

He stared at her, hurt echoing through him. _Did she really want him to go away?_ His eyes stung, and he rolled up into a ball.

She cursed herself somewhere above him. "Naruto?" she called softly, kneeling in front of him. "I don't want you to have to walk in the dark, and if we don't leave now, you will."

"I don't wanna go home," he moaned into his knees, which were sticky with tears and sweat now.

He heard her sigh and then suddenly she was hugging him. "You are such a brat," she muttered into his hair. "I'm not going to send you home after I made you come with me. I'm sorry. Calm down. You're supposed to be a boy. Boys aren't supposed to cry more than sissy girls do. Are you trying to balance us out? Because I'm too boyish, you're going to be girlish?"

He raised his head and glared at her until she ruffled his sweaty hair.

"You are so petulant."

He didn't know what "petulant" meant, but he didn't like it. He pouted at her and it only made her chuckle.

"What kind of ninja are you going to be if you can't even keep up with me, a weak civilian girl?"

She was questioning his ability to be an awesome ninja that would become Hokage. There was no way he was going to take that lying down. He leapt to his feet and trotted along the path, snuffling the icky snot away so that he could breathe, glad that the evening air was cool enough to run through. He heard Riko-nee get up to follow him and she caught up quickly. She was so evil for being tall, he thought, and Dog was mean for being fast. Naruto wished the stupid guy would just carry him instead of being super aloof.

Hours of walking and running later, Naruto got his first glimpse of the lake. It was sort of cool, he supposed. Neechan laughed loudly when he told her that and started down the hill into the small valley. "The journey home will be easier," she called over her shoulder as he stared at the perfect reflection of the sunset in the water. "It's all downhill. It'll be easy compared to this. You did a great job. Once we find a good spot, we'll eat. I'm sure you're tired. We can explore tomorrow."

She set up camp and brought out some marshmallows. She showed him how to roast them over the fire while she made consolation ramen. It was nowhere near as good as Ichiraku's, but the marshmallows were good enough that he didn't complain too much. She unrolled blankets and set out a bowl of ramen for Dog, who reluctantly came closer to partake in their meal. Naruto wondered sleepily how Dog was going to trade off with Snake when they were all the way out here. Ninja were awesome though. Naruto slipped off to sleep while Riko-nee talked about the crazy patterns the stars were supposed to make.

Pissing in the bush wasn't so bad, but porridge wasn't quite as fun as all the good things he could eat at home. Snake was there when Riko-nee packed up their camp and announced that they weren't where she wanted to be yet. Naruto had thought that Dog would have gone home, but he was around too, a small pack on his own back. Snake must have brought it for him. There was one other ANBU too: an agent with a strange sort of mask that Riko-nee said was a ram. Ram was obviously a girl because she always seemed to be staring at Dog; lots of girl ninja did that. The one time he had asked Riko-nee about it, she had laughed and annoyingly refused to answer clearly.

Neechan led the way again with the trio of ANBU slipping through the trees after them. He thought that they were going to keep going until they fell off the end of the earth when she suddenly stopped and crouched down, pulling him with her.

"Look," she whispered reverently, pointing through the reeds ahead of them. She looked as though she had seen a god. Naruto squinted and stared at the strangest looking bird he had ever seen. It was skeletal and sort of grey-blue. "It's a heron. He must be a long way from home. They're supposed to be native to Water Country, not to Fire. Someone must have brought him here and he got away or his parents did. I never thought I'd see one before I died." Naruto stared at Neechan's fingers, which almost seemed to be itching to hold something. Maybe she wanted a camera.

She sighed sadly when the heron pushed away from the boggy ground and flew away. "This is a marsh," she lectured over her shoulder. "Sure, it's full of bugs and stuff like that, but it's an amazing place to watch birds and other things. You have to be careful though. You're wearing sandals. They might get sucked under. Try to stay on the driest spots please."

Naruto stuck out his tongue at her back as she trudged through the muck without a care for her shoes, getting muddy well above her calves. He left his pack with hers on a sort of hill a little ways into the swamp. The bugs were just as terrible as Riko-nee had said, but she pulled out a bottle and sprayed some smelly liquid all over him before she used it on herself. She told him he could explore as long as he called for help if something went wrong. She disappeared into the reeds and tall grass to hunt for birds while he wandered around the murky pools, poking at the mud with a sturdy stick.

Because of his prodding, he managed to find the strange alien creature. It didn't seem to like that he had accidentally stabbed it because it jumped away and puffed up like some of the villagers did when they were about to yell at him. When it croaked menacingly, Naruto gave a startled yelp. He was relieved when Snake appeared. "What's that?" he asked, totally in awe of the warty thing.

"A toad," the agent whispered.

Naruto wiped some sweat off his forehead and repeated the word under his breath, staring into the reddish toad's horizontal pupils. _Way cool! Maybe this trip hadn't been a bad thing. Toads were awesome!_ He poked it again and chased after it as it hopped away. He hoped that they came out here more often. Maybe they could come back next weekend too.

* * *

_The awesome Fox Ninja stood on the cliff and glared ferociously into the eyes of the lame Hawk Nukenin. His cape flapped behind him and his forehead protector flashed in the sunlight. "You cannot escape me!" he called to the hawk. "I am Fox Ninja! I have beaten one thousand enemies more powerful than you."_

"_You lie!" The stupid hawk gasped, bobbing his head like a chicken. "I am the greatest nukenin to ever live! I shall defeat you and raze your village to the ground!"_

"_Never!" retorted the totally cool Fox Ninja. "I shall crush you here and be home in time for ramen!"_

Naruto really wished that the wooden fox statue had moving joints. It would have been even cooler if he could have made the statue strike the proper ninja poses. He didn't care that the stone hawk figurine didn't move—it was the nukenin and nukenin never looked cool—but he was disappointed in the fox. Sure, it looked awesome with its dishcloth cape and the forehead protector he had made out of a rubber band looped around its wooden ears with a piece of tinfoil with an excellent rendition of the Konoha leaf on it wrapped around the front to form the metal plate. It would have been even better if it were like those action figures that he had seen in the windows of toy stores that he had never been allowed into.

He stood on a chair from the kitchen table in front of the sink full of the dishes from his lunch with the awesome Fox Ninja on the left counter and the stupid Hawk Nukenin on the right. Through the window, he could see that it was still pouring outside and that the wind had picked up. He hoped that Neechan didn't get too wet when she came home. She got awfully grumpy when her hair got hard to brush.

He had been running around outside that morning, but when the rain had started, he had decided it was time to go home and play there. Besides, the park had been abandoned as soon as the clouds had started spitting. It had been very boring sitting all by himself at home until he had come up with the knickknack game, which wasn't a game at all, but instead was an epic struggle involving ninja, super awesome techniques, witty banter, and ramen, which of course made it the best game in existence. Much better than playing games at the park by himself when the other kids wouldn't let him play Tag.

He was just about to begin the epic clash between good and evil over the Ravine of the Kitchen Sink when he heard the lock turn. He grinned slightly, and Fox Ninja and Hawk Nukenin leapt into the sky and began a furious battle sequence as he clambered off the chair and scampered into the dining room. Fox Ninja was just about to kick the Hawk Nukenin onto the cushions around the living room table when Riko-nee finally came in the door.

He grinned at her even though she looked terrible: her brown greatcoat was soaked through and her hair was a mass of wet, windblown tangles. She smiled back, but it didn't look quite right: her eyes didn't smile with her mouth. If he hadn't known something was wrong then, the way she ripped her bag off her shoulder and simply dropped it to the floor by the door would have alerted him very quickly. Neechan always carefully put her bag on her desk before going to her room to change out of her work clothes. That she hadn't done that before shooting him a fake grin and almost running to her room told him that something bad had happened.

He cringed as her door shut very firmly behind her. He glanced anxiously at Cat, who was standing in the corner by the glass door, but he didn't move. He hadn't moved much all afternoon.

Clutching at the still battling Fox Ninja and Hawk Nukenin, Naruto crept down the hall towards his sister's room, ignoring her unspoken order to stay away. Tucking the two ninja under his arm, he turned the knob and carefully cracked the door open.

Riko-nee was still wearing her soggy coat and sitting cross-legged on her futon with a pillow shoved into her face. He could hear her muffling words he couldn't decipher into the cushion, her sopping hair rapidly making the pillowcase darken as the water seeped into it. Since she was turned away, he could now see patches of mud on her back that hadn't been there that morning. Maybe some boys had thrown mud at her as some kids had done to him last fall before he had learned to stay away from groups of older kids on muddy days.

He closed the door a bit when she dropped the pillow back on the bed and slammed her clenched fist onto it a couple times. He had never seen her act this angry before.

He was relieved when she stopped acting like those furious villagers and merely slumped forward to bury her face in her palms. He could hear her breathing in and out very deeply and unevenly as she raised her head a bit and knuckled her eyes. He finally closed the door and slipped away when she got up, determinedly pulled off her waterlogged coat, and then dug some dry clothes out of her closet.

When she appeared in the kitchen and saw the game he was playing, she cocked an eyebrow at him and her eyes finally smiled at him the way they were supposed to. "Well, at least it looks like you had a good day. Clean up that tinfoil mess you left and don't leave my pens lying around without their lids on again or I'll teach you how to scrub toilets."

He scowled pitifully at her threat and grumbled as he set aside the two ninja to clean up his mess as slowly as possible.

She frowned at him and tapped her finger mockingly against her pursed lips. "You know, I don't feel like cooking, so how about we see if Teuchi is willing to send some ramen over to us?"

Tinfoil disappeared back into the drawer and pens magically acquired lids in seconds. Fox Ninja defeated the hawk very quickly after that promise.

* * *

After the epic battle over the Ravine of the Kitchen Sink, Nariko started playing the knickknack game with Naruto. She used these times to teach him diplomacy and tact, taking offence through her character at everything he said. He started out with his foxes forcefully taking what they wanted from her own characters, at least until her "weaker" animals ganged up on him and chased him out of the game. He got into several screaming matches with her over it.

"Why do you always do that!" he yelled, stomping his feet to let out his fury. "It's really annoying! Why can't we play right?"

"If you do what you were doing to the squirrels to the other hidden villages when you're Hokage, they're all going to gang up on Konoha and burn it to the ground."

"No, they wouldn't! I wouldn't let them, dattebayo!"

"How would you do that? Konoha may be strong, but if you manage to anger enough villages, they will gang up on you just as we have played in the game. Konoha isn't strong enough to fend thousands of murderous ninja off; no more than you were able to fend off the insults and abuse of the villagers by yourself a few months ago. It is better to be friends than enemies anyway."

"But the squirrels are different. They're weak! Why shouldn't my foxes take their stupid nuts?"

"Because what if you were the squirrel?"

"I wouldn't like that at all, dattebayo! You better not do that to me too!"

"Exactly: you wouldn't like it if it were you. 'Treat others as you would like others to treat you.' Always remember that. When the villagers are mean to you, what do you do?"

"I play pranks on them and yell."

"Exactly; they don't like that, but because of what they do to you they encourage you to do it more: cause and effect. If you want them to be nice to you, you have to be nice to them. Not all of them will be. They don't understand the lesson that I'm teaching you, even though they're much older and are supposed to be wiser. It's very important always to be courteous. Even if you don't like someone all that much, being nice to him will encourage him to be nice to you in return. Think of it as an exchange of gifts."

"So, if I give them a nice present, they'll give me a good one back? And if I give them a bad one, like garbage, they throw garbage back?"

She nodded and gave him a noogie despite his futile attempts to writhe out of her grip and his loud complaints about what she was doing to his poor scalp. She took pride in how she was still stronger since she didn't doubt that soon after he passed through the Academy she would be inferior. "That's right. Now, shall we fix this game?"

She hadn't given him much of a choice.

* * *

When October 10th finally came around, Nariko took the day off work with a lot of wrangling and working overtime the week beforehand. Ii-san had not been interested in being accommodating.

She was constantly being reminded that nothing was going to be simple as long as she called Naruto her brother. His happiness was worth this trouble though. Someone had to believe that. She knew from the Hokage that Naruto's birthday was generally ignored. She was determined to make this year better, if only slightly so. She could not give him the friends he craved. She knew that he was growing tired of her stagnant company.

She had interrogated Dog as best as she could (he still refused to talk to her) and had made him write a list of things that a ninja academy student would need. She had decided not to buy Naruto any weapons just yet. She did not know how to use them, so she couldn't show him. Also, she was not willing to have him practicing with them just yet, especially if he decided to use them inside or worse, in his pranks. _No, weapons could wait until the Academy._

She had bought him a ninja manual as well as a writing set to use when doing his homework. Since September, Naruto had become gained a meagre command of hiragana and katakana, but ninja seemed to like using kanji, so she had bought him a dictionary to aid his studies. Even if she could not teach him anything about being a ninja, she would provide him with the skills and the support needed to learn how to be one, no matter what she thought, so he would live.

She was just about to start breakfast when Dog-san and Jaguar-san burst into existence in her living room. Jaguar-san was another agent that was often assigned to keep an eye on Naruto. She was the only one that would talk to her since Lizard-san had moved on. Those porcelain masks irked Nariko now that she was so dependent on reading people's faces.

"What is the matter?"

"Keep Naruto inside today," Jaguar-san ordered. Nariko nodded, a little disappointed that they couldn't go to the park as planned. "Things are heating up. Someone leaked to the public that the Hokage has promised Naruto would be allowed into the Academy. Several powerful groups are feeling threatened, so they are likely to cause trouble tonight and in the near future."

_Great, just peachy_, mumbled the rapidly diminishing sarcastic part of her brain. "Do they know he's here?"

Jaguar nodded. "It is common knowledge now, but not as blatant as it could be. Few consciously associate the odd blonde boy with the container or the prankster. Naruto knows not to bring anyone home. However, any half-decent ninja knows he lives here. Some of the threatened parties have many ninja members. There will be two squads guarding this building today. Dog or I would like to stay inside with your permission."

It had eased Nariko's mind greatly when the ANBU had stopped staying inside the apartment to conduct surveillance. Normally, she would have denied their request, but today was not a day she wanted Naruto to remember as the day he had gotten cornered and severely injured because she had been unwilling to allow ANBU into their home.

"That's fine with me."

Jaguar-san nodded and turned to Dog-san. "I'll take first shift if you want, captain." Dog-san nodded. As soon as he was gone, Jaguar-san relaxed slightly. "Poor Naruto, he's had it rough. I've been on Dog's squad long enough to have prevented several horrific attempts on the poor kid's life. The kid gets more security than the Scroll of Seals in the Hokage's tower. Even that isn't guarded by ANBU."

Nariko didn't have any idea what Jaguar-san was talking about, but she paled at the implication.

It was at this moment that Naruto decided to wake up. He shuffled into the kitchen and looked surprised to find Jaguar-san leaning against the wall. He glanced at the calendar. "It's my—"

"Happy birthday!" Nariko smiled widely for him despite her queasiness.

He was stunned to silence for a moment before trying to correct her, "But today is a bad day."

Nariko shook her head. "Not today. Yes, you'll have to stay inside, but Jaguar-san and I will be here, and Dog-san will be by later. Now, come here and help me make breakfast."

Afterwards, she helped him tidy his room and sort through his laundry. He had filled out quite a bit. Nariko was grateful that his orange shirt was among those that had become too tight. She had blatantly refused to buy him any other orange clothes until he turned ten, pointing out that orange was how everyone in the village identified him with the boy they tormented. He had reluctantly agreed after a mountain of whining and pouting had been met with a wall of aloofness. He couldn't stand being ignored for long.

When his room was clean, she let him play with her sturdier knickknacks, bringing out a pair of walnut wood foxes for him and a brass badger for herself and played as usual. After their fight over the game, she had toned down her contrariness and had managed to work him up to the level where he was forced to solve "forest disputes," which generally included territory infringement, predation, and disputes over resources. His negotiation skills were not the best, but she could trace definite improvement.

* * *

Nariko didn't notice Dog-san twitch; she was too involved in making certain Naruto didn't rip the ninja manual to pieces in his enthusiastic perusal of its pages. Even if she had seen it, she would not have recognized it as Dog-san's equivalent to a bone-chilling scream of fear.

"Get in the bathroom," he said quietly. The pair stared at him in shock; they had never before heard him speak. He jerked his head towards the bathroom. They scrambled as quickly as they could. "Keep the lights off and lock the door. Don't make a sound no matter what you hear."

Nariko took Naruto into the tub with her. Picking up on her fright, he burrowed into her lap as she stroked his hair. Her fear became his.

Whatever was going on in the main room was happening practically silently. There was an occasional clang as metal met metal, but otherwise all was quiet. After what felt like an eternity, there was a soft thud followed by some scuffling and then several mild explosions that signalled the arrival or departure of ninja. All the while, Nariko continued to caress Naruto's hair, the repetitive motion probably reassuring her more than it comforted him.

Finally, there was a gentle knock on the door. Jaguar-san's voice came through, but Nariko kept Naruto quiet until she heard the safe word. "Nariko-san, it's okay to come out. Even the bijuu would sleep peacefully now."

Nariko set Naruto on his feet and fumbled for the latch in the darkness. They blinked in the bright hallway light. There were no signs of a fight anywhere. Jaguar looked oddly unchanged except for a new scroll in her belt. "Clean-up crews were already through here. You don't have to worry anymore. We got the group. You won't be seeing them for a while."

"Where's Dog?" Naruto asked.

"He went with the crews. He's been given a new assignment, so the Hokage wanted a word with him before he left."

"How did they get past the ANBU outside?" Nariko asked, unable to stop trembling.

"An incredibly subtle illusion was used. Don't worry; we've countered that angle now. All operatives are in pairs to help recognize the effects. Tiger and Dog spotted it. You'll be safe now. We've come up with a plan for the rest of the month too, in case they try again. The Hokage's taken over the situation now."

Even this reassurance didn't stop bone chilling terror and the sense that her life had suddenly been stained. That Naruto returned to normal as though this was a matter of course made her sick. Children adapted too quickly.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Creating the Knight of Swords

Only the letters grounded her after Naruto's birthday. Another huge stack arrived on the fifteenth. Best of all, tucked inside Shiro's lengthy discourse was a small note.

It was from Itsuki.

"_Riko-nee,_"—so he had forgiven her enough to revert to nicknames_—_"_When you said you wanted to learn, I thought it was an excuse. When you do, I want you to come back and teach all of it to me. Don't forget and don't stop dancing. When you can't dance anymore, that means it is time to die since you have given up your other art. Living requires some form of expression. Your poetry is horrible, your weaving is pathetic, and pottery is beyond you._" Itsuki could be horribly blunt for a poet. "_You were foolish to give up that one skill you worked so hard to gain, though I understand why you did so at the time. There are worse things than death; remember what Hibiki-ojisan said Yuuyake said. She would have known. Okano is good at dancing and critiquing, but it isn't the same without you both correcting my scales and then correcting each other while I sneak away to practice._"

Itsuki had always been fascinated by Yuuyake, so it wasn't surprising that he had brought up Shiro's father's old tales. The reminder was a little too apt for comfort though. She couldn't tell him outright what was happening here—she didn't want him to panic more than he had when she had informed him of her promotion and the need to move—but it would be good to vent to him.

Starting out in a self-deprecating manner would be best given how short, and therefore grudging, Itsuki's letter was. "_Learning will take some time, I fear. Lessons don't seem to seep into my skull the way they used to when Shiro was the one pounding them into it. I think it's because I'm digging in my heels and trying to teach rather than learn. Quite stupid of me, isn't it, but what else can you expect from your dear guardian? I'm defeating my own purpose. Go write something deep and mournful on that and include it in your next note. I want to see if your brooding has improved your ability to write angst. Yes, I'm teasing you; brighten up or Shiro is going to pull out the hair he is working so hard to grow back._" That would have to satisfy Shiro.

"_Life here is strange and frightening in a way I had only believed existed in the stories Yuuyake told. There isn't an anchor here other than the letters, and I have to be an anchor for another. I have the terrible feeling that I will cause us both to drown if I don't firmly surround myself with what I know and understand._" How to explain that she was starting to question ingrained truths about social conduct daunted her. According to clan values, Konoha should have dissolved into a mess of violence already, yet a tenuous balance existed that she couldn't understand. "_I'm starting to lose sight of what was so clear to me before, but Okaasan and Tousan don't sound too worried. They say it is normal._"

She tried her hand at metaphor to get through to Itsuki about Naruto. "_The dance has become the run because I've lost your music and I now follow the beat of Naruto's drum. He marches me towards some strange goal that I can't understand yet and I don't think he knows what it is either. He will be the first to figure it out though; I have no doubt of that. He is the most determined person you will ever meet, which unfortunately makes him something of a brat on occasion. He seems to dislike my punishment of choice as much as you did. Know that you did not suffer my learning curve in vain: it has taught me how to better deal with this scamp. Forgive me and send me tunes to rekindle the fire. If you can't spare me one, then at least send me a pebble from Haruka-basan's garden. I need something of home._

"_Smile for me, little one. Try to be happy. Go get laid by those girls that are chasing you around or something. Shiro says you are being prudish. You shame me. Being assertive for once and branching out of your comfort zone will help you recover. You'll smile then. Yes, I'm being crude. You're almost sixteen; November isn't that far off. You make me feel old with only twenty-one years to my name. Go get laid, brat boy, and then write beautiful sonnets and haiku on it and send them to a publisher. Based on the success of those books that Shiro reads, you'll be a millionaire in no time. If you can't tell I'm joking, I'll disown you. Blame Shiro for this. Swat the ninny and pull his hair for me, will you? He's become complacent sounding in my absence, and we can't have that, can we?_"

Hitting two birds with one stone was a violent adage, but its principle was good, especially here. Cheering up Itsuki and annoying Shiro were best done as one.

* * *

A few days later, Nariko and Naruto met their first Uchiha. It was Saturday, so they had braved the cold in warm jackets to go play at the park. While Naruto let off steam trying to get the other kids to play with him, Nariko huddled on a bench. The attempted attack at home had left her shaken and very wary.

The plan Jaguar-san had mentioned had yet to be explained to her in more detail. Being left in the dark made her edgy whenever she was with Naruto in public. Work was the same as ever: as pleasant as wading through ice water without proper preparation. She was dealing with it though, and Naruto didn't need to know. He was happier in ignorance.

When the dark-haired boy clad in a shirt marked with the uchiwa fan she vaguely remembered as having to do with some task sat down beside her, she didn't notice until he tapped her shoulder, making her jump violently. He watched her, his face free of most emotion, as her erratic heartbeat calmed. "I am Uchiha Itachi. I have been assigned to watch over you and Naruto-kun."

"Are you ANBU?" she asked incredulously. The boy looked a decade younger than she was. There was no way that an eleven-year-old could be ready to be accepted in the highest ranks of the ninja. It was criminal.

"I am almost. Sandaime-sama selected me to act as the public front for the ANBU assigned to guard you because of the nature of the previous attack. I was chosen for my ability to see through genjutsu."

Nariko struggled with the unfamiliar words for several moments and at last guessed that he meant the illusion Jaguar had mentioned. "I will be grateful for your efforts then. Are you allowed to tell me who the group that attacked us at home was?"

He shook his head, his face still blank. It unnerved her. She knew that some people were detached, but the level that this boy displayed was simply apathetic. She felt like an insect under his gaze. It was decidedly odd since she was sure that he stood around the height of her elbow.

"The Hokage would rather that you did not worry about it." _The Hokage could dunk his head in the sand and stay there for a good long while. _"He will handle that. The squad and I will handle any further attempts to attack you two. I will be the only one you will see of the squad. There is no need for me to hide. Everyone knows that I don't belong to ANBU yet."

"That's fine, but it will seem odd that you would spend time with me or Naruto. You are several years older than him, so there's little chance that you two would suddenly be friends." Though she didn't add it aloud, she thought that this Itachi would be almost incapable of making many friends.

"I've thought of that. That is why my brother is here. Sasuke is the other reason that I was assigned to this mission. He is only a few months older than Naruto-kun, so there is hope that they could become friends, thus excusing my presence."

Nariko nodded and tried to pick Sasuke out of the crowd. There were several dark-haired boys, but one with hair that didn't seem to want to lie flat at the back was the only one with features like Itachi's. He seemed uncomfortable in the crowd of boys; he was obviously trying to emulate his brother's detachment. "What is Sasuke-kun like?"

"He is… gullible at this point."_ Huh, well that didn't sound very promising… Was that all he could think to say about his brother?_

She was astonished: no boasting, no bragging of a proud older sibling as Shiro or Itsuki would have, no compliments of any sort, and no anecdotes to prove Itachi's claim. Sasuke was simply gullible. _How… sad._ This apathy of Itachi's got on her nerves more every second now that it was obvious that it extended even to his family. She attempted to add to his point to give him the chance to redeem himself.

"Most young children are. I could convince my cousins that water ran up mountains in the summer when they were little. I doubt you were much different." She admitted that the last comment was something of a jab at him. She wanted to see if really was as emotionless as he pretended.

He shot her a mocking look. "I was a chuunin by the time I was ten. I had graduated from the Academy by the time I was a year older than Naruto."

Her horror seemed to surprise him. Ten, she had been looking after Itsuki for five years at that age, but she had the feeling that being a chuunin was a lot more complicated than overseeing the growth of a younger cousin. He had had a fulltime job since the age of seven. "How could your parents do that to you?" she asked, disgusted. "Did you have no time to be a child at all?"

His confusion worried her more than anything he could have said. He didn't see how wrong this was. _Was he even human? Hadn't he ever done anything fun the way her cousins had like farting on complete strangers, blowing spit or milk bubbles in restaurants, rubbing cow dung on the windows of bullies, or dying people's laundry yellow to make it look like some horses had pissed all over it?_ She had to hide a smile at those memories. She doubted this Itachi would have understood it at all.

"Ah, I had forgotten that you are not from Konoha. I am a member of the Uchiha ninja clan. My family has a special genetic trait, the Sharingan, which allows us to be very talented ninja. As the heir to my clan, it was expected that I would excel." So there was arrogance beneath that cold exterior. At least it was something she could prod at to see if there was anything else.

"Is Sasuke being given the same opportunity?" she asked with a sneer that was only partially crafted. "It doesn't look like he's being sent to the Academy early."

"No, I wasn't sent early. I just graduated in one year. It is unlikely that Sasuke will do the same."

"Thank gods for that!"

The arrival of Naruto with Sasuke in tow saved her from Itachi's potentially scathing reply. She stood up and met them; she wanted to get away from the oppressive cloud Itachi seemed to radiate.

"Riko-nee, guess who this is!"

She smiled at Naruto; his sunny mood allowed her to push aside the aggravation. "I think I know, but why don't you tell me?" It wouldn't do to steal his thunder when he was so obviously about to leap for the moon. He was almost wriggling with eagerness.

"This is Sasuke!" Naruto managed to get behind the shy boy and pushed him towards her.

It amused her to no end when he stumbled forwards, a slight flush spanning his pale cheeks contrasting sharply with his black hair. He was cute, a word Shiro had forbidden to keep her tomboyish. She pitied this Sasuke though; she could tell he would grow up to be handsome. Considering his current social skills, it was likely he would have a lot of trouble coping with the girls that would flock to his side. It would be amusing to watch. She crouched down and grinned widely at him.

"Sasuke, this is Riko-neechan."

She held her hand out to him and shook his when he seemed confused. _Why did no one here know this ritual?_ Everybody immediately performed it at home, no questions asked. "This is a handshake. Foreigners from the far western nations used it when greeting one another. I am glad to meet you, Sasuke-kun. Is it true you are going to be in Naruto's class at the Academy in the spring?"

He nodded, a flush covering his pale cheeks again. He was way too cute for his own good. _Poor squirt, to have such a cold brother must have been painful._

"Who's that?" Naruto asked, pointing behind her. She wondered what Naruto saw when he looked at Itachi's blank countenance.

"That's my aniki, Itachi." Sasuke's face was open enough that Nariko could read the pride, envy, and sadness that Sasuke regarded his older brother with. "He's going to be ANBU."

She met Naruto's questioning gaze over Sasuke's shoulder and gave him the look that indicated she would explain later. "Yes, he's been telling me all about the Academy. With his help, I'll be better prepared to help you with your homework, Naruto."

"Yes, that is so," was Itachi's emotionless comment.

Nariko cringed and prayed that she would have the patience to deal with this animated mannequin. She was sure that a coat rack had more emotions than he did.

* * *

Sasuke had watched his older brother curiously and wondered why Itachi hadn't been smiling. Itachi always smiled, but he hadn't smiled around Naruto and Riko-san. It puzzled him, so he leaned forwards and propped his elbows on his brother's shoulders.

His brother ignored him for the moment, letting him gather the words to ask his question. Brother was always so good about waiting and letting him ride on his back, though this was happening less and less often as the years went by. Aniki was always so busy now with missions, so Sasuke relished this opportunity as they walked home from the park through the familiar streets lit by the setting autumn sun towards the compound. If he had been walking, he would have chased after the leaves that the breeze sent spiralling in their path. He loved jumping on them and listening to the crackle and rustle that they made under the soles of his sandals.

"Aniki, why are you so stern around them?" Sasuke was sure his brother would know what he was talking about. Kaasan said Itachi was a prodigy (whatever that was) and Otousan always said that Aniki was a genius ninja.

"It's because it's a mission."

Sasuke tilted his head, a bit puzzled.

"A good shinobi must never show emotion on a mission, at least not emotions that the shinobi hasn't put on his face. Staying around Matsuku-san and Naruto-kun is a mission for me, so I must guard my face even if Matsuku-san doesn't like it."

"She doesn't like it?" She hadn't seemed angry about it.

Matsuku-san had been nice: she had smiled at him the way Mother did even if she had been strange and had shaken his hand. She was almost as tall as Father, but she had crouched down and hadn't used her height to scare him the way Father did when he was scolding him.

"No," Aniki explained, turning his head slightly so Sasuke could see his smile. It reassured Sasuke, proving that his brother really had just been wearing a mission face. "It confuses her, so it makes her frightened and angry. She will get used to it."

"Why does it scare her?" _How could Aniki scare her?_ He wasn't scary at all. Sasuke knew this. Itachi was just annoying sometimes because he wouldn't always train with him.

"It scares her and Naruto because they are open people," Itachi continued quietly as the entrance to the compound appeared in front of them. "They don't know how to hide what they think and what they feel. They will always be vulnerable to manipulation because of this."

"So it's bad?"

"No, not always," admitted Itachi when they reached the porch, "but they lose the advantage most of the time. A good shinobi will always know what they are thinking."

Sasuke slipped off his back and followed his brother through the door thoughtfully. _Aniki could read her mind because she didn't wear an empty mask on her face? Itachi was awesome!_ Sasuke didn't like the empty expression that had been on his brother's face though: it had made him feel cold. He couldn't blame Matsuku-san if she had been nervous about it. He wore his best grin when he greeted Kaasan, and she lost the tension in her hands and crouched down to smile back at him. Maybe it wasn't good for being a shinobi, but making Kaasan smile made him feel better.

"Did you have a good time at the park?" she asked, straightening his hair. He pushed her hands away. She was always messing with his hair.

"Yeah," he grunted, crossing his arms and pouting when she laughed at him.

"What did you do there?" She turned back to the meal she was preparing on the counter. He struggled to turn on the tap to wash his hands until Itachi came over and lifted him up, turning on the faucet for him while Sasuke grabbed the soap. Kaasan smiled at both of them over her shoulder.

"I played with some kids." She always insisted that he try to make friends, but it was hard and it wasn't as if his big brother wouldn't be around to play with.

"Which kids were they?" She rummaged in the pantry. "Were they nice to you?"

"Most of them were," he admitted as Aniki set him down and washed his own hands while Sasuke sat at his usual place at the table, leaving the best cushion for Otousan when he finally got home. "There was one called Naruto—"

"Naruto?" He wondered why his mother's voice had become sharper. _What was wrong with Naruto? _He hadn't seemed bad even though he was really loud and obnoxious. He knew the best games to play though and he didn't seem to mind that Sasuke hadn't really wanted to talk much. Naruto had talked enough to make up for both of them until Sasuke had gotten mad and started talking back. That had only encouraged him though. Sasuke had discovered that making Naruto mad was sort of fun because he always howled like a monkey and hopped up and down. Aniki never did stupid things like that. "Uzumaki Naruto?"

He glanced at Aniki for reassurance, but his brother was still washing his hands quietly. "Yeah," he mumbled, worried that now he would be in trouble. Aniki hadn't seemed mad when he had started playing with the blonde kid. _Had he done something wrong?_ He was sure he had when his mother froze and stared at his brother.

"Sandaime-sama is having me watch out for Uzumaki Naruto and his adopted relative. It is good that Sasuke made friends with him."

Sasuke wondered why Aniki's explanation made Kaasan frown slightly. "Ah," she said, returning to the counter after shutting the pantry door. "That's good then, Sasuke. Did you play with any of the other kids there?"

He shook his head a little. "None of them wanted to play with Naruto." He wondered why Mother didn't look surprised as she set a bunch of plates on the table and announced that dinner was ready just as Father came in the door. No other questions were asked about how his time at the park had gone and Itachi's expression warned him not to mention it to Father. Lots of things never got mentioned to Father. It was one reason he idolized Itachi: he always seemed to know what not to tell Father.

* * *

Naruto had to admit he was a little disappointed when Sasuke claimed Hawk Nukenin and insisted that he was a ninjutsu master even better than Fox Ninja. _Now who was going to be the villain? _In the end, he and Sasuke voted that the rabbit could become the evil nukenin from the snowy wastes. Rabbit Nukenin was less impressive than Hawk Nukenin, but messing with Nariko's other statues made her angry ever since he had broken the leg off the wooden crane. She had fixed it magically with glue, but had warned him not to mess with any of her more breakable statues again. The rabbit was one of the ones that she told him wouldn't break easily. He could have used the other fox, but foxes were way too cool to be the bad guys!

Sasuke hadn't argued with him too much over that after Naruto had shown him how to make the forehead protectors out of tinfoil and rubber bands. Sasuke had been really picky about what colour elastic he wanted. He had tossed the red, yellow, and green bands all over the floor until he had found a black one. Naruto didn't understand why the other boy was so finicky, but asking just made Sasuke pout, which was no fun to deal with.

_Hawk Ninja and Fox Ninja leapt through Kitchen Country, bouncing from the Ravine of the Kitchen Sink over to the Mountain of Clean Dishes in the Dish Rack of Doom. They paused at the Lava Pit of the Stovetop, stole the awesome towel capes, and donned them with some difficulty in Hawk Ninja's case. Fox Ninja valiantly kept from snickering at the way the cape covered Hawk Ninja's stupid face._

"_Onwards to the Land of the Living Room!" announced the incredible Fox Ninja. "There we shall learn awesome pillow-crushing skills and advance our taijutsu!"_

"_Halt, stupidhead!" shouted Hawk Ninja, obviously getting cold feet. "The Elder Sister of Doom will become irate if the Pillows of Creation are flattened!"_

"_You lie!" countered Fox Ninja. "The Elder Sister of Doom would never be able to lay a finger on the awesome duo of Hawk and Fox!"_

"Oh yeah?" Sasuke asked, wrinkling his nose and squinting disbelievingly at Naruto. The latter didn't appreciate this break in the awesome game. _Didn't Sasuke know that you didn't break out of the game until _after_ defeating the nukenin?_ "How come you're always so scared to do anything bad? You tried to hide that bird when you broke it, but she found it under the dishes in the sink and pinched your ear!"

"Shut up!" Naruto glanced at the clock. Neechan wouldn't be home for another hour, and Itachi was sitting outside on the balcony with his eyes closed. They thought he was sleeping, but they couldn't tell. The one time they had been absolutely sure and had tried to poke him, he had opened his eyes and glared at them until they had run away.

"You're a scaredy cat!" Sasuke crowed, waving Hawk Ninja around as he pointed an accusing finger at Naruto. Naruto glared at the floor and tightened his hold on Fox Ninja.

"I am not!" He ignored the thump. _Prissy neighbour could go choke on her broom…_

"Are too!" Sasuke howled, getting right in Naruto's face.

"Am not, you worm!" Naruto returned the favour and butted foreheads with Sasuke as he had seen those mountain sheep do in those pictures Riko-nee had shown him in that book from the library two weeks ago. He didn't understand how those crazy sheep could do it: it hurt like hell. Both he and Sasuke cradled their foreheads and whimpered before starting to throw insults from a safer distance.

"Are too, mule's butt!"

"Chicken butt!"

"Fox's breath!"

This continued for quite a while…

"You're the balls that dog lost because they were so small that they slipped out when he pissed!"

"You're the scum in the toilet that stood up and ate the old fart's ass!"

They both froze and glanced nervously at each other when someone kicked the door and howled "SHUT UP, YOU DAMN PUNKS!" through it. Itachi got up off his butt on the balcony and slipped through the apartment to go deal with the neighbour from downstairs, levelling a stern glare at them on his way out.

"The scum in the toilet stands up?" Sasuke asked, forgetting all about their argument. Naruto was similarly afflicted with short-term memory loss now that there was a very real possibility that Itachi would come back in angry and ready to lecture them. They needed to get out of his way, fast.

"Maybe. Riko-nee scrubs it all the time though, so she kills it all the time before it gets strong enough to actually eat our butts. That's why she's stronger than Itachi. Has he ever beaten a toilet monster?"

Sasuke crossed his arms as he tried to think of one time. "He doesn't scrub the toilet." He was obviously disappointed that his brother was lacking in any way. "Kaasan scrubs the toilet."

"Ha! She's the strong one then! She protects you all from the scum monster that would eat your bums. She has to buy special weapons to battle him at the big, scary stores that have the white floors and the cold places to keep meat and vegetables. The people there are mean and there are way too many stacks of cans. You can't run around in there without getting in trouble."

"You mean the supermarket?" Sasuke asked, his expression conveying confusion and incredulity at Naruto's description.

"That's it! That's where you buy the special weapons to beat the toilet bowl monster. Let's go watch it grow!"

"Yeah!" Sasuke eagerly retied Hawk Ninja's cape. "Maybe Hawk and Fox can beat the Scum Monster of the Poop-sucking Bog Bowl!"

Naruto was faintly jealous of how good Sasuke was at coming up with impressive sounding names for toilet bowls. He would have to get Neechan to teach him more words.

He put that thought aside and fixed Fox Ninja's awesome towel cape before running through the Land of Kitchen, bouncing through the Highlands of the Dining Room, and scurrying through Living Room Country and Hall Country to the Continent of the Bathroom where the Poop-sucking Bog Bowl was known to exist. They spent the rest of the afternoon doing battle with Scum Monsters, who turned out to be incredibly shy creatures no matter how many times they flushed the stupid toilet. Even shoving flour and brown sugar down the stupid thing didn't work.

Naruto didn't quite understand why Riko-nee got so upset when she discovered that the toilet didn't work anymore that evening. It wasn't his fault that the monsters hadn't eaten the fake turds the way they were supposed to.

* * *

Itsuki's answer to her letter reminded her how aggravating her charge had turned out to be. She had to wonder if it was her fault, as Shiro had said.

"_I smile. Assume what you will, elder in the ways of the wicked world though still unblemished. Yes, I mock you. Thou art a hypocrite of the worst sort. I will not elaborate to save you the shame._" She had to snicker at his ignorance. Itsuki was often hilarious without meaning to be.

"_You have lost the music? Tell me that you still practice the stances at least in your living room._

"_I envy this Naruto. He has stolen you from us, but I cannot blame him. He needs you more than we do at the moment according to the other letters you have sent. Be careful of following his drum too closely. Drums do not only set the beat of dance. They also call the troops to war. You and I were not meant to be warriors of any sort. Stay at his side, but do not follow him blindly onto the battlefield. If you do, I fear that you will fall and never get back up. Compassion is our state, not violence. Be the absent advisor, not the foot soldier in the thick of battle. The latter is wrong._" Something about his sagacious tone made her shiver. He spoke with the voice of clan doctrine.

"_Learn, Oneesan. Learn and come back. Teaching is something you can do when you come home. Teach this Uzumaki our ways and let him free so that you may return to us. You can wander as far as you like so long as you return to the fold where you belong._

"_Our clan is not meant to be at peace in Konoha, the city of ninja. Death lingers there and danger lurks behind the smiles of the folk there from what you tell me. Compassion withers since there is no fertile soil for it. Come home where the unstable earth, the lynx, and the bear are our only enemies and we have learned to harmonize with them. Come home and dance with our cousins again to my music._

He mentioned her obvious absence from the fall festival before beating on her again. "_Come home and pick some man here or near here so that you will be among us. You say you feel old. Come home and learn to be young again with a son or daughter. Yes, I sound traditional, but I miss you. Shiro, not I, was the one that made you into a hoyden. Girlish or boyish, you are my older sister. I want to be an uncle to your children. I cannot do that when you are so far away."_

She flipped through the pages of poetry he mentioned before continuing. "_As for your suggestion, I was amused and appalled. It has merit though. I will think on it. Your hoydenish nature shines through at the oddest moments, many of them inconvenient. Okano-chan was reading over my shoulder, and she asked what you meant when you told me to 'get laid.' Have care in future please or I will follow Shiro's example and threaten to include graphic poetry in my letters for that Uzumaki boy to stumble upon. Give him my regards please and do teach him what to do with cow dung. Your words belie you. You are encouraging him in the path of prankster; I can tell. At least make sure that he understands how to cause mass mayhem._"

Itsuki's finishing words were hardly reassuring: "_Waiting impatiently for you to cave and admit defeat…_" They demanded immediate reply, so she hauled out paper.

"_I suppose I should extend congratulations to you for finally becoming a man._" Sixteen already, she thought sadly,Where had time gone? "_I'm sure Shiro will tease you mercilessly when he finds out. Yes, I told him. Secrets simply aren't safe where he is concerned. Besides, he has to embarrass you in my place. I would ask how it was, but I don't really want to know just yet. It seems wrong to continue in my old habits when I need to be an example for Naruto. I'm still coming to terms with the fact that your new manhood has made me into an old hag. Cry for me, Itsuki-chan. I shall be a wrinkled old prune soon, and I'll need you to support me in my old age. You'll be the lucky one to support me on my way to the crapper. I'm saving that duty especially for you so you can become an even better poet. You'll be able to write ballads on bowel movements._

"_Naruto's emulation of our ways continues. He'll do us proud yet. He plugged the toilet not long ago. I managed to interrogate him quite thoroughly just recently about that incident and found out that he manufactured manure out of flour and brown sugar since getting a hold of cow plops in this village is a bit of challenge. Apparently, he was trying to coax a toilet bowl monster into showing itself. Don't ask me where he came up with it. I haven't told him about that time you hid a duck in the toilet and managed to get Masaru-ojisan pecked in the balls (I still don't know how he didn't notice it swimming around…). Maybe that's why you never had any brothers or sisters. You must have rendered your father impotent, you scamp! I don't intend to give Naruto any ideas. It allows him to prove his creativity._

"_You are utterly subtle in how much you want me to fail and come home. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. Come now, little poet; be a little more supportive please. It's not going to kill you to have me away for years. You have the letters. It's not as if I've walked off the face of the earth, though I do believe I am sliding into obscurity somewhat…_"

Unobserved, out from under the lens, things could go rotten. She shuddered at the possibility and wrapped up the letter in time to wash dishes.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Kernel of the Page of Swords

Naruto and Sasuke had been playing Tag. The park wasn't really the place to do it. One parent or another would always end up yelling at them about how unsafe it was for them to run on the playground equipment or even around it. They never yelled at the other kids, but as soon as Naruto went faster than a slow walk, someone would start hollering and shaking fists. That was beyond frustrating, so Sasuke and Naruto had taken to playing games like this in the woods while Itachi watched out for them as he studied mission scrolls or techniques. Sometimes Shisui would hang out with him, but usually it was just Itachi.

Tag wasn't really all that fun with two people, so changing it into a strange cross between Tag and Hide-and-Seek worked better in the forest. On this particular day, they had gone out to one corner of the village neither of them had been to before. Itachi had warned them not to go too far before he had started reading, but they had forgotten those cautionary words a long time ago.

Naruto, being "it," raced through the maze of trunks, searching for any sign of his friend. _Sasuke was such a bum! It wasn't fair that he could hide so well and that he would go so far!_ What was even worse was that Sasuke could already create a weak bunshin, so seeing the shadow of his friend didn't always mean that Naruto had finally won. No, Sasuke was evil like that.

A rustling in the bushes made Naruto spin in a hasty circle, but there was no telltale black or blue in that direction, only green, more green, brown… and white. Naruto's eyes widened and he gulped. He had never seen one of those before! _Were they mean? _The pointy branchlike things sticking out of one's head certainly looked a little monstrous, but the other one looked sort of like a dog or a horse.

The one with the branches huffed warningly and lowered his head menacingly. A delicate hoof pawed the ground insistently as the skittish partner made moves to slink back into the underbrush. Deciding that testing the antlered one would be a _bad_ idea, Naruto bravely hightailed out of there with no idea where he was headed.

For some reason, the universe hated him. It seemed that running in a random direction through a forest he didn't know very well invariably led him to getting completely lost. He bet that no one else ever had problems like this. It wasn't fair! No matter how dark and frustrating being lost in the forest might be, Naruto _would not_ let it get him down! He would proudly forge ahead and get even more lost because he didn't know what else to do!

Neechan never got lost like this. Naruto conveniently forgot that she always had a map and that she followed a fairly well defined path, and continued operating on his faulty logic. He was Uzumaki Naruto, already six, and utterly invulnerable, again, conveniently forgetting he had been only too convinced of his mortality when faced with the monstrous stick/horse that couldn't possibly be a sheep or a goat though it looked similar. In fact, it reminded him of one of Neechan's figurines from the bunch he wasn't allowed to touch anymore. He would have to ask her what it was when he inevitably found his way back.

The sight of another monstrous goat yet not goat made him deviate from his path again. Hopelessly lost now, Sasuke completely forgotten, Naruto wandered in another "straight" line. One sighting after another, Naruto almost wandered in circles as he and creatures fled from each other until suddenly he heard something completely different.

"Hey, Shikamaru, can we eat lunch yet?"

He was _saved_! Yelping with relief, Naruto stumbled over twisted and malicious tree roots towards the saviours the Ramen God had surely sent his way. "Oi!" he howled as he scrambled closer to where he had heard the voice.

"That wasn't my stomach," the same voice insisted nervously, much closer sounding this time.

"Chouji, your stomach can't talk like that."

"Oh."

"Oi!"

"Do the deer make that noise then?"

"No, they don't make much noise at all." This voice was nasal and rather snide. It rose in volume with some difficulty, almost as if its owner wasn't sure that it was worth the effort to increase the decibel level.

"Who's there?" called another voice, older and deeper. "Show yourself!"

"Me!" Naruto shouted in reply as he finally stumbled into the clearing and glanced around, blinking in the suddenly bright light. He didn't have to look too far up to find the faces attached to the sandaled feet he had landed before.

"Is he a forest spirit like the miko talk about?" the chubby one asked nervously. The man scowled and relaxed his grip on his staff.

The boy with the scraggly ponytail shook his head. "Nope, he's the prankster that everyone used to complain about."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" he said proudly, getting to his feet and extending his hand promptly the way Neechan had taught him with a big grin. The two boys eyed it without any comprehension, so Naruto took the initiative, reached out to them one by one, and went through the proper motions with exaggerated slowness so that they caught on. He let the adult get away with ignoring his greeting simply because the kids were more interesting. "Boy, am I glad that I ran into you guys! There are these weird animals that sort of look like goats, but they've got trees growing out of their heads! I thought they were gonna spear me!"

The still unnamed boys exchanged incredulous looks and burst out laughing. "You got chased by the deer?" The chubby one snickered, dropped his big walking stick, and held his arms across his gut as if to contain the guffaws that readily spilled out his mouth.

"You must have the worst luck ever, Uzumaki Naruto," the lazy one informed him bluntly, whacking his own huge stick against the ground. The thing was almost twice as tall as the boy was. Naruto had to wonder why he was carrying it. "I'm Nara Shikamaru and the laughing one is Akimichi Chouji. This is Nara Ensui. He got stuck watching out for us today since we're not allowed out here by ourselves."

Naruto nodded sagely to the two Nara and saluted the friendlier brown-haired boy with the strange marks on his cheeks. "Where am I?"

"In the Nara lands," Shikamaru said with a yawn. "This is my family's forest. You're trespassing." He said the word as though he didn't quite know what it meant, but the connotation was that it was big trouble, which Naruto did understand only too well. If he got in trouble way out here, Itachi would lecture him something horrible.

"But Chouji's not a Nara either," Naruto said stubbornly, crossing his arms petulantly. "Besides, the deer things chased me here! I didn't come here on purpose."

"Doesn't matter why you came here, you're still trespassing. Chouji's helping me check on the deer, so he's not trespassing."

Naruto frowned at the chubby one, who nervously smiled back. "Can I help too so I won't be trespassing?" Avoiding Itachi's lectures was necessary if he didn't want his brain to turn into goo. Sasuke would smirk and make faces at him from behind his brother's back too.

Chouji and Shikamaru exchanged worried glances as Ensui grimaced before the latter shrugged listlessly. "If you want to. We're almost done; that's why Chouji's stomach is complaining."

Grinning, Naruto bounded towards the far end of the clearing, going about three steps before he realized that he had no idea where he was going. Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, he slowly turned back to his temporary cohorts and their warden. They were staring at him, looking quite amused.

"It's that way," Shikamaru told him, pointing about seventy-five degrees west of Naruto's path. Nodding briskly, Naruto set off along the right path, his fingers laced behind his head casually. "My dad told us to look for traps, but he doesn't think we'll find any out here. He says that the poachers are getting braver in the southern part, not here, but Chouji wanted to see the deer."

"What kind of traps?" Naruto asked eagerly, looking back over his shoulder at the Nara kid. If they were like ninja traps, that would be awesome! Now he saw what the sticks were for: Chouji, Shikamaru, and Ensui were using them to poke at the grass ahead of them.

"Snares: simple stuff with ropes that hurt or catch the deer. They can be tricky to spot—"

"Stop!" barked Ensui and Shikamaru in unison.

Naruto skidded to a halt and felt a strangely horizontal pressure across his ankle.

"What's that one called, Shika?" Chouji asked as he knelt down to inspect the rope that Naruto had almost tripped over. When the pudgy boy almost poked at it, Ensui got a panicky look on his face and pushed the investigative hand away.

"Naruto, you'd better back up," said Shikamaru. "This one's nasty. Chouji, don't touch it if you don't want to get squished."

Naruto quickly hopped back, glancing around in a frenzied manner to try to figure out where the attack would come from. He saw the rope, but he didn't quite get it. "How does it work?" he asked, peering up at the tree leaning over at a funny angle.

"Like this." A kunai whistled past their ears and cut the rope. The tree toppled frighteningly quickly, impacting with the ground with a loud thud. Itachi dropped out of the trees and lowered Sasuke off his back before continuing forward to collect his kunai. "It's a tripwire deadfall trap. Good afternoon, Ensui-san."

Naruto glanced at Shikamaru, who nodded as Ensui returned Itachi's greeting. "Yeah, that's what my dad called it when he showed me the pictures. He said the poachers weren't very smart, so they wouldn't use something too complicated."

"You should have made Naruto walk behind you," Itachi lectured. "He could have walked right over it because he didn't know to look for it."

Ensui didn't look too pleased with Itachi now. Chouji hung his head, shamefaced, but Shikamaru merely huffed wearily and crossed his arms defensively. "Who're you?"

"Uchiha Itachi."

Naruto thought it was hilarious when both Chouji and Shikamaru went wide-eyed. _Hah, so Sasuke's brother was pretty famous for being a genius._ So maybe Sasuke hadn't been exaggerating… That was a first. Sasuke loved showing off.

Speaking of Sasuke, said menace shuffled over and punched Naruto quite firmly in the shoulder. "Idiot," he grumbled before he huffed angrily. "You ran off and got lost. Now the game is ruined. Aniki told you not to go that far."

"Hey, it wasn't my fault the deer tried to eat me!" Naruto insisted, trying to save face. It didn't quite work.

"Deer eat grass and stuff like that," Sasuke said, sticking his nose in the air with a horribly superior smirk plastered all over his face. Naruto had half a mind to dunk him in a pond somewhere.

"Pay attention, you two," Itachi scolded them, beckoning them closer. "The trap is simple. The rope is secured on this end to that tree trunk." Naruto glanced over to the loop Itachi pointed at. "It is extended across a span that holds a game track—a trail that deer or other prey animals use. On this side, two pegs," Itachi tapped them with his pointer finger, "are put in the tree trunk. The rope is secured under this bar, which is braced under the pegs like this." Itachi held out the round bar under the pegs and used his other hand to keep the rope taut around it. "The rope is looped over that branch up there and tied to that deadfall so that it can fall quickly. When the deer (or Naruto) trips over the rope, the bar will roll out from under the pegs and the deadfall will fall onto the prey."

Naruto stared at the cut rope and the wooden bar with newfound respect.

"So Naruto would have been squished flat like a mud pie?" Sasuke asked with a speculative look on his face.

Itachi nodded.

"You owe him big, Stupid," Sasuke informed Naruto, jerking his chin at Shikamaru, who shrugged.

Unlike Sasuke, who only said "thank you" when his parents or his older relatives were around to scold him, Naruto knew how to pay his debts. He grinned at Shikamaru and saluted him before doing the same for Ensui. The boy grinned slightly and shrugged off the gesture; Ensui just nodded.

Naruto had the feeling that this would be the beginning of a new era of terror upon the Freezing Caverns of Food (A.K.A. the fridge) when Chouji's stomach let out a loud grumble. Naruto jovially announced that they could have lunch at his place. This was greeted with great enthusiasm from the guys and great horror from Neechan when she got home and found a pile of plates in the sink and very little food left in the fridge. She muttered on about black holes before retreating to the work she had brought home with a frazzled look until he finally got past explaining about the horrors of deer and deadly traps. From the way her face morphed into guarded approval, Naruto had the feeling that Chouji was going to have eat less if he wanted to keep coming over for snacks.

* * *

Naruto had never been happier even though he could never hang out at the others' houses. He had friends now, something he had never had before. It was kind of hard being a friend. He had to be so careful not to really hurt any of the other boys' feelings, though even he knew that boys were more emotionally resilient than girls were.

Sasuke was still kind of shy, but he was fun when his brother wasn't around. Sasuke was always very careful to act like his brother otherwise, which made him not much fun to play with. They still played Hawk and Fox Ninja when the other guys couldn't hang out. Sasuke would explain about weapon use after interrogating Itachi sometimes, though Riko-nee never let them demonstrate in the house.

The one time they had tried throwing kunai with her pens, she had gotten _really_ mad. Naruto had discovered that he didn't actually like being the one to combat the toilet bowl monster. Sasuke had had to help scrub the ink stains off the walls until Riko-nee had been happy and she hadn't been happy until the walls had been white again, as white as the paper the ink was _supposed to be used on_. Sasuke had never done that again.

He was the fastest of all of them at learning from the ninja manual that Neechan would read to them from. Even Sasuke, for all that he came from an ultra famous ninja clan, couldn't read all of the kanji in the thick books and scrolls that they studied.

Naruto had learned Shikamaru was lazy the first time they had played Tag together. The dark boy had wandered off rather than run about and had settled underneath a tree to watch the fun after only an hour. Naruto had also quickly realized that Shikamaru was determined to be unenthusiastic. His favourite word was one he had learned from his father only recently: "troublesome." Shikamaru didn't quite know what it meant, but he used it enough that Riko-nee had explained it to him and had corrected him until he got it right. He usually applied it to anything that required him to do anything. In short, he used it to describe everything, especially the Academy, which they were not due to go to until April.

Neechan said Shikamaru was a "genius." She had let Shikamaru borrow one of her weird wire-mess puzzles when she had seen him solve her unsolvable rope and wire one. The one she had sent home with him was super difficult: the object of the puzzle was to move six coloured rings through a maze of thick wires and line them up at one end in the order of the colours of the rainbow. It was the most complex puzzle Riko owned. It had taken her months of planning on paper and the use of mathematics and geometric calculations to figure it out according to what she had told Naruto later. Her solution was not perfect: the last two rings—indigo and violet—always ended up in the wrong order. It had been solved in her living room two days later.

Chouji was the most even-tempered of the group and their unofficial peacekeeper. Physically, he was not impressive: he wasn't fast, stealthy, strong, or agile. He wasn't very smart either. However, he was nice. He was the first to really stop being wary of Naruto despite the way all the other kids at the park treated him. He loved food, something that endeared him to Riko-nee after he learned not to empty their fridge. She would have him taste test any new dishes that she tried to make, knowing that he would give her an honest opinion and eat every last scrap even if he didn't like it. Naruto was very glad to be spared this onerous task. Some of the things Neechan came up with did not taste good at all.

The four of them would run around the park during the day, usually until Naruto was sure that Riko-nee was coming home. They usually beat her by a few minutes, trailed by Naruto's ANBU guardian. Itachi seemed to have moved on to other projects, a fact Naruto didn't think all that important, so he didn't mention it to Riko-nee, who always seemed nervous around Itachi.

She would prepare them all a snack and ask them questions about their day. They would regale her with stories about their fictitious adventures, Naruto by far the most exuberant. Sometimes they would gather around her and pester her until she read whatever passage they had picked out of the scrolls or books on ninja. She would only read them a maximum of ten pages before she would force them all to practice basic mathematics.

She had announced early on in November that she would be starting to teach Naruto math. He had been nervous about it so he had convinced his friends to suffer with him. She had started with explaining the number system and place value with blocks she had bought specifically for this purpose. With the visual aid, they were able to grasp the concept with the same ease she had when her older cousin had taught her. She blessed Shiro for his understanding of a child's mind and for teaching her in such an effective manner.

* * *

Nariko had been just about to start their lesson on subtraction when Sasuke threw down his stylus. That was probably as close as he could get to a scream of frustration. She arched an eyebrow at him, slightly offended by the sudden violence. Folding her arms, she met his gaze and silently demanded an explanation.

Sasuke hesitated, alerting Nariko to the fact that what Sasuke was about to say would be private and was probably a violation of some clan laws. "I just wish that Father would stop sometimes," he muttered at last.

"Stop doing what, Sasuke?" Naruto asked, not indicating one way or another that he was bothered by Sasuke's outburst. Nariko was grateful for his sensitivity, though she doubted it would last long. Sasuke and Naruto seemed to live to butt heads with each other.

"Stop comparing us. He always tells me to be like Aniki and I haven't even started the Academy yet."

"What does Itachi-kun say?" asked Nariko worriedly. Something about Itachi was decidedly off, but then he had been working as a fulltime mercenary before he had turned ten.

"He doesn't say much. He says he'll practice with me, but he always has other things to do, as usual."

"What do you mean?" Nariko asked, her brow furrowing with confusion. "I thought protecting Naruto was his primary mission."

"Nah, Itachi hardly ever comes around to watch us anymore. He hasn't for a long time. I see the other ANBU more. I even saw Jaguar and Dog once when he was supposed to be there." Naruto's utter unconcern made Nariko want to swat him. _Why hadn't he told her about this?_

"He's always training by himself and going off on solo missions. He doesn't like to be around home much anymore," Sasuke added.

"Why doesn't he like to be at home? I thought you said your mom was nice?" Naruto insisted, bewildered.

"No, he says that he's disappointed in everyone sometimes. He says that we aren't doing as well as we could."

"With the Uchiha clan or your family?" asked Nariko.

"The clan, I think."

"Why does he say that?" Nariko probed, feeling that the threads she was pulling on would soon unravel.

"I don't know. I didn't want to ask. He sounded so angry. Aniki hardly ever gets angry." This was typical behaviour for a child when an authority figure displayed imbalance. She couldn't blame Sasuke for trying to ignore the issue in an attempt to deny its existence. However, she couldn't encourage this sort of conduct either. Sasuke would have to wake up to this.

"No, Sasuke, I think your brother is often angry. I think that he simply doesn't show it very often. As a ninja, he is trained not to show his emotions; don't you remember that rule in the book?"

The boys nodded.

"Well, I think that it is a very bad rule most of the time. Ninja are human. Humans have emotions. Emotions will fester if you do not let them out, like slivers that you can't get out. They will become infected and pus will start to cause the sore to swell and become inflamed, yet the skin will still hold the slivers under. Then one day everything will come bursting out in a stream of pus, blood."

"That's gross, Riko-san," Shikamaru said, his lips twisted in disgust at her graphic description.

For half a second, she twitched at the way Naruto had made her cousins' baby name for her derogatory; it seemed to be his payback for making such a big deal about her name at Ichiraku's the first time they had met. Whenever he had been annoyed with her about something, he had called her that nickname until it had become habit. She shrugged off the annoyance and refocused on the Shikamaru. She was glad she had managed to get through to them with that bit of imagery.

"It is. It makes a much bigger mess when you let your emotions fester like that. I think that is what is wrong with Itachi-kun. He became a ninja so young that his morals have become ninja rules and he doesn't know how to let everyone know what is wrong. What I am worried about is what he will do to fix the problem. His limits are not the same as ours. He was killing before I learned to swim." Seeing that she had managed to convey the severity of the situation to the boys, she decided to set some rules.

"I think that this is a serious problem that Sasuke has brought to us. It is our duty to help him." Duty, she was explaining duty to six-year-olds. She had to be crazy and very desperate. _Gah, so be it. These scamps were going to be ninja; they would be able to handle this, right? _"You three cannot change his father's opinion, and I doubt he will listen to me. He is probably several years my senior. Besides, I think figuring out Itachi-kun's problem is _very_ important right now, okay?"

The boys nodded, their eyes widening.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered.

"Very, Shikamaru-kun," Nariko agreed. "Now, Sasuke, he's your brother. He's always helping you. Why don't you help him, even if it means taking his problem to the Hokage for him?"

That got the boys' attention.

"To the Hokage?" Sasuke asked, very pale now.

"Yes, if need be. It could be a problem with work he doesn't think he can talk to his Hokage about." She turned to the other boys. "You lot should help him figure out what to do with Itachi's problem. If you can't figure something out and Itachi doesn't make you promise to keep it quiet, you can tell me or your parents… Maybe not your parents… No need to worry them if I'm completely wrong."

"But, Riko-san, couldn't our parents help?" asked Chouji, who had been silent for the majority of this tense conversation.

Nariko considered and then shrugged. "I don't know. I have never met your parents, so you have to decide."

* * *

Naruto glanced around and evaluated their awesome plan. Chouji resented that Riko didn't think that his father could help. Her explanation about having never met him had not appeased their normally forgiving friend. Chouji had been unwilling to let such ignorance go uncorrected. He was sure that if she met his father, she would see just how much help he could be.

They had agreed to this a couple days ago after a day of exposure to Ino had been mercifully cut short by the jounin. Chouza had felt sorry enough for all of them, even Naruto, that he had bought them all chips before laughing good-naturedly and disappearing to placate Ino's dad since she had not been happy about the loss of people she could boss around.

Things were almost ready. Chouji was stalling his father, and Uchiha-san and Nara-san had yet to show up, but that was expected. Those two were always a little late when they came to pick up Shikamaru and Sasuke. The one hitch he was worried about was that his sister wouldn't show up because she got held up while shopping. That always took a while because Neechan liked making a fuss about how much she was charged. He didn't quite understand why, but she always looked blank (which he knew meant she was furious) when people told her different numbers than what were on the price tag.

Bouncing with nerves and impatience on top of the slide, he drummed out a beat on the wooden frame with his palms, ignoring Sasuke's petulant look at how he was making the board shake under Sasuke's butt since he was perched on a corner of the structure.

"Stop it, Stupid." Sasuke crossed his arms and glared.

Naruto ignored him.

"Naruto, I mean it," Sasuke insisted after a couple minutes of rebellion got to him.

Naruto laughed in his most goading way and ducked under Sasuke's wicked strike. "Nah ne! Sasuke can't hit such a big target! What sort of lame ninja are you?" he jeered, dancing out of range.

Scowling, Sasuke was just about to launch himself into a good fight when the forbidding figure of Uchiha-san appeared at the edge of the playground, her beautiful face stern. "Sasuke, are you going to let him goad you into getting into trouble?" she asked mildly, her dark eyes creepily calm. Sasuke fell back into the politer manner he used around his family as Naruto snickered at him. Uchiha-san favoured him with a scarily blank look for making a fuss and indicated to Sasuke that it was time to go. "Otousan will be home soon. We should be there to meet him after his hard day at work."

Naruto glanced nervously at Sasuke, wondering now if maybe the most difficult part of the plan would be making his mom stay. Naruto had never had much contact with Uchiha Mikoto, but Sasuke had never said anything bad about her other than that she always had him and his brother do chores before they did anything fun. He knew that she didn't much like Sasuke playing with him though. He also knew that she didn't believe he would become Hokage because when he had told her this the first time she had merely shaken her head at him and left without a word. He had made it one of his side missions to convince her.

"Can we stay for a bit longer?" Sasuke was careful not to meet her eyes.

She looked surprised at his request. "But what about your brother? He's going to be back from Rice Country today. I thought you wanted to see him the moment he got home?"

Now Naruto grimaced. Sasuke would be demanding lots of recompense for this sacrifice. With luck, only Chouji would be his victim.

"Just a bit longer?" Sasuke asked, kicking a vertical brace with the heels of his sandals as he used his hands to keep his balance on the railing.

As Sasuke continued stalling, Naruto glanced around. Chouji had better be satisfied because this was turning out to be way too complicated. Shikamaru's dad was still nowhere in sight and Riko-nee… Oh, wait; there she was. Relief made him giddy enough that he took a running leap and went down the slide headfirst, landing in a painful heap at the bottom before scrambling to his feet, running past Uchiha-san, and yanking his sister along behind him when she stopped short, looking horrified at just who was waiting for her. He had never seen her pale like this before. _Was Uchiha-san really that scary? _It was too late for him to let Neechan run away though; Chouji and Sasuke were dragging their parents over and Shikamaru's dad had finally appeared out of nowhere.

"What are you trying to pull, Naruto-brat?" Riko asked him, sounding a little frantic.

He resented her name for him, so he merely grinned evilly at her, sympathy stymied. "Ne, Neechan, you get to meet everyone!" He snickered as he dragged her forward. She shot him a look telling him that his ramen for Saturday was cancelled, and Naruto almost balked, but Chouji looked so happy that his idea was working that Naruto couldn't back out. Chouji would be getting him replacement ramen!

When they finally all stood around, Naruto stepped up to the plate bravely. "Neechan, these are the guys' parents." When she blinked at him silently, he took it as permission to continue the introductions. "That's Sasuke's mom, Mikoto, and that's Chouji's dad, Chouza. Oh, and that's Shikamaru's lazy dad, Shikaku. He's got wicked cool scars, see?"

From the startled looks on the parents' faces, he had the feeling that his introductions weren't quite what they had been expecting. Neechan's hand twitched in his and he could tell she wanted to cover her face with it, but he wasn't quite finished yet. "This is my sister, Riko," he told the parents proudly. "Her name's a lot like mine, so I changed it to Riko for her so people wouldn't mix us up."

This time, he let Neechan cover her face with her hands. He had the feeling that the plan had succeeded brilliantly, so he could let her pretend to be embarrassed. The others didn't look quite as convinced, but their parents hadn't said anything yet.

"Matsuku Riko?" Nara-san said at last, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Shikamaru rolled his eyes when Naruto gave him a thumbs-up. "It doesn't have quite the same ring."

"Yes," Neechan agreed wearily, "it doesn't balance out as well."

Naruto was a little nonplussed when the conversation continued from there with no one saying that they were glad to meet each other.

"You boys go play," Uchiha-san ordered. They were quick to obey, though they didn't play much once they got back on the jungle gym. It seemed to be going well. They were talking at least, though Neechan was looking more and more aggrieved and defensive with every word spoken. The ninja parents didn't gesture with their hands the way she did, so Naruto could only tell what she thought of everything: she wasn't happy.

"What do you think they're saying over there?" he asked as he balanced on the slide.

"That they don't like what she did," Shikamaru enlightened him with a massive yawn. "That's what they all say about her."

"What did she do?" Naruto demanded.

"She adopted you, Stupid," Sasuke said. "What else has she done?"

"What has that got to do with anything?"

"No idea, Stupid," Sasuke admitted, picking at the straps of his sandals with mild shame written on his face. He didn't like not knowing everything. Keeping him in the dark was dangerous for Naruto's health, so it was only done on rare occasions when the gain outweighed the potential harm. Naruto had the feeling Sasuke's mother was above that though as he watched the parents interrogate Neechan until they were satisfied and called them over so they could all go home their separate ways.

"So?" Naruto asked as he trotted down one of the side streets on the route home.

"Hmm," was all she gave him in reply, looking caught up with whatever was going on in her head. Sputtered complaints were ignored; she maintained silence all the way home. She only broke it when they sat down to eat supper. "I like my name, you know."

"But it sounds like mine!" he protested.

She ignored his protests. "When you introduce someone, you use his or her clan name. Given names are for close friends."

"Are Chouji, Shika, and Sasuke your friends too then?" He was a little confused when she started laughing at him.

"If Chouji came up with this to correct me, then yes, I think they are my friends. Only a friend would be so willing to call another on mistakes."

Deciding that she was just being weird to annoy him, he snorted at her and went back to eating, which was never confusing.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Seven Rotting Staves

Naruto rolled off his futon onto the floor and woke up to rub his sore nose. A glance at the clock told him that it was not yet six; Riko-nee wouldn't wake up for another ten minutes. Full of anxiety, Naruto was unable to get back to sleep. There were only three hours until he had to be at the Academy. _What if the teachers were mean? What if they made him do horrible things? What if he was horrible at everything and they humiliated him in front of everybody? What if…?_

Unable to stay still any longer, he scurried into Neechan's room. Riko shifted to accommodate his warmth, not waking as he burrowed into her side. The evil questions had a hard time floating around his mind when he was warm and sleepy.

Twenty minutes later, Riko shook him awake. "Are you okay? You only come and sleep with me when you get scared."

"I am not scared!" he said, sitting cross-legged and crossing his arms as well so his pout would be more impressive. Future Hokage were never scared!

Riko only laughed at him. "Very well then, you aren't scared. What was wrong then?"

He was slightly mollified by her agreement, but she would pay for her doubt in his fearlessness later… _Maybe gum in the faucet?_ "I couldn't go back to sleep."

Her eyebrow arched, conveying mild scepticism that he didn't appreciate. "You rolled off your bed didn't you?"

_Was she really a psychic the way Shika said Ino was? _Ino was scary. He usually ran into the paler-blonde-haired, teal-eyed girl whenever Chouji and Shika were forced to play with her at the park while their fathers trained together.

Ino appreciated being forced to hang out with them about as much as they did. She pinched almost as hard as Riko-nee did and she was bossy. He wrinkled his nose at the memory of her ordering them down the slides one at a time. Sasuke hadn't been happy at all. None of them had been, but he had been the only one brave (stupid) enough to walk away. Ino hadn't been pleased and had taken it out on the rest of them. Sasuke had paid for that abandonment. Even Chouji had helped squish him.

"How can you tell?" he asked warily, really hoping he was wrong about Neechan being omniscient.

"Your nose is red." He rubbed it again, and she laughed and ruffled his hair. So he was safe; she wasn't all-knowing. "Come on, let's go for our run. You don't want Sasuke to beat you, do you?"

He shook his head violently before beating a hasty retreat to him room to get changed. _Hell if Sasuke was going to be allowed to be better than him!_ He met her at the door, pulled on his sandals, and let Riko-nee lock up.

For the next half hour, they ran together, gradually gaining speed until he was sprinting through the forest with Riko keeping pace with him. He was pretty sure she was going way slower than she could. He promised himself that someday he would be able to beat her even when she was running full out. He would surpass her and be the best Hokage ever!

They stopped in a clearing to stretch. He grimaced as she awkwardly slid into the splits. He did the easy stretches she had shown him: trying to touch his toes, hopping around on one leg while holding his foot against his butt, and doing a much milder version of her splits. She told him that his flexibility was improving and then raced him back home to shower and eat breakfast.

"Wear something clean!" Riko called as she went into her room to change.

Naruto grumbled under his breath about sisters that thought they knew everything as he rifled through his closet. He loitered in the bathroom for a few minutes afterward, brushing his hair. He was fighting a losing battle with his bangs when Riko came in and stole his brush. Running some water over the bristles, she proceeded to make a decisive strike that won the war. _How did she do that? It wasn't fair!_

"I've got a lot more hair than you to brush," she explained when he whined. "Come on; brush your teeth and we'll go."

For the walk to the Academy, Naruto rode on Riko's back. Resting his chin on her shoulder, he confessed his nervousness.

"It's perfectly natural to be nervous about this. I'm nervous too. I can't help but remember how the Academy was four years ago from Itachi's tales. He says it's changed a lot from then though. You won't be able to graduate in one year no matter how skilled you are anymore. I am glad. I don't want you to have to fight anyone until after you turn ten."

"Why?"

"I don't want you to get hurt, and I don't want you to have to hurt anybody. It eats away at you inside when you have to hurt somebody else, even if you don't like him at all. The only tolerable reason to hurt someone is if you are protecting someone else. Then it is a little bit better because you are not doing it for yourself, you are being strong so you can protect something precious."

"Precious?"

"Something dear to you, something that is very important to you," she explained quietly, indicating that he had better listen very carefully because she wouldn't be repeating herself. "For me, my most precious thing is my family. You are a part of my family; that is why I stand up to the village to protect you even if I get hurt. I am not very strong; I am not trained to fight with my body. However, when I fight with my actions and my words for you, I feel truly strong. I want you to feel that as a ninja rather than become like Itachi-empty-face, whose only joy is in advancing beyond all others and testing his limits. Can you try to do that for me?"

"I guess so."

"Don't worry too much about it yet. You'll understand soon."

He really hoped so; it wouldn't make much sense otherwise because her explanation had confused him.

The Academy courtyard was big; full of people; and edged by trees on one side, the building on the other, and the village. The building was wood just like everything else in Konoha and displayed the Leaf.

Naruto tensed, and Riko coughed, indicating that he was starting to choke her. He flushed and loosened his grip, and she rubbed at her neck. He could tell she was laughing at him, so he stuck his tongue out at the back of her head.

Riko put Naruto down and gestured that he join the other eighty or so children milling about while she braved the crowd of adults, searching in vain for a friendly face, before they were called to order by the Sandaime himself. Naruto hadn't known that Old Man would be coming. It made him feel a bit better about being in the middle of such a big group of people. Such situations in the past had never ended very well for him if he had been noticed. Being trampled wasn't fun.

"Congratulations on entering, everyone." The wrinkly bum smiled benignly at them all. "From this day forth, please work hard to follow the shinobi way."

Gulping, Naruto glanced around at his three friends, who stood in the rows near him. Sasuke looked a little forlorn, and Naruto saw him glance over at his stern-faced father, who looked bored. Naruto was tempted to stick his tongue out at the man while he wasn't looking. Sasuke always seemed so upset about how little his dad seemed to like him.

A few Academy teachers made speeches and then the orderly columns and rows dissolved as entrants sought out friendly faces. "What a waste of time," Shika complained while Chouji pulled out a bag of chips to fill his ever-rumbling stomach. Naruto shrugged while Sasuke stayed quiet, searching the crowds for his father.

"I thought your brother was going to come today," Chouji said between chips.

Sasuke shook his head. "He had a really important mission today. Father was going to go with him, but Itachi-ani said he was going to stay for my ceremony instead. Then Father said he'd come, and Aniki said he'd go."

"I see." Riko had come up behind them through the crowds. "Why was Itachi's mission so important?"

"Father said it would get Itachi into ANBU officially if he did well. I think that's why Otousan wanted to go."

Naruto laced his fingers behind his head when Riko frowned. She probably understood whatever it was that Sasuke was jabbering about. So long as someone did, Naruto didn't mind that it flew over his head. He would just have to get her to explain later.

"That's still not a good reason to skip out on your entrance ceremony. There are plenty of missions that Itachi could have done later your father could have accompanied him on. ANBU knows that it's only a matter of time before he qualifies," Riko mused aloud. "By the way, what happened to your ankle?"

Sasuke blushed and leaned down to scratch at the bandages. "I was watching Itachi practice with kunai yesterday, and he did a really cool move that I tried to copy. I fell down. Aniki had to carry me home like you carried Naruto here."

"You saw that?" Naruto hoped that no one had noticed his fear-fuelled reaction.

"Idiot," Shikamaru muttered, "everyone saw. You weren't the first ones here, you know."

"It's not very nice to call someone stupid, Shika," Riko scolded. "You certainly wouldn't like it if I called you an ineffective sloth, would you?"

Shika grumbled and rolled his eyes. "You sound like my mom."

"Maybe it's because you encourage us to think in a similar manner. You are the laziest boy I have ever met."

"I just like watching clouds. Dad does it with me sometimes, and you don't call him lazy."

"He does other things though," Shikaku commented as he emerged from the crowd.

"Hey, Dad."

"Hello, Nara-san."

He nodded to them all before indicating that he wanted Shikamaru to tag along. "There's a chuunin instructor I want you to meet before I go." Shrugging, Shika waved and followed.

"I've got to go find my dad," Chouji explained. "He's got my lunch."

"We wouldn't want to get between you and food," Naruto teased and got his ear pinched for his trouble as Chouji wandered away.

"What am I going to do with you?" Riko grumbled as Naruto whined about his ear. "Your manners are atrocious. What did I tell you about calling other people names?"

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Do you want to be like those villagers that shun you and me?" she asked, pulling out her sympathy card when she included herself as a victim.

Naruto shook his head, wide-eyed.

"Then don't do such things."

He was spared a lecture by something far more unpleasant.

"Sasuke, what are you doing with these people?" Sasuke flinched at his father's harsh tone, but he didn't get a chance to attempt to defend himself.

Riko-nee looked ready to spit nails. "What exactly do you mean by 'these people'? Is there something wrong with us?"

Fugaku's eyes looked right through them. "Come, Sasuke."

Naruto was used to this: parents ignoring his existence as they dragged their children away. It had happened too many times to count. He had accepted it as a fact of life. Kids weren't allowed to play with him. This was different though. Uchiha-san was dragging Sasuke, Naruto's first real friend, away.

There was no way Naruto could accept this.

"Hey! Stop that!" Naruto didn't quite know what to do. Protest had never earned him anything in this situation before. However, he couldn't come up with anything better. The crowd watching their spat looked almost pleased, though why they didn't look ecstatic the way they did when anyone else pretended he was a ghost didn't make any sense to Naruto. Maybe it was because they understood that Uchiha-san was an asshole. Sasuke glanced back at him and then at his father, looking rather nervous.

Sasuke always looked nervous about his father though.

Uchiha-san ignored Naruto's protests.

"Hey! Bring Sasuke back! What the heck do you care? You're always going on about—!"

Neechan butted in. Naruto was furious with her for preventing him from reaming Fugaku out about how he favoured Itachi-stone-face, not that he had been listening. Sasuke didn't look as though he appreciated the close call, but then Sasuke was twitchy like that. He didn't argue with his godly parents.

"Do you mean to deny 'these people' existence or the right to know why you speak of them in such a derogatory manner? From the _uncertain_ head of Konoha's Military Police, I had expected better."

Naruto had to blink. _Why were her words the ones that got his attention?_ He didn't envy her that frown exacerbated by Uchiha-san's shadowed jowls. The crowd was undecided now, equally disfavouring Neechan and Uchiha-san. Naruto couldn't figure out why. Sasuke looked equally confused.

"I had thought you people would know better than to say anything about something so obvious."

Naruto had to wonder how Neechan could hide the fury that made him snarl incoherently. She couldn't seem to think of anything to say in reply.

Naruto wasn't so inhibited. "You bastard! You're the one that doesn't care about—!"

Again, Neechan didn't let him get the accusation out. "That sounds like an evasion. 'Pulling at straws,' perhaps, Uchiha-san, for lack of a better reason? So unconvincing to 'these people'."

Uchiha-san's eyes narrowed further. "Do you really expect me to explain something so obvious?"

"Yes, I do. I don't think you've made yourself very clear. Come; tell me exactly what you mean." Neechan was unfailingly polite, but her tiny smile was absent. Naruto knew that she was going to do something horrible. People around them were quiet, anticipating that horribleness.

Uchiha-san seemed to consider the wisdom of turning around, but Naruto wasn't going to let that happen. "You too stupid to explain it to Neechan? I thought Uchiha were supposed to be super geniuses or something. Are you really an Uchiha, you—?" Neechan squeezed his shoulder to keep his horrible name for Sasuke's dad in his mouth.

Even gaining Uchiha-san's glare was an improvement over being part of the dirt beneath his grimy toes, but that glare quickly went back to Neechan, marking her as the target for his next words. "I'm disgusted to find my son associating with an insolent degenerate cast out from society for good reason. I'm hardly going to let him be infected by your company."

Naruto shook with rage, beyond speaking because he only understood the fancy words to mean that Sasuke was never going to be allowed to come back. They would never be allowed to play Hawk and Fox. They would never play Tag. They would never insult each other for fun.

If Neechan was angry, her sweet smile and genial tone were the best act yet. "Oh, you mean that you had no idea that he was spending most of his daylight hours with us for the past several months with Itachi-kun's encouragement? I thought you knew. I mean, Mikoto-san certainly did. And another thing: you only mentioned my shortcomings. Why don't you tell me about Naruto's while you're at it?"

Naruto had the feeling that the Hokage's big rule was going to get broken when the man himself appeared. "Come now, what is going on here? Uchiha-san, Matsuku-san, I hope that there isn't a problem."

Fugaku was just about to shake his head when Riko-nee blasted his hopes of resolving this without Old Man's knowledge with vindictive glee. "Actually, Hokage-sama, Uchiha-san and I were in the middle of an argument. He was kindly informing me of just what sort of social rejects Naruto and I are and how he disapproved of Sasuke's friendship with Naruto, a friendship that you yourself encouraged. I was just wondering what you would have said to all of this nonsense. Please enlighten me."

Naruto and Sasuke were horrified: things were going to get messy.

The Hokage seemed to be smart enough to realize this. Naruto had always known that Old Man didn't have all those ugly wrinkles for nothing. Old Man would be able to handle this; he was the Hokage. He would win hands down. Though his face remained calm, uncertainty entered his voice. "Now, Matsuku-san, I am sure that Uchiha-san did not mean it that way."

"Actually," Chouza said, appearing at Riko's shoulder, "he was being remarkably blunt for once."

The unlooked-for support threw Riko, Uchiha-san, and the Hokage off-balance.

"Well then, I must admit that this surprises me. Uchiha-san is normally much more respectful of our civilian citizens. After all, Matsuku-san has proven herself a valuable asset to the ninja community. And in regards to Sasuke, I see no reason why being Naruto's friend should be considered a crime. In fact, I find their friendship praiseworthy. They both seem to be better for it, right, Uchiha-san?"

Nariko hid a smile at the way the seemingly doddering old Hokage had backed Sasuke's father into a corner. Naruto couldn't tell, but he did guess that Old Man was winning and that his sister wasn't far behind just because the bum was on her side. _Ha, Uchiha-san was going to eat dirt!_

Even Uchiha-san seemed to realize this: "Of course, Hokage-sama."

"Good, I am glad that you agree. Now, would the four of you like to come with me? There are some chuunin here that I want you to meet, particularly you, Nariko-san. It will be good for you to be able to speak with Naruto's instructors before you have to go."

Sasuke and Naruto were used as a buffer between their tense relations as they followed the Hokage. Neither of them was exceptionally pleased with this arrangement. For the next twenty minutes, the Hokage had Riko and Fugaku talk cordially with a portly chuunin with a goatee who seemed all too keen to praise Itachi to Fugaku. Riko-nee inserted whispered comments about toads, causing the boys to snicker. The chuunin fortunately failed to pick up on her jibes, explaining why he was still a chuunin when he looked to be in his mid-thirties. The boys were glad to follow when Riko finally made excuses and slipped away.

* * *

The Sandaime watched as Fugaku's lips twisted as his son tottered away in Matsuku-san's wake. There was rage in his stance, but there was also deep grief.

* * *

"Have fun. No matter what happens today, remember that not all of these children will make it through until the end of the year. Make friends and avoid making enemies." Nariko ruffled Sasuke's hair and ignored his furious attempts to straighten it before turning to Naruto, her voice becoming grave. Sasuke eavesdropped shamelessly.

"Naruto, there are going to be children here that will be nasty to you the same way their parents are. They do it because their parents do. They don't know any more than you do about why everyone is so rude to you. Ignore them if you can't convince them to be friends."

Naruto grinned bravely and gratefully took his lunch from her before she ruffled his hair and left for work.

The chuunin instructors encouraged the parents to leave as they herded their new charges towards the doors. Forced again to stand in neat columns and rows, the children waited to be called forward with the rest of their class so they could follow their sensei into their classroom. There were to be three first year classes this year as there were exactly ninety students registered. All four boys had enough "luck" on their side that they all ended up in the same class. They followed their sensei, Iruka, into a rather nondescript classroom with the other twenty-six students and quickly snagged two double desks in the center column in the room, Chouji and Shikamaru in front of Naruto and Sasuke.

Riko had gotten her victim wrong. Kids behind Sasuke recognized his clan device on the back of his shirt and began whispering about his potential abilities rudely. Sasuke was just about to start sulking and glaring when Chouji pulled out a bag of chips to share. The food and Naruto's absurd antics helped distract Sasuke from his admirers until Iruka-sensei started handing out the standard note taking supplies.

"Again, let me welcome you to the Academy. I will be your in-class instructor, which means that I will be teaching you all of your lecture material. In the afternoons, girls and boys will split into separate groups to meet with the shinobi and kunoichi instructors for more specific training. Lunch is at noon and school ends at four. Now, please prepare to take some notes down.

"We will begin our studies with the ninja rules, tactics, and guidelines. As you can see, there are enough to fill every page of this thick book, but we will only be expecting you to know the first forty this year…"

And so began their first day as Academy students. As expected, Shikamaru settled his head on his arms and started snoozing, only half-listening to absorb any material they hadn't covered since October. All four boys had already eagerly (some more so than others) memorized the first sixty ninja rules. Learning that they were only expected to know forty was a disappointment. Banging his head against his desk as discretely as possible, Naruto knew this was going to be a long year.

As Sasuke obediently scribbled notes next to him, Naruto glanced around the classroom, checking out his classmates. He cringed when he noticed Ino down in the first row on the right. _Mercy!_ He poked Shikamaru, who cringed in turn. They agreed with nods that they would make every effort to avoid getting caught by her.

Shika went back to napping as Naruto continued glancing around. His eyes slid over a dark-haired girl with blank white eyes and spotted a dark-haired boy seated tranquilly near the back. He might have been sleeping for all Naruto knew: his sunglasses made it hard to tell. Considering just how boring Iruka-sensei sounded, Naruto didn't doubt that the boy was sleeping. Naruto seriously considered doing the same.

Lunch was mercifully an hour long. Naruto was first out of the classroom, leading the way to a swing he had noted earlier. Shikamaru sprawled in the shade of the tree and watched the clouds while Sasuke and Chouji ate. So far, the general opinion was that class was going to be a snap so long as they could stay awake. Sitting in a desk for four hours straight was going to be torture.

The afternoon was slightly better. They were taken outside by another instructor to a practice yard and given a quick lesson on throwing shuriken. They were then shown multiple large target circles painted on a long wooden wall and given twenty shuriken each. "Start about two metres from the wall and keep throwing until you can get them all within the circle. When you can do that, then you may take one step back and keep going."

Sasuke was by far the best in the class. Determined to excel, he quickly managed to move back to four metres before he started to stray out of the circle. Shikamaru threw half-heartedly beside him with Chouji struggling next to him. Naruto was on Sasuke's other side and wasn't doing anything just yet. The instructor shouted at him before moving on to congratulate Sasuke, push Shikamaru on, and help Chouji with his aim.

"These shuriken may save your life someday. By the time you get out of the Academy, you should be able to throw one with such good aim that you should be able to intercept any projectiles that are heading for you. Training hard now will save your life later," the chuunin called, showing Chouji how he was flicking his elbow in a way that skewed his aim.

After the instructor moved on, Chouji turned to watch Sasuke and Naruto. "Hey, aren't you going to practice?"

Naruto shot him a grin and threw one of the stars. It landed several inches inside the painted line. "Yeah, I just felt weird for a second. I thought I could hear this girl going on about a huge forehead on the wind."

"But all the girls went with the woman to the field beyond those trees to learn about kunoichi stuff."

"Yeah, I know. That's why I thought it was weird."

All three of Naruto's friends were paying attention now. They shared worried looks before Sasuke decided to take things in hand. "Maybe it was your imagination. Anyway, we should get to practicing."

* * *

"Sasuke, what's wrong?" Riko-nee asked when they all met up at the apartment after school and work the next day.

"Itachi-ani got into ANBU. Otousan was really proud," he muttered, keeping his gaze on the floor. "At supper, Kaasan and Otousan started arguing about if I should be allowed to see you guys. It was kind of scary until Aniki stepped in. He said that if Otousan didn't let me keep playing with you guys, then he would have to quit ANBU to make sure that I didn't get lonely. Otousan stopped saying that I had to stay away after that."

"I'm sorry. This is probably my fault. If I hadn't lost my temper with your father yesterday, then he may never have found out about all of this. He does work all day, after all. If I had stayed away from him and had let you go to him, as you wanted to, he would have never seen you with us. I didn't know that your mother hadn't told him though."

"I didn't know either," Sasuke admitted. "I thought Kaasan told him everything."

Riko walked over to the window, gazing out quietly over the city. Her mouth was in a straight line, but Naruto could tell that she was almost sad about something. The way her eyes were focused on the ground outside rather than the skyline and the way her hands were loosely clenched gave it away.

"Sis?" Naruto asked anxiously.

She shrugged, as though brushing off a fly, and turned to face them. "Sometimes parents keep secrets from one another. Usually they are profound secrets that they hold deep inside themselves because they are embarrassing or potentially dangerous. All people have a couple of them. People that truly love each other will trust each other with these secrets." She paused here and her fists clenched before she brightened. "I am sure that your parents have done this, Sasuke. Your father is the kind of person that wants to know everything that goes on his own house. He is the head of your family, right?"

"Aren't fathers always the head of the family?" Sasuke asked.

"Nope," Shika grumbled, "my dad's whipped. My mom's in charge of everything."

"Yes, my mother was also the head of my family. My father was too absorbed in his books to take charge of everything. He usually deferred to her," Riko said. "Anyway, it's obvious that your mother has allowed him to be head of the family. After all, your mother is a topnotch jounin: the Hokage told me so. Your mother was a first-rate kunoichi before she retired to have children and become a housewife. I think she was even better than your father was. Rumour has it that she was in ANBU for a couple years."

Sasuke's eyes were as wide as his friends' were. "My mom was in ANBU?"

Naruto almost rolled his eyes; now Sasuke would never shut up about it.

Riko nodded. "Jaguar-san told me it was common knowledge for a couple months just after she joined."

"Why did she drop out?"

"I don't know," Riko admitted a little sheepishly. "You'll have to ask her. Be careful when you do. If she hasn't told you about this herself, there is probably not a happy reason behind it."

* * *

Sasuke bobbed his head absently in assent as he carefully considered what this meant. "I wonder if Aniki knows."

Nariko shrugged again, glad that Sasuke was out of his funk. "So, how was the Academy on your second day?"

"Iruka-sensei's lectures are really boring. We have to sit around for four hours!" Naruto complained. "He doesn't even give us breaks to stretch our legs, dattebayo! Even all the girls in class were annoyed."

Nariko was tempted to snort at how Naruto used the girls as a gauge for just how bad a situation was. "Have any of you thought about _why_ he may be trying your tolerance like this?" That got their attention.

Shikamaru figured it out. "He's testing our patience and our ability to pay attention when things seem dull. He's forcing us to become patient or we fail the first year exams."

Nariko nodded, glad Jaguar had casually joked about how plagued the itty-bitty students were going to be. The agent had thought it was hilarious that such a passive technique would be a deciding factor in passing on to second year. "So he's already weeding you guys out. What are you going to do?"

"Chouji had a great idea yesterday, dattebayo," Naruto explained as Chouji flushed red. "We're going to take turns paying attention and taking notes, one of us each day. The rest of us can read his notes and copy them. Hey, would you help us study them later?"

Nariko grabbed the leverage. "I don't know anything about being a shinobi, but I can help you study the material if you take it down properly every day. In return for this, you are all going to practice math for an hour before our study sessions."

All the boys groaned.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Trapping Ten Swords

Naruto's feet padded on the cold floor. The gloom of the hallway melted away as Naruto cautiously pushed open Neechan's door. She was sitting on her futon, writing another letter. Naruto figured this one was for her cousin Shiro. She wrote to him the most. She said it was because he needed to gossip more than chickens did. Naruto wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but Shiro-oniisan sounded pretty cool otherwise. He was the one that had made their table. Worried about getting in trouble for being out of bed so late, he hunched when she spotted him. "What's the matter?"

"Sasuke said that I should tell you." Naruto had thought it would be stupid to mention something the rest of them thought he was imagining, but Sasuke had insisted because he was a butthead.

"Tell me what?"

"About these weird things that have been happening."

She patted the space on the bed beside her. "Come here and tell me about it."

He raced over as she put away her letter. "Yesterday while I was practicing with shuriken, I thought I heard some girls talking, but all the girls were in the far field learning from their kunoichi teacher. I thought it was just my imagination, like Sasuke said, but last night I could hear people talking out in the streets. I didn't used to hear them that way, or at least I don't think I did. Today it was the same. I could hear what the other instructors were talking to their classes about if I tried."

* * *

Dread coiled in Nariko's gut. She carefully looked over his whisker marks to see if they had become any darker as the Sandaime had instructed. They hadn't, but that didn't confirm anything. She ordered him to take off his shirt and studied the area around his bellybutton. "I want you to try and hear things on the street right now. Ignore me."

As Naruto concentrated, a seal gradually appeared around his navel.

She bit her lip and forcibly schooled her face into a calm expression. If she panicked, he would too. "I think I know what's going on, but I have to check with the Sandaime to be sure. Maybe all those pranks you've pulled are paying off. I'll have a definite answer for you after school tomorrow, okay?"

Obviously not really satisfied, but accepting that she wouldn't tell him anything else, Naruto went to bed.

* * *

Taking notes was difficult if only because Naruto only knew how to scribble down half the words Iruka-sensei kept saying. _How the heck was he supposed to do this when he was still learning to write and spell? _Without options, he clumsily made scratch marks sounding out the words and drew pictures that he hoped would help him remember what the heck Iruka-sensei had been talking about.

"It is in a shinobi's best interest to obey these rules. They can keep a good shinobi alive. The rule concerning emotions is especially important. 'A good shinobi must never show emotion.' Always remember that. Emotions can and will be used against you and can cloud your judgement…"

Iruka lectured in almost a monotone, lulling many of his students to sleep. Naruto had to pinch himself sporadically to avoid the same fate. Sasuke, Chouji, and Shika would kill him if he failed here.

How on earth was he supposed to represent what Sensei had just said so quickly though?_ How did you draw rules or emotions?_ Desperate, he glared as hard as he could at the book lying open on Iruka-sensei's desk, trying to match the upside-down image with the layout of his textbook. When he finally got near the section they had covered yesterday, he slowed down the frantic page flipping and found a potential match. When Iruka finally turned his page, Naruto did the same and was relieved to note that the match was true. He bookmarked the page and made a mental note to make Riko help him decipher it later.

His friends were less than pleased at lunch when they looked over his notes. Like Naruto, perhaps they had expected something like the neatly printed textbook, just less austere. Naruto's characters were a far cry from the consistent ones in books. "How are we supposed to read that?" Sasuke grumbled, glaring at the messy pages.

Naruto glared at him. "You try writing then, Bum. It's no fun."

Shikamaru sighed and Chouji ducked his head, probably feeling guilty since this had been his idea. Sasuke copied the entire set while the other two boys only copied what they thought was important and comprehensible. A boy with scraggly brown hair and red marks on his face in one of the other classes walked over and hunkered down to watch them. They stared at him.

"I'm Kiba." Sasuke grudgingly led them in introducing themselves. "I overheard you guys the other day," he told them, "about the notes and how boring classes are."

"Yeah?" Shika drawled, leaning back against the tree. "What about it?"

"I want in."

They all blinked at him.

"Let me see what notes you guys have." Naruto cautiously passed his pages over, and Kiba frowned at them and nodded. "Yup, this is what we did today too. They say that the classes are all the same right now for everybody: boring."

"You're in a different class," Shika said, his brow slightly furrowed.

"We covered the exact same stuff today," Kiba insisted, scowling down at the Nara. "I can take notes one day and prove that we're covering the exact same stuff."

The four boys traded glances as Kiba waited impatiently for their answer. All of them agreed. It would be good to have another person take a turn. That meant four days to sleep rather than just three.

"Sounds good," Naruto said, glad since he would be the first to be able to wait four days. "If you can prove it tomorrow, you're in."

Kiba grinned, joined their circle, and copied Naruto's notes while the others relaxed and interrupted him with questions sporadically. This Kiba guy was sort of strange looking with those red fang-like marks on his face. He told them that he was an Inuzuka (whatever that was) and that he was going to get his first hound if he got through two years at the Academy. His mother had promised. The promise of a dog in their circle made them welcome him with open arms, so to speak. None of them had any pets: Shika had deer, but they couldn't play with them. A dog in their midst would be awesome!

"Did you talk to Riko-san about _it_?" Sasuke said.

Everyone except Kiba (who wasn't really paying attention, immersed as he was in deciphering Naruto's mind-boggling scribbles) tensed as they waited for his answer: Shikamaru's eyes flicked away from his clouds and Chouji began stuffing his face at an even faster pace.

"Yeah; she said she wasn't sure. She's gonna ask Old Man about it today after work. She thinks it's because of the training."

"Pranks don't count as training," Sasuke said.

Kiba glanced up at them, looking quite confused.

Shika shrugged and explained. "Stupid here likes to get on peoples' nerves. He thinks it will help him survive in the long run."

Kiba snorted, and Naruto stuck his tongue out. "Why don't you try it sometime, oh enthusiastic lazy bum and sourpuss?" he grumbled, scowling at Shika for describing his actions in such unflattering terms.

Sasuke, said unappreciative sourpuss, muttered something about not wanting to get in even more trouble with his father. Everyone wisely moved to lighter topics after that until Daikoku-sensei (dubbed Toady-san because of Neechan's comments) had them run laps during the afternoon's practical lessons.

* * *

The Hokage was peering intently into a crystal ball that flickered with images of various scenes about the village when Nariko entered. "I saw you coming," he rasped, his throat dried out from concentrating for so long. He nodded his thanks when she poured him a glass of water from a pitcher on a side table and handed it to him. "Now, what was it that you needed to see me about?"

"It's about Naruto." She always felt like an open book in front of him. It got annoying. When they were on even footing, then she would be content.

"Ah. What seems to be the problem?"

She explained what her brother had told her the night before. "When I asked him to concentrate on listening, that seal you drew for me appeared gradually on his belly. Does this mean what I think it does?"

"That he is channelling chakra, apparently to his ears?" His calm response reassured her more than anything else did. She trusted him not to lie to her with his voice, even though she knew it was too much to hope for that he not lie to her with his words. He was the leader of the village's shinobi; he would have to lie to protect his people. "Yes, it does seem to be that. As chakra is not visible unless it accumulates outside the body in high concentrations, you and I will not be able to tell if it is the Kyuubi's chakra or if it is his own. I'll see if I can convince a Hyuuga to take a look at him. The seal was always intended to purify and allow Naruto access to the Kyuubi's chakra. It is almost inevitable that he will inherit some of Kyuubi's characteristics, such as those elongated canines of his. This will be our first chance to see if the seal is working correctly."

"Who are these Hyuuga?" She was still so painfully in the dark.

"Oh, they are another of Konoha's major clans. They have a kekkei genkai just like the Sharingan. It can see into the inner coils of a person and observe their chakra flow. A normal person's chakra is always a specific colour according to the Hyuuga, except when moulded into very specific alternate forms. If Naruto's chakra is still that colour, then we have nothing to fear."

"When can I expect the Hyuuga?"

"I'll just send one by while Naruto is at the Academy to observe them while they train. One usually goes by during the first month to assess the need to begin teaching focusing techniques to those that are already unconsciously mixing and using their chakra."

"All right then, thank you for your time." She was just about to get up and leave when the Hokage cleared his throat.

"Nariko-san, is everything all right?" Curious about his meaning, Nariko stayed in her seat. "Your outburst at the ceremony surprised me. I was just wondering if everything is going all right." He nodded at the bruise on her jaw.

She ran nervous fingers over the swollen area. Reading people was not like reading books. Books didn't try to hide their contents from her. "It's not anything truly important…"

"That is all right. I made a point of always trying to be available to Naruto. He could not see me often, but when he did come, I tried to make some time for him. He now has you, but I wonder whom you have? The villagers are not especially kind to those that defy them and you have committed quite an aggravating act in their eyes." He leaned forwards slightly and rested his bearded chin on his folded hands, which were marred with just as many wrinkles and liver spots as his face was. The way he moved them slowly and carefully told her that he was starting to get arthritis in the joints; her grandmother had done the same thing.

"My clan," she insisted without thinking.

"But they aren't here and cannot do much to help you."

"Yes, there is that." Being cut off from her source of stability was painful. The Sandaime was a poor substitute for her family's unconditional support. He probably had a thousand more important things to do than talk to her. However, it would be nice to vent just a bit and she needed to get something off her mind. "Things seem to be more expensive the moment I come around. Things are not especially pleasant between my colleagues and me either, but I am more worried about something else."

"And what is that?"

"I have concerns about Uchiha Itachi." There, she had said it. She had wondered so many times if she should have gone and told him before, but she had never quite worked up the nerve. Itachi was just a boy. It didn't seem quite possible to her that he would do something too bad, but then Sasuke had told her he had gotten into ANBU and things had just started gnawing at her again.

"Ah, yes, the new ANBU operative."

"I fear that not all is right in that household. Itachi may not be mentally sound." She wasn't entirely happy with her wording, but it would have to do. She couldn't think of a more tactful way of putting her fears.

"You need to understand that most ninja are not. Little more than six years ago, we had genin going out to do battle in war zones, some only six years old. Ninja are not meant to be stable and happy people. That is a luxury that only civilians can enjoy."

"Maybe so, but Itachi-san does not seem to be able to distinguish between his job and his life outside of it." She had finally figured something out about that boy though: he really did love his brother. He was protecting Sasuke from something: be it from disappointment over their father's dismissal or getting cut off from his friends, Itachi usually managed to swing things in Sasuke's favour.

"Few ninja have such distinctions."

Now that worried her. If everything were a mission, then everyone that wasn't an ally would be a target. That almost black and white viewpoint the books had insisted upon for missions disturbed her. Every "target" that made a wrong move would be likely to get a kunai in the throat.

"Well, they should. I've read your book of rules. 'A ninja must never show emotion.' People need to show emotion; how else can they function? If ninja don't have private lives in which they can unwind and actually show what they have to keep bottled up inside on the battlefield, then there are going to be some serious repercussions." She had no doubt that if the Sandaime hadn't viewed her opinion as almost inconsequential, she would have gotten severely reprimanded for voicing her views so rudely. She had never truly appreciated her insignificance as much as she did with her hasty words hovering in the air between them.

"You think that Itachi will be the one to show me this." His quiet reply worried her. _Was he going to rake her over the coals?_

Well, she was already in deep crud. _Why not sink a bit deeper?_ "Yes, I have a terrible feeling that he is slowly becoming more and more twisted inside."

The Hokage stood up and walked over to look out his large windows onto the village and at the Hokage Monument. "What you are saying is not new to me. I have seen it before, and the Yondaime saw it in his students. Actually, he was writing up the new Academy curriculum—which Naruto and his friends will go through—before Kyuubi attacked. He was unable to finish it. I did so just recently, which is why Itachi was able to graduate in only one year. He never had to go through the years of careful mental conditioning and testing that Naruto will. He was never truly taught how to deal with his job on an emotional level, which is what Naruto will be learning. Itachi was just taught to kill and to kill well.

"It has occurred to me that many of my older ninja who have not learnt to deal with the trauma may snap someday. It usually occurs at the chuunin level. They often get some subordinate involved and will try to foist all their pain upon their usually thoroughly duped partner in crime, which of course causes the anguish to simply double as both are now victim to it."

Resting his palm against the glass, he gazed at the Fourth's face. "The Yondaime also saw this problem. He had such promising plans on how to deal with it. That was one of the reasons I chose him over my own student to become Hokage. He had the will and the energy to see things through, unlike me."

Nariko immediately saw what he was getting at. "You want a successor. You want to go back into retirement." Why he had allowed her to see this worried her though. He was far too crafty. _What did he see that she was blind to?_

"Yes, that is my hope. I am very old and very tired. I am afraid that I am not as able to defend the village as I used to be. I am more experienced than ever, but I lack the energy to do anything with that experience. I would be better off as a councillor at this point." _What could make him so uncertain?_ Her lack of knowledge frightened her, but she didn't dare to ask questions about what sounded like political backtalk.

"Who would you choose to take your place now?"

"I do not know."

'_Lies_,' something in her whispered. He knew exactly where he was going with this. She would play along because she had no other choice.

"I have long wanted one of my students to succeed me, but…" He sighed a shook his head. She didn't like this. _He was leading her on, but to where?_

"I had a three-man team of genin students a long time ago: Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru. They are called the Legendary Sannin now, a name given to them in a battle about twenty-five years ago. They were once the strongest team the world had ever seen, but dissention and betrayal has torn them apart. Only one remains in loyal service to Konoha now. Jiraiya calls himself the Toad Hermit, a name he uses in reference to his summoning contract with the creatures."

The specifics of this new terminology went over her head, but she kept her mouth shut because of her impatience.

"Jiraiya is away from the village for the most part since he has impressive skills in gathering useful information. I would ask him to take my place, but he would refuse. He has made it his duty to track down my wayward student, the traitor Orochimaru. I once considered the latter for the position of Yondaime, but his lack of care towards the village convinced me that he was not a suitable choice. I later found out how little I knew of my own student."

The Sandaime resettled himself behind his desk. "I tell you this because it is fairly common knowledge around the village. Do not think that I would burden you with ninja secrets that would threaten your safety. Orochimaru was found to be responsible for the disappearance of almost two hundred citizens, both ninja and civilian. We found his hideout in the sewers. It was the most horrible thing I had ever seen."

That alone convinced her that Orochimaru was beyond twisted. The Sandaime had probably witnessed hundreds of gruesome scenes in his reign and during his time in the field before he had become Hokage. He had lived through numerous wars Fire had gotten involved in as well as the foreign disputes that Konoha had probably been hired to participate in. He would know the meaning of horrible. She could not even begin to comprehend what it must have been like even when he gave a little (and probably very sanitized) description.

"I made a mistake then," the Sandaime admitted, appearing far older than he had a moment ago. "I let Orochimaru flee. I let him leave the village to wreak havoc elsewhere so I could save my illusion that he would see the error of his ways. It seems that I am now doomed to hear about his activities until I die. Jiraiya sends me monthly reports on his unsavoury doings."

He scrubbed tiredly at his eyes and Nariko was filled with a horrible feeling: pity. She hated pity; it was the lesser cousin of sympathy and compassion. Pity implied that she was detached and stationed somewhere above his pain. She forced the unsavoury emotion away and pulled up the more appropriate compassion by relating to his situation to the best of her ability. It was hard. She had lived so little compared to this man. She couldn't even truly begin to relate. No wonder he always looked at her as though she was some naïve child spouting nonsense around him.

"My last hope of a successor is my last student, Tsunade. She has the heritage, but lacks the will. Terrible things happened in the past that centred on the desire of those close to her to become Hokage. She has a necklace from her grandfather, you see. She gave it to both of those people as a good luck symbol and they both ended up dead shortly afterwards. She has left Konoha as well, but only to get away from the memory of her younger brother and her lover."

Something in his manner told her that he was getting to where he wanted to be. "You think she is your best chance."

"Yes, if she could be convinced. I would, but I appear to be lacking."

_Ah…_ _What did this have to do with her though?_

"She is well able to protect this village. She once held Konoha high in her heart. She has become apathetic though. She is currently travelling the nation, squandering her inheritance on alcohol and gambling."

Nariko could tell that the Hokage was holding out on her. "You are somehow at fault, aren't you?"

The Hokage merely raised a brow at her, a little amused at her accusation.

Shrugging, she explained herself. "You let it slip with that comment about how you would not be very convincing. That is a lie. We both know that you can be very convincing when you want to be. You would not have lasted long as Hokage if you were not."

She really hoped that he would humour her. She really needed to check that filter between her brain and her mouth; Naruto must have been tampering with it. She almost sighed with relief when the Hokage looked even more amused at her claim.

"Tsunade feels that my rejection of one of her proposals was a factor that contributed to Dan's death. She had wanted to change the formation of ninja three-man teams to include a medic. We were in the middle of a war, so I had to reject her suggestion at the time. The sad thing is that she was the medic-nin on Dan's mission. That mission was one of the first I allowed to go out as the four-man team she was pushing for. Dan died in her arms from a chest and gut wound that she couldn't close in time to prevent extreme blood loss."

"So, you want her for Hokage? This bitter drunk with a gambling problem is the one you want as Hokage?"

Sighing at her tone, the Sandaime nodded.

"What are you going to do, then?" she asked briskly.

He blinked at her slowly, perhaps astonished by her faith in him. "I must admit that I don't know what to do." _Perhaps not. _He was still pushing for something, she noted.

"Well, I wish you luck. I am at your service if you require anything. I have to go: Naruto will be waiting for the verdict."

"Yes, of course." The Hokage's eyes crinkled slightly with laughter she couldn't quite comprehend the cause of. _What had she done? Why had he stopped pushing?_ "Thank you again for coming."

Suppressing her bafflement, she accepted his clear dismissal. "Of course, Hokage-sama; thank you for relieving my mind."

* * *

Eighteen months later, Nariko found herself in front of the Hokage. He was smiling, something that both reassured and frightened her. The leer the white-haired man by the Sandaime's desk was sending her way was not reassuring. Nervousness made a thin coating of sweat form over her palms, which she discretely rubbed away on her pants. She suddenly understood why the girls Shiro had chased after in his youth had run away from him in disgust. It was a peculiar feeling considering how she had resented how sad their actions had made her cousin before. Empathy came at the strangest moments.

"Nariko-san, I am glad that you could make it. I had feared that the accounting agency would send someone else. You see, I didn't specifically request you, but I had hoped that you would be the one they would send."

_Huh, that was interesting._ There were better people at the agency than her; perhaps not as patient since their efficiency came with a price, but they were better at churning out the numbers her boss required. Ii-san was still quite furious with how the Hokage was interfering with her employment state: he wasn't a man that welcomed intrusion of the Sandaime's sort. Since the Sandaime was unassailable, Ii-san had probably sent her just to get a strange sense of revenge. Her gut feeling said that he was going to be gloating soon enough. Her gut often seemed to know more than she did (perhaps because it had managed to churn its way through more crap than her brain had in her lifetime—her father could not cook, but liked to pretend he could), so her confidence plummeted.

"Well, it seems that your hopes have borne fruit. What is it you require of me?" _Didn't he have people with her skills under him? _She was sure he had to. _Why had he called for her?_

The Hokage was just about to comment on that when the strange man at his side cleared his throat. The Sandaime coughed and revised what he was going to say. "Let me introduce you to one of my students. This is Jiraiya, the Toad Hermit. I think I should mention that he is also something of a writer."

She bowed carefully in response to Jiraiya's polite motion. Something about this man's gaze just screamed _lewd_ and made her feel dirty.

"It is wonderful to meet a woman as pretty as you."

She gaped; she couldn't help it. _Okay, this guy was beyond creepy. _She had no illusions about the set of features nature and genetics had dealt her. He was lying through his teeth and using outdated pickup lines. Her respect for him dropped thirty points. "You're a pervert, aren't you?"

She was a little disconcerted when he didn't even blink at her accusation.

"No, I'm actually a super-pervert," he explained cheerfully.

Well, at least he wasn't ashamed of it, though Nariko wasn't actually sure if that was a good thing or not. This guy was never going to be introduced to Shiro if she could help it. Those books her cousin read had done enough damage. Meeting this man would just compound the problem. "Good for you."

Sarutobi-sama quickly cleared his throat. "I was hoping that you would be willing to take on a mission for me."

"It depends upon what sort of work I will be required to do," she prevaricated, having no desire to get caught up in shinobi affairs that would get her killed. She had already done more than enough meddling in dodgy ninja matters by taking on Naruto, not that she regretted it. Her execution had been lacking though. She would not run blindly into things again.

"I am afraid that it is quite difficult work that may require you to leave Konoha on occasion, though we shall make every effort to avoid this. You see, I've been trying to re-establish communication with Tsunade. So far, she has proven quite resistant. It may take five or six years before she agrees to my proposal. I was hoping that you could help me convince her."

_Oh boy, promises were coming back to bite her in the ass. Damn her loose tongue._ "It doesn't sound too dangerous."

"It's not, though it will be tedious and time consuming, but only a side job alongside your regular duties. You see, Tsunade seems to have run out of money about four years ago. She has been acquiring loans under different aliases and losing all the money betting. What I want you to do is sort out her debt. She cannot keep running forever. If you can untangle the mess and present a plan for balancing Tsunade's budget within a reasonable period, we may be able to convince her take my place. Jiraiya here has refused, as I expected."

Nariko gulped at the thought of just how much debt one woman could have run up if her luck was as bad as the Hokage had said. However, she was obligated to try: Ii-san would hardly let her back out gracefully at this point. She could only nod woodenly.

"Good," Sarutobi-sama said, the relief evident in his voice. "None of my staff that takes care of the financial matters for the village were willing to take this on. Now, because Tsunade is beyond our reach right now and you cannot travel, Jiraiya here will gather the data needed while he tours the land. He will be sending you any numbers he manages to dig up for you to process, along with current interest rates on what Tsunade owes. I'll be expecting updates every two months."

"That's quite a long time between updates."

"Yes, but gathering the data may be slow. Jiraiya has many demands upon his time. Now, if you will excuse me, I have papers that need reviewing. There is a chuunin exam being held in Grass Country next month, and I need to make preparations for the participants from our village. Perhaps you two should go discuss what Nariko-san needs at her home."

Jiraiya seemed to hear the same curious note of amusement in Sarutobi-sama's voice that Nariko did because he looked just as puzzled. Shrugging, she led the way.

Once they were out in the streets, Jiraiya began interrogating her. "I am sure I would remember a face as pretty as yours; you haven't been in Konoha long, have you?"

_Gods, that was annoying._ This man was old and was probably very stuck in his ways. Nothing she said to him would make an impression, so she bit her tongue on her potentially scathing retort and toned it down quite a bit. "Not really, I only moved here little more than two years ago now that I think about it. Please stop trying to flatter me. Straight out, I will tell you that you are more than twice my age: I'm only twenty-three this year. I am not interested and I never will be."

She bit back the rest of the comment, which had ranted on about dirty, lying, obsequious, old perverts that really needed to come up with new ways to address anything female. Calm and polite was the way to go; she would not be like her mother. Her father would have responded with calm. Her mother would have spanked this man with a wooden spoon to make up for the beatings he surely must have wheedled his way out of as a child.

Naruto really had no idea how lucky he was that her worst punishment was twisting his ear.

* * *

"Ah, you wound me!" he cried dramatically, seeing the apologetic glint in her eyes belying her blunt words. He had to wonder what he had done to offend her so badly when he was desperately twisting words to try to flatter her into being less of a ramrod. He revised his noun choice: ramrod implied weight she didn't have, senbon's implications fit her better. She was definitely needled. He chuckled at his puns and brushed off her suspicious look.

"I'm sure," she drawled, unconvinced. "Considering your reaction and your perverted nature, you must have been shot down at least six times before."

"How can you tell?" he asked her, almost pathetic in his disappointment. His kicked puppy expression made her roll her eyes as she led the way up to her level of the apartment building.

The contrast of this dim stairwell and the bright outdoors made it seem grimmer than it actually was. As his eyes adjusted, the little touches—the copies of famous photos and paintings, the peach walls, and the faded golden brown carpet—gave this ill-lit space a feeling of warmth, which tided him over against the coldness of the accountant. He hoped that this meeting ended quickly. She still had yet to laugh or even crack a smile at any of his witticisms.

"My older cousin was the same way. Shiro was a little too forward for the liking of the village girls, so he got shot down a lot. As a result, he became quite perverted until all of his younger cousins ganged up on him and beat it out of him with the help of his parents."

Jiraiya sighed at the vindictive glee in her voice; she was _that_ sort, huh? He glanced at her when she hesitated. Spotting what she was glaring at, he noted that someone had charcoaled the kanji for "demon" on the wooden door before she rubbed the mark away. He wondered what that was about as she unlocked her apartment door and set to making tea. She studiously ignored him, silently telling him that she would not answer his questions about the mark. Her "good mood" had obviously disappeared. Maybe it had been a while for her… He wouldn't have been surprised at all.

Jiraiya carefully assessed his surroundings. The apartment was fairly traditional and large, save for the modern appliances. As far as he could tell, two people constantly lived in this place and various others that were often in and out. Most of them seemed to be Academy students; he could tell from the beginner guides to shinobi tactics, weapons, methods, and jutsu scattered about the living room and stacked up on the strange dining table.

He had no idea why there was a hole in the centre of that table; it seemed a little silly, but it was probably an artistic touch considering the carvings winding up and down its legs. The chairs appeared to be made by the same artisan because the same hand could be seen in the carvings along the backs. A desk that again seemed to be the work of the same carpenter was pushed up against the wall near the door. It was piled with papers and folders of all sorts, though strangely enough there was a wooden fox and a stone hawk lying on top of one of the stacks. The Academy students must have left those there because he couldn't see the killjoy playing with statues.

He glanced back at the accountant, assessing her again. No, he would not be basing a character in his books off of her. Just as Sarutobi-sensei had described, she was a civilian woman with no talent for fighting and a blunt way of speaking when she was upset. He wouldn't have been surprised if he lost her in a busy street.

She set out seven cups and poured tea into two of them, still obviously upset about that mark. "The boys will be here soon. It is already four thirty. They'll want to meet you, I think."

Something about the imminent invasion amused her. Concealing his nervousness at the sudden revelation of a sense of humour, he began asking questions. "What sort of information do you need me to find for you?" His business demeanour seemed to reassure her, as his jesting hadn't. He resisted the urge to sigh. She was a workaholic. This wasn't going to be fun. He was going to have to put aside some of his research time to actually do some work. He wanted to whine. He damned Sarutobi-sensei for dragging him into this; he had a publishing deadline to meet!

"Well, I need the contact information of anyone that Tsunade-sama owes money to. I also need a copy of the terms of each loan so I can look for any loopholes and try to determine if the interest rate will have changed over time. With the copy of the loan documents, I would like some details of what she did with that money. Though the chances are slim, it may be possible that she spent some of the money on useful things. I can try to get those reimbursed for her because of her status as a Konoha shinobi if Sandaime agrees to allow her absence to be written off as some obscure mission. Maybe she was working on some technique or she was teaching someone?"

_Huh, so maybe she wasn't totally clueless about ninja._ "Yeah, I could come up with something like that." He could fabricate if necessary. It wouldn't be hard, though Tsunade would punch his guts through his spine if she found out.

He whimpered at the thought of that pain and rubbed at his abdomen, remembering the last time she had done something like that. He had almost died… Nariko stared at him. It took her a couple seconds to regain her aplomb. He didn't help her: there was no way he was explaining this. She would probably sympathize with Tsunade rather than him.

"That's good. I will also need you to look into her gambling habits. See if she left any debts at gaming houses. I'll need those too if we are to convince her. The sheer amount of money she must owe will have to be big enough to force her to come back."

"I know. It shouldn't be too hard. What will be hard is the part where I have to track her down. I can do it though. She always likes to pretend to be younger than she is. Luckily, I have pictures of her from the time she was six to the time she turned about thirty. I'll be able to follow her trail. Another difficult job will be securing the funds to actually pay off her debts from Konoha."

'See,' he wanted to say, 'I can be serious too, you know.' She would have just blinked at him though. He really wanted to pout. _Why wasn't anyone ever sympathetic towards old super-perverts?_

"I have some experience with this kind of situation. It will be difficult, but I should be able to come up with something. She will be Hokage. I can work with those assets."

_Well, at least she had experience in one area…_ He stifled the urge to laugh. Seriously, he had thought that southerners were more laidback.

His thoughts were interrupted when the door burst open and a quintet of boys tumbled in. Three of them immediately surrounded Nariko-san, gabbing on about how horrible their day had been while the fourth, with the fifth with a white dog in tow, ambled over to the table and poured some tea for himself and the feral-looking boy, waiting for his friends to calm down.

Jiraiya's attention wasn't caught by the laidback boy, but instead by the blur of golden hair that had once been so familiar that it caused his chest to ache. The blue eyes that peaked out from underneath the wayward bangs were also hauntingly familiar. He felt as though he were looking at his old student. The kid was clinging to Nariko-san as he bounced up and down, explaining the horrible concentration exercise that an Iruka-sensei had made them do. This explained the mark.

With a couple shouted commands, she managed to get the lot of them settled around the table. "Now, I want you all to introduce yourself to Jiraiya-sama. Kiba, you start."

It turned out that Uchiha arrogance was genetic, as was Nara apathy. Jiraiya didn't test for the Akimichi and Inuzuka tendency towards short temperedness.

"And I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage, dattebayo!" Rolling her eyes and grinning, the former icy needle ruffled the Uzumaki's hair. The motion revealed to Jiraiya just why Sarutobi-sensei had seemed amused. Damned old geezer must have been counting on Naruto showing up like this. At least Jiraiya didn't have to worry and feel guilty about that anymore.

"I am pleased to meet all of you brats," he announced grandly, rising out of his seat and striking his usual pose. It was essential that he properly introduce himself to these impressionable squirts. "I am the Legendary Sannin Jiraiya, wooer of women, saviour of children—"

He was seriously annoyed when Nariko-san coughed and cut him off. He couldn't stop the pout this time even though the boys were watching curiously. _Why wouldn't anybody let him finish his routine?_

"Anyway, this is Jiraiya-sama. He will be gathering information for me so I can do an assignment for the Sandaime."

"You got a mission from the Old Man?" Naruto pouted and scowled at killjoy, who laughed. _What the heck did that kid do to her?_

"I thought only ninja got assigned missions by the Hokage," Kiba said, frowning at the accountant jealously.

"Yes, and yes, ninja are usually the only ones. However, I did promise the Hokage last year that I would help him in any way I could. He just decided to make me keep that promise now."

"Oh, I see," the Inuzuka said, turning back to more interesting things, namely his pup and the food in the fridge.

"Hey, hey, are you a really strong ninja?" Naruto asked.

"Of course I am," Jiraiya bragged. He felt he was entitled to. Not every ninja could claim that he was one of the Sannin. "Only Konoha-nin are allowed to wear the sign of the Leaf on their foreheads. I have outgrown that marker. My name is known far and wide, and all know I hail from this most wonderful village." He was gratified by how wide Naruto's eyes went. This kid was almost a carbon copy of his father. It ached a bit.

"He is one of Old Man Hokage's old students," Nariko-san explained. This inspired a lot of awe. Jiraiya found out why Nariko-san had seemed so amused earlier because this revelation led to the quintet pelting him with questions until she let him escape.

* * *

Letters were better than ice cream after this morning's fiasco with the Hokage.

"_Shiro,_

_How does one tell when she is getting in over her head? Tell me that and I will love you forever because I need a foolproof way to recognize the signs. My pathetic intuition never seems to be able to tell…_"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Six Cups Stolen

Naruto didn't notice Sasuke's mom behind him. Hell, he had even forgotten his friends beside him despite the way Kiba was snarling at him to get a move on so they could play Tag at whatever training ground Uchiha-san grudgingly led them to today. She had started escorting them around at Itachi's suggestion after some civilian parents had complained about damage to the playground. Apparently, Old Man expected training grounds to be destroyed and made sure they were repaired all the time, unlike the park.

All Naruto could see was the father shouting at his stunned daughter, waving her report card around before he crumpled it with apparent disgust. The worst thing was that this father wasn't the only one upset with his child.

Naruto clutched his own report, knowing Neechan would be pleased with seventeenth out of seventy-four. "Why are they doing that?"

"Listen," Uchiha-san ordered sharply. She was always sharp with him, but her advice was usually good. "What do they say?"

"… Twenty-third in your year? You shame me, you shame yourself, you shame your uncle killed in Kyuubi's attack…!"

"That she didn't do very well."

Uchiha-san told his friends to run ahead towards Training Ground 21. She kept Naruto in place with a stiff hand. "Look. Listen. Understand. It's not that she didn't do very well." Uchiha-san gestured at all the other children being scolded or given the cold or disappointed shoulder by their parents. "They have all ranked less than seventeenth."

Naruto stared at her, not quite understanding.

"They didn't do as well as you."

* * *

Naruto slouched on his branch and swung his feet as he impatiently waited for the sun to set. He hated how it lingered for so long on the horizon before finally disappearing. Now he could go home.

Coming home after dark was a necessity since he had only just started learning Henge. He couldn't fool ninja, who were only too happy to give him away. Some people weren't very happy with him. Scratch that: a _lot_ of people weren't happy because he wasn't doing badly. It had been like this in first year too. Anger was expressed both in class when the sensei wasn't looking (spitballs and things like that were common) and in the streets (fists became a lot more common than elbows).

He had to wait until after dark because that was when ANBU came out in force to patrol the streets. It was odd how the darkness was safer for him. When he had been younger, dark things hadn't been good: dark alleys had been deathtraps, dark clothes meant danger, and dark smiles meant harm. Now though, darkness meant safety and cover from those that were even darker. Twilight faded as he hesitantly stepped onto the path that led from Training Ground 36 to the edge of the village. There was always the chance that the fringes of the village wouldn't be quite as monitored, but this possibility was blown away by the ANBU arrival.

"Hey, Snake!" he called to the pale mask enhanced with poison green markings floating, bodiless, above the ground. The empty eyeholes bobbed creepily as the agent nodded to him, the cowl concealing gender just as well as the loose clothes. Naruto was pretty sure that Snake was a girl. The white armour was cut higher up on girls; on Snake, it seemed sort of useless since she looked as flat as any guy did. Other than that, there was no way to be sure. Naruto had dubbed her a girl to save himself confusion.

"Naruto-kun," Snake rasped in greeting, approaching him, her concealing, black cloak fluttering. It was weird that she was clad in black; she usually wore a white captain's cloak like Dog's. "Things are not as quiet as we would like, Naruto. I will walk home with you. Our route will have to be a long one. There are very unhappy people out tonight."

A hand concealed within a thick glove emerged, and he gripped it trustingly. "Why can't we just hop home on the roofs?" Anxiety from Snake's odd statements made him whiny.

"It is not a good idea tonight."

"Why though?"

She pointed to the rising moon, which was full and a pale, smoky yellow, making him scowl.

"So what? It's just the stupid moon. It's there almost every night."

"A yellow moon in the spring. Many unhappy people tonight would use its light to guide a knife if we walk the ninja road through the village. Someone is losing power tonight. Any bit of leverage could turn things around. You must be kept out of sight. Trust no other masked ones tonight even if they seem to be in ANBU. There are roots that have become infected in the tree of Konoha."

He stared up at her cowl with wide eyes. _Why was she saying no other ANBU were trustworthy, only her? What was going on?_

He tried to ask for more information, but she kept him moving. She covered his mouth more than once as they hid in streets he had never walked through after dark before and certainly wouldn't have used to get home. They walked in alleys behind bars full of shouting people and bad music, behind restaurants full of bustle and good smells, and behind stores that were locked up for the night and silent. More than once, Naruto was shoved behind a crate to cower as Snake scouted ahead through the flickering shadows in the seedier districts of town. Naruto wondered more and more if she was really taking him home as what felt like hours passed.

"Your sister isn't home," she said when he began complaining. Only extremely petulant whining and a refusal to shut up made her explain further. "She was told to make herself scarce. She too has disappeared into the streets. It pays to be nondescript. Nobody is with her. Moving targets are harder to hit. They won't use her. She isn't worth enough as a bargaining chip to be useful as leverage. She only might have been killed out of spite while they were attempting to get at you."

Snake made him stay quiet again as they walked through the oldest parts of town where the abandoned, rundown buildings made the light patter of his footsteps sound like a cacophony of running feet. Snake was merely a slither of sound after his noise. He was almost growing used to walking around in pointless circles when suddenly she shoved him into an alcove and directed him with a hand to hide behind the trashcans there as her other hand sought something inside her cloak.

Naruto stared as Snake flickered out of existence just when a form flickered in behind her, its long blade slashing through the spot where she had been. The boar mask was traced with red markings. Naruto wasn't quite sure all of the lines were ink.

"Hand over the container," Boar whispered as Snake flickered into existence on the wall above Naruto. "Danzou-sama requires his presence."

"The boy stays with me until this night is through. Ne is no concern of mine."

"Traitor." Naruto shuddered at Boar's lack of emotion. _What was that guy?_

Snake did not bother replying as she disappeared in a blur of motion. Boar spun at the last second and slashed behind him, but a watery tendril wrapped around his neck and tossed him to the ground some distance away so his hit missed. Boar rolled to his feet and boulders punched through the street to fly at Snake, but she was gone.

Water sprayed again, knocking the boulders off course, and wrapped around the earthen dragon that began to rear its head out of the ground. Naruto spotted Snake wiping her blade off on Boar's uniform.

Naruto shuddered at how quickly the battle had gone. Snake had to be pro. He hoped that Boar wasn't dead, but it didn't seem very likely, not with the dark stain growing on his clothes in the light of the yellow moon. Terror filled Naruto. He had never before watched someone die.

"Is he…?" he whispered.

"No. I was commanded to be merciful. Walking will be beyond him unless he is given attention soon."

Naruto wasn't very reassured. It sounded like she had severed Boar's spine. Remembering a conversation from before his first day at the Academy, he stared up at the eyeholes.

"Why do you fight?" he asked in a trembling voice, glancing at Boar's fallen body. He had the feeling that Snake blinked slowly at him from behind her mask, but he wasn't sure.

"Because I like beating people." She held out her hand to him. "Come."

He reluctantly scurried out from behind the garbage cans and grabbed her glove. "Don't you care about the village?"

She shrugged. "This village or another, it hardly matters. For the moment, I have claimed this territory as mine to defend against those that would beat me. Competition is reason. It gives me reason."

"That's pretty cold, dattebayo."

She ignored him until they were back in the more populated areas where there was enough noise to cover her voiceless whisper. "It hardly matters."

He scowled at her, but she talked no more that night, at least not to him. He didn't like how ruthless she was. He would fight for the village, and he would protect it. He wouldn't be like her and Itachi.

Six more agents caught up with them as the hours passed. Four of them met the same end as Boar. Everything was efficient and cold and not at all like the battles that Hawk and Fox had fought. Snake went for the kill immediately, whereas Fox's battles were long and epic. An agent with a rooster mask got slammed against a wall with his throat in Snake's hand before Naruto had even noticed that her hand was not in his. Fox didn't kill; he defeated. Snake maimed her opponents to the point where they were incapable of getting up and abandoned them to die. Naruto had stopped watching after the second fight because how she cut her opponents down without a word made him shivery and nauseous. The fact that she was hacking up Leaf ninja didn't seem to bother her in the slightest.

Thankfully, the two other ANBU he saw were familiar. Jaguar appeared in the road in front of them, and Naruto tightly gripped Snake's hand, praying that Snake wasn't going to kill Jaguar. He liked Jaguar. Neechan liked Jaguar. _If Snake… _His worries turned out to be for nothing.

"The turnover has occurred without too much fuss so far," Jaguar reported. "Hokage-sama's orders have been mostly uncontested. The council is siding with him at the moment."

"There have been five attempts."

"Unsuccessful, Captain?"

"They were sufficiently weakened by the others before they got close."

Jaguar nodded submissively. Naruto wasn't sure how he knew this, but Snake was someone that Jaguar didn't want to mess with. "They are very young yet. Damn Danzou for sending children against us. The others continue to break up the teams sent."

"Meeting only a single opponent helps."

Jaguar nodded sharply and crouched down in front of him. "Naruto, stick with Snake and do as she tells you. Dog would have been with you, but he's not here. He recommended Snake to take his place. This will be over soon."

"Is Riko-nee okay?" he asked, wanting some bit of normalcy after the horrible things he had witnessed.

"I haven't seen her, but there's no reason to worry about her. She's not important."

That was the second time he had been told that. _Why was he important and why wasn't Neechan? _He envied her.

"Have the fallen been collected?" Snake asked. "They will be permanently maimed if they are not gathered soon. I would rather not be put on probation for negligence and disobeying orders again. I have a better mission lined up for next week."

"If you tell me where they are, I will see to it, Captain."

Snake listed off numbers that Jaguar seemed to understand.

"It will be done." With that, she disappeared, and Snake made them walk again.

The second familiar face was Cat's mask. Naruto knew two cat-masked agents, one a guy and the other a girl. They were both supposed to be tiger masks according to Jaguar, whose mask was also from that division, but they looked more like kitties than the hunting cat with their strange markings. This one was the guy that liked to fiddle around with wires so much. He only carried his ninjatou for show as far as Naruto knew because the guy always used wires when there were problems. He held a pair as he crouched before them. The metal was dripping red and bent, but Naruto tried not to think about that too much.

"It's over," Cat said.

Snake nodded, not relaxing at all, and Cat disappeared after making a few hand signs that Snake responded to with her free hand. Naruto was a little confused when Snake led him to the closed gates and was even more confused when he spotted Riko-nee with two heavy packs in hand.

"Thank the gods that it was Friday." Riko-nee anxiously looked him over and embraced him. The shaky feeling dimmed with her warm arms around him, and he felt sort of cold when she let go and pushed the smaller pack into his arms. "Thanks, Lizard-san," she said earnestly to Snake, who nodded as Cat reappeared.

"Do not stray too far." Snake and Cat lifted the bar holding the gates shut and pushed one of the leaves open enough for a skinny person to slip through without trouble. "Things should be completely settled by Monday."

Neechan nodded silently and took his hand. "Of course. Thank you for watching over him and keeping him safe."

Snake nodded again and gestured that they go. Neechan led him out the gates, and Cat followed silently.

"Where are we going?" Naruto whispered, staring up at the yellow moon that was hovering in the west now.

"To the marshes. We need to get out of here for a bit. I don't know what's going on, but it's obviously not safe. Besides, they ripped apart our home. I don't want to deal with that mess until Sunday afternoon." With that, Riko-nee pulled him off along the dirt track into the hills that hid Konoha, the moon their only guiding light.

* * *

Eight months later, Naruto gulped down nerves and knocked on Neechan's door. Knocking to avoid barging in on her while she was changing was a plan she approved of. He knew as only an eight-year-old could that this plan would not go down as well.

"Brat, why are you still up?" she asked, glanced away from her letters. Her smile faded when he shuffled. "Get over here."

He dragged his feet, settled on her futon, and didn't fight her when she tucked him against her side once her letters were out of sight. "Sis, I need to tell you something." With or without her permission, he was going to do this. It would be easier with her on his side though. "You know how things get worse whenever I do well in school?"

She narrowed her eyes and nodded, close to seething. She was still sore over the time he had gotten caught a couple months ago. She had patched him up because no doctor would see them at that hour without ANBU breathing down their necks. When he had been completely healed the next day, Riko had smiled knowingly at him when he had asked why his friends had cuts for days. "Don't question it too much right now. Just take it as a blessing. Now you won't have to suffer for as long from ill-given injuries." Unlike that ending, this wasn't starting off well.

"I've been thinking…" Sasuke and Kiba would have snickered about how rare that was. Just the thought of their usual jibes made him scowl and resolve to kick their asses during training tomorrow.

"About?" He could tell she was tired, but she remained patient.

"How it's not fair that the sensei ask me harder questions than everybody else and how all the other kids get in so much trouble when they don't do as well. They shouldn't be punished because I did good—!"

"Well." She always grinned when she corrected his faulty grammar, but there was dark resentment in her eyes because what he said was true.

"Whatever! It's not fair for them, dattebayo. Sasuke's mom told me how their parents get mad at them because I beat them…"

"She did?" Neechan's voice was scary blank.

"Yeah, only the ones that do worse than me get yelled at."

"And then they take it out on you," she said.

He shrugged, but he couldn't hide his grimace. Some of them were pretty good at copying his pranks and making them meaner. Gum in hair wasn't quite so fun when it was a big wad of it and they were sticking it in_ his_ hair.

"These are pretty reasons you're giving me, but I still don't know what you want to do."

"It's hard to explain. You won't like it."

"Why's that?"

He cringed at her tone. "I… I want to trick people. Iruka-sensei was talking about it last year and my other sensei this year mentioned it too. Ninja do it all the time to make their opponents underestimate them. I want the villagers to underestimate me. If I make them think I'm an idiot and I don't do so well in class, they'll leave the other kids alone, right? Besides, if I don't do so well, then they'll leave me alone because they won't have a reason to be mad."

"They don't have a good reason in the first place," she insisted, but he just shrugged. She always said that, but she had to be wrong because they always said they had every reason in the world.

"I promise I'll keep up with the butthead and the mutt and all of them. I'll work hard and beat Sasuke when we're out of school. I'll play more pranks and I'll skip a lot of classes, but it will be worth it if it works, right?"

Neechan was silent and still for so long that he began to fear that she had fallen asleep. "Yes," she said grudgingly, looking as though someone had forced her to swallow a lemon. "I don't like that you've been made to feel that you have to do this, but it will help and we do have a responsibility. We will uphold it even if everyone around us ignores his or her own because _someone_ has to step up and make the sacrifice. You _will_ keep up. You _will_ pass every single test."

He nodded to stave off her wrath.

"And because you'll be slacking off in school, I'll make you work twice as hard at home. You'll have to start taking naps to keep up with your sleep."

Just how much extra work this would be made him cringe, but pride made it moot. He had come up with a plan that even Neechan had admitted would work.

She seemed to sense his pride. "I'm glad that you've finally learned how to come up with an effective plan by yourself. That means you're a step closer to becoming Hokage. Actually, you've taken two steps today. Though you did this partially for yourself, you also did this to protect your classmates from their parents. That means you're learning how to protect your precious people."

"But, Neechan, I won't be fighting to protect them at all!"

"Yes, you are, but not a physical fight with weapons. Your weapon is your act."

"Huh?"

"Deceiving everyone is a weapon of sorts because it makes people unable to fight you back." She rubbed at her eyes and covered a yawn. "They assume certain things about you, so they won't lash out at you or their children. You'll dull their weapons and hide them so they cannot attack with them. Therefore, you're learning about being a Hokage when you do this. Sometimes Hokage have to do things like this. It's a bit complicated, but if you ask me about it later, I'll try and explain. For now, it's time for you to go to bed. Maybe you should tell your friends about this plan tomorrow. If you leave them in the dark, they'll be mad at you later. You can trust them."

He wasn't exceptionally pleased that she was making him wait for more information about being Hokage. "But I don't wanna go to bed!"

"Well I do, brat. Scat. I'm tired. I've had a long day. You try explaining numbers to people that still have trouble with basic multiplication all day. Going to your classes would be a blessing compared to work."

"Fine, fine!" He scrambled off her bed to get away from her grumpiness. "G'night. I'll tell them for sure tomorrow morning, dattebayo!"

* * *

Shikamaru was less convinced. "Tch, this is a stupid plan. What if you actually fail? Then you're out of the Academy and the villagers have won. As it is, they'll win. They want you to fail. You're giving them what they want."

"I'll still be learning at home. Just while I'm at the Academy, I'll act like an idiot."

"You don't need to change much to do that, pisshead." Kiba tossed Akamaru scraps from his lunch, grinning maliciously.

"Shut up, Mutt Boy!"

Before long, the pair was wrestling while they screamed insults at each other. Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes, too used to this ritual to complain out loud anymore. To occupy himself until they finished, he idly flicked kunai at a small knot on a nearby tree. Chouji soon joined in, and Shikamaru returned to watching clouds.

"Hey, Naruto, did you get your sister to tell you the reason why this is happening yet?" Chouji asked.

Naruto twisted out of Kiba's half-nelson and settled against a tree. "Nope, she still says that she's not allowed to even if really wants to. I don't get why. It's not like I'd tell Old Man that she told me."

"Fool, the Sandaime would know that she told you. He's still got ANBU watching you sometimes, right?" Shika said.

"Yeah, but only on festival nights; Old Man's got to have more missions for them to do now."

"A lot of them are patrolling the streets at night; Dad told me," Chouji offered.

"Yeah, they do that a lot. Jaguar told me once that it's 'to prevent theft and conspiracy in the streets at night and to discourage foreign ninja from thinking they can sneak in just because the gates are closed and the chuunin who guard them during the day are gone'." Naruto shrugged, stifling frustration. "Either way, she won't tell me. I think she wants to see if I can figure it out for myself, like those tests that Iruka-sensei never used to tell us about that a lot of people seemed to fail without knowing it."

"Oh yeah; I remember those. Iruka-sensei is a lot trickier than Raidou-sensei."

The discussion degenerated in coherency from that point until the bell rang and afternoon practical lessons started. The girls were still separated from the boys for outside lessons since they were still learning about kunoichi stuff on top of learning basic fighting. He was sort of dreading next year: practical lessons would be combined. All he knew about the girls in his class was that they were just as strange as the boys that were not his friends were and they seemed to be especially loud whenever Sasuke was around, a fact that annoyed all five of them.

Naruto hated taijutsu lessons: the sensei seemed to love giving him the wrong instructions so he would mess up. Usually, he would ignore what the sensei said to him and instead listen in when the man was giving Sasuke pointers. The latter were infinitely more useful. Today was the start of his plan though, so Naruto resolved to follow the instructions the instructor gave him to the letter. It would be painful since they generally resulted in him getting his butt kicked during mock spars and embarrassing because the adjustments to his stance always made him lose his balance and trip a lot, but it was necessary.

That night, Naruto came home more bruised and dustier that usual, but there was a satisfied smirk on his face. His reign of terror had just begun.

* * *

"Naruto! Get back here, you spaz," screamed the chuunin.

Laughing, Naruto did a flip over a garbage can and dashed into an alley, waving the choice bit of laundry he had snatched from the chuunin's dresser as he went. His victim bellowed like a bull and charged after him.

Naruto began to push his chakra into his feet. He was only beginning to learn this, so his control and the technique's helpfulness were minimal, but it did help in keeping ahead of the chuunin for a bit.

It was inevitable that he would get caught, but being chased by a civilian was no challenge. He would never get better if he only targeted civilians.

* * *

"This is a common technique used to cut off a target in this terrain." Iruka-sensei pointed to the diagram on the board as Naruto yawned. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night: his sister had kept him up late studying. He was really starting to miss his sleep. "The cliff here presents a barrier that a ninja must use chakra to overcome either by jumping or by climbing. During this escape, a member of the team can strike at the unprotected back and neck…"

"_Loser_," Sasuke whispered as he scribbled notes, "I hope you're ready to answer questions. Iruka was furious when you skipped yesterday. He's out for blood."

"Don't worry, _butthead_," Naruto grumbled under his breath as he lowered his head onto his folded arms. "Neechan pounded it all into my head and quizzed me on it during breakfast. I've got this covered."

"Naruto!" Iruka yanked Naruto's attention away from catching up on sleep. "Maybe you would like to tell the class the purpose of Kawarimi no Jutsu and perhaps you could list the handseals required to shape the chakra correctly?"

Naruto bit back a grin. "Fine. Kawarimi is for escaping and stuff; you know; if you want to run away or sneak up on a bastard, not that I'd ever do something like that, dattebayo! I'm awesome, so I don't need all that sneaky crap, dattebayo!" Naruto smirked under his bangs as the blood vessel on Iruka's forehead began to pulse. The class snickered at his stupidity. "The seals are tiger, boar, ox, and then serpent."

Watching the wind go out of Iruka-sensei's sails was fun. It was nice to answer correctly after almost two months of consistent failure.

What was even better was when he waved cheekily and left a log in his seat after performing the handseals with exaggerated slowness. He had pranks to pull.

* * *

Nariko steeled herself for the meeting ahead. She had gotten another call from the Academy complaining about Naruto's tardiness, common absences, and bad attitude in class. Usually, she just met with the director of the Academy and almost bullied her way through the meeting by being standoffish and disinterested. She could tell he could see right through her, but he let her go. He was pleased at how badly her brother seemed to be doing.

It was a little scary how good Naruto was at sabotaging himself, she mused as she strode through the cheerful looking halls towards the classroom. It made her wonder just how much of achievement was attitude. She knocked hesitantly and slid the door open.

"Ah, Matsuku-san," the young instructor said, "it's good of you to meet with me. I know that I didn't go through the proper channels…"

He reminded her forcefully of Itsuki, though this man was probably a year or two older, maybe twenty. Their attitudes were similar in a way, though Itsuki was far more serious. This man seemed young to be teaching a bunch of eight or nine-year-old children, but then, her clan's customs were hardly different. Shiro had been twelve when he had first started teaching her math under their fathers' guidance. Still, this twenty-year-old man was handling thirty brats. Her respect for him doubled.

"It is forgiven." She leaned against the one of the desks in the first row.

This Iruka looked rather nonplussed by her abrupt manner; she had cut off his gesture for her to seat herself by his desk. It was a calculated move on her part. If she got too close, he would be able to read her every move like a book. Distance was better. She was tired enough that her control over her expression was wavering more than normal. A chuunin—while not ANBU or a Hokage—was still far more powerful than she was and he was Naruto's teacher besides. He could make life very difficult for her brother if he chose to.

So far, he seemed amiable enough. Had they met without Naruto's promise binding her, she might have tried to make friends. As it was, she had to be wary. "Why have you gone so far as to call for me without going through the school director as you have before?"

He smiled nervously and fiddled with some papers on his desk. "It's about Naruto."

"I assumed as much. I doubt you would have called me otherwise." Naruto was counting on her to smooth the way for his scheme to work. If being cold was the way to do it, so be it. It certainly made Umino-san more nervous. The more nervous he was, the less willing he would be to ask questions. His frail smile made her feel like an asshole though, so she toned down her coldness. "What seems to be the problem, Umino-sensei?"

He relaxed quite a bit at her new lack of hostility. "Well, I don't know if he has told you, but his grades have slipped significantly since his second year. His progress then was very good, but lately it has dropped to a borderline fail. I was just wondering if you knew why. He was a good student for the most part, but recently he has been skipping classes, sleeping through them, or simply not doing his work. His practical instructors tell me he has slipped up quite a bit there as well."

Nariko nodded, confirming her knowledge of what was going on. It would be difficult to deny, not when he was the one that had gotten the school director to contact her for the past four months without results. He was probably very frustrated by now.

"Naruto is going through some difficulties at the moment," she said, her number-weary brain working rapidly to come up with a way to misdirect Umino-san. "I'm sure you're aware of some of them."

He nodded, his expression indicating no opinion on the village's abuse one way or the other. Nariko almost sighed: he obviously hadn't decided whether to be compassionate or not. She guessed that there were personal issues involved since he sounded like a genuinely kind man otherwise.

"He… He is trying to deal with them in this way." That was about as vague as she could get without lying. She was a horrible liar. He would be able to tell in an instant.

"I don't understand." His confusion was obvious. Being able to convey emotion as he did probably helped him draw his students into his lectures. Now Nariko understood why he was such a good teacher. Enthusiastic students thrived under him when he wasn't testing them in some obscure way, while students that didn't have what it took withered and dropped out, which was only good for their continued survival. "Failing class is going to help him?"

"He isn't failing. He is still passing every time, no?"

"Just barely," Iruka said, waving his hands around to emphasize how much this bothered him. "He knows the answers to the questions he flunks. I know he does. Before this started, he answered them just fine for the most part, and now he gives some half-assed gibberish instead!"

Nariko stared at the floor, unable to respond to Iruka's valid points without giving up Naruto's game. This was Naruto's show, not hers. She decided to come clean to an extent. "Look…" She sighed, rubbing at her eyes and then extending her hands in her habitual placating gesture. "I promised him I would help him with this. He's passing. Be happy with that for now. I won't let him fail. Take whatever comfort you need in that. I can't explain this more without breaking my promise, okay?"

He stared at her, incredulous.

"He was having a rough time because he was doing too well. I know you know that."

Understanding began to creep over his face. "So it's not problems at home," he muttered and flushed when Nariko glared at him.

"No," she spat, clenching her fists in her lap, "problems are everywhere else." She forcibly calmed her ire and mumbled an apology. Iruka at least seemed to care what was going on, which was more than most people could say.

"No!" he said, "I'm sorry too! It wasn't right for me to presume—"

"What else were you supposed to think?" She scrubbed her face tiredly, seeking reassurance in the late afternoon scenery out the window. "What else would it have most likely been in any other child's case?"

"Naruto isn't every other child."

"That's right. He's my little brother. I promise you that I will see to it that he keeps passing your classes no matter what he does here the rest of the time. Is that enough?"

Umino-san stared at her, uncertain.

"He's already made up his mind." She shrugged, letting her hands fall into her lap to illustrate her helplessness. "He's going to stick with this plan until the bitter end. It's working, so I'm not going to dissuade him. I can't, not when he's coming home at night without bruises from anything other than training at school. Besides, he's a stubborn squirt. He wouldn't listen to me now even if I forbade him."

That explanation seemed to worry Umino-san more than anything else did.

"Is my promise enough for you?"

He wavered for a few moments before nodding.

"Good. I'm glad you called for this meeting. Are you reassured?"

"I-I guess so…" he began before shaking his head. "No, actually, I'm not."

She cocked her head at him, inviting him to keep going. It was better if he got all of this out now, while she was still awake. She couldn't promise that she would be quite as well rested the next time he tried to call her in for a meeting. Naruto's late night study sessions weren't helping matters.

"You know what he is. I know you do. Why don't you care?" He appeared genuinely confused, as though he was balancing on some decision. It sounded like he would be using her answer to answer some internal question. Her response was all-important then.

She frowned at him sadly. "I wasn't here when _it_ happened. I have no connection to this village other than through Naruto. He is my link to everyone here. I have no real basis of sympathy for those that abuse him. I understand why they do it to an extent, though I know that they are wrong. He _isn't_ what you think he is. You're supposed to be a teacher. You should understand this. You've seen him. Is he what you assumed?" she asked, nearly scowling now.

"I thought Hokage-sama explained it to all of you. I can understand why the civilians like me don't understand—the physics and the logic involved don't make much sense to me—but I can't understand why you wouldn't. What did _he_ do to you?"

Knowing that was important. If she could figure that out, who knew what she would be able to do to convince him of Naruto's harmlessness.

Umino-san looked almost bitter. "…My parents both died in that attack."

No wonder he had been wavering. She was surprised he had been as tolerant as he had been. It spoke volumes about his character to her. "Ah. I'm sorry for my callous words and questions. I am sure that was very painful and still is."

He shook his head.

She got up and walked to the door, pausing just before she exited. "He's a jailor, nothing else. He's just a boy. A very unlucky boy that was so very lonely when I came here that I couldn't understand how everyone else could keep doing this to him. I wonder if you will prove to me that there is compassion to be found in Konoha. My cousin thinks not." Leaving those words for him to chew on, she shut the door behind herself.

* * *

Naruto frowned up at Iruka-sensei when he held him after class. He had been on time for the past two days and he had only fallen asleep for a bit in class today. Why was Iruka-sensei on his case this time? He was a little unnerved when his teacher observed him for a couple moments, then sighed, and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Naruto, is it true that you're failing on purpose? If so, you're being far too obvious about it."

Naruto cringed and ducked his head before using his shit-eating grin on his teacher. "Nah, Sensei, it's all cool."

Iruka frowned and rubbed the scar bridging his nose. "Are you sure? You can tell me, you know."

Naruto stared at his coolest sensei, torn between hope and distrust. People had done this to him before; they had led him on and then hurt him. They hadn't for a long time, but it had happened enough that caution tempered every interaction with a new adult that hadn't been vetted by someone he knew was looking out for him. Mikoto, Jaguar, Dog, Snake, Shikamaru's dad, and Chouji's dad checked out and of course, Neechan and Old Man did too.

He wasn't sure about Iruka though. None of his trusted adults had checked him out as far as he knew, though Old Man had made him a teacher… Instinct wasn't saying he was bad, but instinct had been wrong a couple times before. His gut was saying it was okay, but his gut was more focused on food: it had been hours since lunch.

"I talked to your sister a couple weeks ago," Iruka-sensei elaborated with a sigh. "She said that you were doing this on purpose."

Naruto scowled. _Neechan had promised…_

"She wouldn't tell me really, but she told me enough that I figured it out. Why are you doing this, Naruto?"

He forgave Neechan a bit. She hadn't meant to tell, probably. Iruka-sensei was a chuunin, so of course Riko-nee wouldn't have been able to keep things from him. Since she had told him stuff, that meant he could tell his teacher some stuff.

"Ha!" He hopped up on a desk and swung his legs around. "It's just because I wanna…" He wasn't quite sure how to say this without sounding stupid.

_Was doing something for someone else stupid?_ People always were mean to Neechan when she did things for other people, but they always were. Riko-nee had said that it didn't matter what people did so long as he did good things.

"They're not happy when I do too well in school and the other kids get in trouble. That's not fair, so this is better." He glanced out the window and saw Sasuke and Shikamaru waiting for him. He waved at them and gestured that they go on without him.

"Come on," his teacher said at last, nodding to himself.

"Where are we going?" Naruto worriedly wondered if he had been wrong.

"For ramen. No one can say no to ramen. You're going to tell me how you're keeping up in class while we're at Ichiraku's."

Naruto gaped at his sensei's back and sent a fervent stream of prayers to the Ramen God that had to be looking out for him. Ramen never ever led him wrong. Never. He scurried after the coolest sensei ever, knowing that Mikoto-san would wonder where he was, but ramen was more important than training today. _Ramen today and ramen on Saturday too! Sweet!_

He trotted in Iruka-sensei's wake, jabbering about ramen and how Iruka-sensei was the best sensei _ever_ because of this.

A half hour later, Naruto folded his arms on the table and set his chin down on them, grinning at the three empty bowls stacked up in front of him. Sure, he could have eaten three times as much, but Neechan always warned him about being polite. If she ever found out that he had made Iruka-sensei buy him nine bowls of miso ramen, she would… Well, he didn't quite know what she would do, but it would be bad. As it was, Sensei was staring mournfully at his wallet. At least old man Teuchi looked happy, but he always looked happy when Naruto brought people to buy ramen for him. They always agreed on this one thing.

"Naruto, I'm not going to give you any breaks because of this."

Naruto huffed, his breath fogging over his reflection in the porcelain bowl.

"I can't. However, I'll announce what days you absolutely need to be present. Your friends should be able to tell you when to stay for demos that you can't miss, okay?"

"Absolutely, dattebayo! Thanks, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto grinned even wider when his favourite sensei smiled back and rubbed the back of his head, slapping the money for their meal down on the counter.

"Tell your sister, okay?" Iruka called after him as he ran off to join up with his friends. Naruto waved his assurances.

When he did tell her, she was cooking dinner on the stovetop with her back to him. When he had started telling her about how Iruka kept him after class, her shoulders had tightened, but as he kept explaining, they loosened and her movements became less jerky.

She served him his supper and grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from her desk before sitting down to join him at the table. "I'll have to tell Itsuki about this. It will do him good to be proven wrong once in a while."

* * *

Mikoto frowned at the midyear rankings. Sasuke, as always, was at the top of sixty-four remaining third year students. The other boys' rankings were what she expected. Naruto though…

What an oddly mature sense of responsibility…

Mikoto turned away from the list, thoughtful, as Naruto ranted on about how he would become Hokage to a disbelieving Kiba.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Tower

There were some days that she just hated work. She liked math, she did, but sometimes the people working with her just made math hell. Getting someone to pass her a stapler was like moving a mountain most days. She could ask politely and be ignored, ask slightly less politely and be sneered at, or ask rudely and be grudgingly given the device with an indignant snarl. She always felt like such an ass even when she wasn't doing anything wrong. Most days, she simply resorted to using paperclips she bought with her own money because getting them from the people in charge of supplies was a hassle worse than dealing with the tax collectors directly.

She shuddered; she dreaded dealing with those people. Having one her clients audited was a fate worse than death. At least those people discriminated evenly: everyone was under suspicion equally. Someday, somehow, she would use the vileness of the taxmen to her advantage. It would be a glorious day indeed.

At least one project was hers alone. Nobody checked over Tsunade's papers; apparently, she was above any sort of taxation for now. Maybe the Daimyo had given up on her out of sheer aggravation.

Jiraiya had sent her more of the information he had collected via toad that morning. It had been a little shocking the first time, but the toad had graciously explained things before departing in a puff of smoke. She had the information for three more loans in front of her now.

The amount of money that Tsunade owed from these alone was staggering. Crunching these figures into something manageable would be difficult, but she knew she could do it… Maybe. She was glad she had years to complete this. It couldn't come before her usual work. Ii-san would boot her if she fell behind with her regular clients.

A glance at the clock informed her that daily torment was over, and she fled. She only waited until she was off the main roads before breaking into a run for home.

Unlocking the door, she saw that the apartment was empty, just as she had hoped. Naruto was working with Uchiha-san to get the hang of using chakra to boost his speed after being caught three times while pulling pranks last week. Life had become much more unstable now that Naruto was playing the village idiot. His drastic increase in pranks resulted in a lot of ruffled feathers that came to her for recompense.

The Hokage had even summoned her to explain when papier-mâché projectiles had attacked a public building. He had not been happy, but appeals to his sense of sympathy for Naruto's plight had forced him to agree that this was probably the best plan for now. He had even agreed to turn a blind eye when his ninja asked for punishment most of the time so long as Naruto kept things harmless. He could not ensure that the Academy teachers would do the same though. Iruka was sympathetic enough, but the others… When she had passed this on to Naruto, he had only grinned. Sometimes she wondered if he really understood just what it was he was doing.

Cleaning and baking were mundane but necessary evils with people coming over for a surprise party for Naruto. The boys would mess things up again, but presenting a tidy front to the sole adult guest coming was a must. Sasuke said that his mother ran a tight ship. Looking anything less than neat would be stupid.

Grimacing wryly, Nariko wondered why the hell she wanted to do this to herself. Naruto's birthday had been last week and they had had their usual tiny celebration with the newly minted ANBU captain Jaguar and her squad hanging around to keep things quiet. _Why on earth did Naruto need to have a party with his partners in crime with Uchiha-san in attendance?_ She supposed it was because Uchiha-san looked out for Naruto in her own way, and her attendance would make Naruto happy. She laughed quietly at herself. Shiro was right. _Little reed indeed…_

She froze when she heard someone fumbling with the lock. For a wild moment, she figured that some agitator was about to slit her throat until she firmly brought herself back to earth. No professional ninja would have been so loud. She counted off the seconds it took the boy to beat the lock and wasn't surprised when Sasuke strode in. Naruto had taken to leaving his key at home. More often than not, Sasuke was the one that ended up breaking them in after school. Naruto didn't quite have the fine motor control required to manipulate the tumblers in the lock. It aggravated him to no end.

Uchiha-san followed her son in with raised eyebrows. Sasuke ducked his head under his mother's stare as she slipped off her shoes and bowed formally to Nariko, who quickly bowed back, murmuring the appropriate welcoming phrases to the woman that had finally been trusted with the apartment's location. Nariko didn't doubt that Mikoto-san had known before, but giving the address openly was a sign of trust. Uchiha-san seemed to understand this because she was careful with the information. According to Sasuke, she hadn't told his father. Nariko was rather grateful.

"I left Naruto practicing in the clearing we use for training with Shikamaru and Chouji. They promised to keep him there for another hour," Uchiha-san said.

Nariko sighed with relief. "Thanks! I'll admit that the moment you came in the door, I half-expected Naruto to come barrelling in behind you. Oh, don't mind Sasuke; he's so used to coming here with Naruto and everyone else that he doesn't think anything of it anymore."

"He's not even this comfortable at home."

Nariko would have loved to explain why in detail with a lot of insults directed at Fugaku-san, but she had no wish to offend her guest. Mikoto-san was a good sort of person, if perhaps a little blind to her husband's failings and her older son's growing discontent with the clan. While Sasuke's relationship with his father had improved, it was only because Itachi's credibility with the clan had been steadily falling. It worried Nariko vaguely, but she had let the matter drop since passing her suspicions off to the Hokage. He had indicated that he was dealing with things.

Sasuke had nervously told them all only days ago that Itachi had got into a confrontation with several Uchiha members of the military police before his father had stepped in. Itachi had expressed definite discontent with the abilities of the clan. Sasuke had written down all that he could remember, including a description of the strange shape of Itachi's Sharingan when he had glared at their father's back. Naruto and Kiba had ridiculed his drawing, claiming that it looked like some sort of bug. Nariko, half-asleep, hadn't really thought much of it. Sasuke had petulantly reminded her that she was the one that had told him to record this stuff. She had appeased him by praising his memory and suggesting that he take it to the Hokage.

Why the heck an eye would change shape like Sasuke claimed made no sense to her. Weird bloodline traits just confused her.

Sasuke had looked nervous at the prospect of facing the Hokage, but the entire group had done just that. According to Naruto, the Sandaime had only told them that he would look into things.

Though she hadn't seen Itachi in a long while, Sasuke's tales had been enough to tell her that things with Itachi were indeed rocky. Itachi's best friend Shisui was dead and the Uchiha clan seemed to be suspicious of Itachi's involvement in what had originally been thought a suicide.

"Well, Uchiha-san, would you like some tea?" she asked instead of spilling all her worries on the poor woman. Mikoto-san probably had a much better idea of what was going on and enough worries of her own. Besides, Nariko had learned the hard way that trusting people here wasn't always possible. The secrets here were more than thirty layers deep on the ground and asking questions seemed to be taboo. Some questions were still safe though.

"Yes, please. Supervising tree-walking Tag is thirsty work." Thank the gods for common courtesy. Even ninja knew how to work within that framework.

Kiba barged in while the water was boiling and Akamaru's dirty claws tapping against the freshly cleaned wood floor. Nariko stifled a grimace. Dogs always left a mess. Naruto usually got stuck with cleaning it up since Kiba was Naruto's friend, but today Nariko had the feeling that she was going to get stuck with the job. Naruto was sure to use his birthday against her in their "bargaining" sessions.

"Hey, are we having cake?" Kiba said.

She twitched one shoulder in a shrug.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he said as Akamaru sniffed at her pants as though she had been to the moon.

"Honestly." She pushed the puppy down when he jumped up on her legs. "Calm down. Cake or no, you're getting fed. I just got home a little while ago. Give me a bit of a break."

Kiba snorted at her and crossed his arms. "Hana-nee is way faster than you."

"She's a shinobi. I'm not. Give me a break." _Why was she always being held up against ninja relatives?_ Even Chouji informed her from time to time how superior his ninja father was. It had been easy enough to brush off at first, but it was getting more and more annoying. If Naruto started comparing her to Iruka, she was going to break something. _Why the hell did it matter that she didn't work as a murderer for hire?_

"She's younger than you." Kiba had a point, not that Nariko would admit to it.

"She doesn't fry her brain working at an accounting agency. She gets to work with animals. I ask you one last time: give me a break."

Kiba snorted again and shrugged mockingly. Uchiha-san watched the exchange with raised eyebrows. Nariko had to admit that Kiba's lack of respect and high standards got on her nerves a lot, but Naruto liked fighting with the feral looking boy. She could respect that even though he always skipped out on her math lessons. Math wasn't for everyone. Besides, it reassured her that she would always be able to beat the shinobi-to-be when it came to the most basic sequence equations.

"Shut up, Mutt Boy," Sasuke said from behind his scroll. That caused a minor commotion: apparently, Sasuke didn't call people names in front of his mother. Mikoto made her son fully aware of this while Kiba and Nariko slunk away to get out of the line of fire. Even Akamaru retreated to the kitchen to escape that display of maternal wrath.

"So there is going to be cake!" Kiba grinned, pointing at the oven. Again, Nariko smirked and shrugged. "You're not cooking dinner," he said after checking the stove, the counter, and the fridge. "Ramen?"

She nodded as the noises of scolding subsided.

"Naruto's gonna be over the moon."

"I hope so. Ramen isn't _that_ cheap."

Akamaru's yips for attention kept Kiba from responding to her complaints. Sasuke glared at them when they ventured back into the living room. He didn't seem to appreciate how they had abandoned him to the tender mercies of his mother.

"There's cake," Kiba told Sasuke in an attempt to get back in his good graces. It worked. Boys seemed to be led by their stomachs. Itsuki had been the same way. Shiro had claimed that she had been that way too, but he enjoyed fibbing to irritate her way too much to be believed.

"Cake?" Kiba, Sasuke, and Nariko braced themselves as Chouji came charging in at the mention of food.

"Not yet," Nariko warned him, but it was too late. He zipped past her into the kitchen, and she chased after him to protect her last-minute creation. "Patience, please. Where's Shika?"

"Slowing Naruto down." Chouji settled down on his haunches to watch the cake bake in the oven. Experience told her that his insatiable appetite was reined in for the moment, so she felt safe enough returning to the living room to exchange meaningless smalltalk with Uchiha-san.

Such boring exchanges were the most she had come to expect as far as friendly conversation with adults went. Sandaime-sama was an exception, but she didn't like to bother him unless she had to. He always unintentionally made her feel horribly inferior. All ninja seemed to have that affect on her, or at least any ninja above chuunin did. Maybe it was because she was being swamped with their twisted culture and being compared to them by the boys that invaded her house on a daily basis. In any case, Mikoto-san wasn't quite the same. She seemed to have embraced her retirement to some extent. Barely any hints of a ninja's nature clung to her. The mother persona dominated, and it was easy to interact with because Nariko understood it. Understanding was not connecting though.

"The boys are advancing fairly quickly," Mikoto-san murmured over the rim of her cup. "Naruto struggles along behind Kiba in most areas in combat. Of course, the Inuzuka always had the killer instinct. Combat is innate for them, but still, Naruto is having trouble with it. He's not quite willing to injure his opponent when sparring."

"Is that really bad?" Nariko asked.

"It is in a sense. Training should simulate real battle as closely as possible. Pulling shots in training translates over to battle. Being reluctant to make a hit connect could end up getting him killed."

Uchiha-san obviously knew that she was at fault for Naruto's reluctance. Nariko pursed her lips slightly and shut her eyes. "You correct him?"

"I will. His ninjutsu isn't great either, but that's not for the same reasons. Chakra control often eludes boys for a time. Control isn't something boys usually focus on. Most prefer power to finesse. His taijutsu is coming along though. His stance is good, and his strikes have power behind them for someone his age when the target isn't something that will suffer from his actions."

Nariko accepted Mikoto-san's subtle criticism with a nod. She had anticipated the clash of her values with those needed by a shinobi. She had tried to keep Naruto on her side of the fence, but she was losing him to his chosen career. It would be wiser to accept this gracefully than hold out and cause Naruto harm, but wisdom wasn't her thing. The damned ninja were taking him from her! His path was diverging from hers, and she couldn't stop him. "You know better than I. I hope you'll correct him as necessary."

Mikoto-san nodded and glanced at the boys, who were squabbling over which scroll to study. Nariko barked a warning at them when one scroll almost got thrown into her figurines. Shikamaru was apparently a master at delaying the inevitable because Ayame delivered the ramen long before the first echoes of Naruto's pounding feet could be heard on the steps from the third floor. He burst through the door with an impatient look on his face and tripped when he saw everyone, face planting as Shikamaru meandered onto the fourth floor landing.

"Baka, what kind of ninja trips over a bunch of shoes?" Shikamaru sighed as he stepped over his fallen comrade. "Is everything ready to go or should I have kept him out there even _longer_?"

"No, you did excellently," she assured him. "We're ready to go. We'd better dig into that ramen before it goes cold."

Naruto was on his feet in an instant the moment the word "ramen" slipped out of her mouth.

"Happy birthday, Naruto," Uchiha-san belated said, and all the other boys echoed her with varying degrees of enthusiasm and volume. Naruto's grin could have split his face, and Nariko was satisfied that all this trouble was worth it.

Food was devoured and petty spats were settled as simple games were played. Uchiha-san's tested ninja knowledge while Nariko's required math. The boys had groaned over how much like school this was until the competition heated up enough that Sasuke, Kiba, and Naruto started snarling at each other. Mikoto-san and Nariko exchanged exasperated glances as the trio's volume escalated. These three evidently competed even when they were practicing under Uchiha-san. Naruto and Sasuke were the primary rivals, but Kiba put in his two cents whenever he was in the mood. It got loud quickly.

"Enough," Mikoto-san snapped as Nariko waded into the fray and pushed the combatants out of each other's faces. "Shall we move on to presents or something else?"

"Presents!" Naruto crowed, bouncing around despite the thud of the broom from beneath his feet. _That poor woman downstairs…_ Nariko would have been more sympathetic if she hadn't complained to the landlord about the smallest things.

Various ninja gifts were given by Naruto's friends, though Sasuke had graciously given Naruto the latest book in the series he read called _The Adventures of Hiroji_. Nariko didn't doubt that her brother's light was going to be on late for the next couple nights. She was going to have to try to curb that reading into the wee hours of the morning habit of his.

She produced her own present once kunai, shuriken, and the hip pouch were carefully piled alongside the book. Naruto jabbered away at the sight of the seedlings he had been saving up for, and Nariko's apprehension vanished. He hadn't just been feigning an interest in growing things. She was glad. Such a hobby would serve him well, balancing out the destruction he would wreak in his job. The other boys teased him, but Naruto blew a raspberry at them while carefully poking at the delicate sprouts.

He nattered on about how he would take care of each of the different types of plants until Mikoto-san sat up and announced that she and Sasuke should get going. They were about to slip on their sandals when the door burst open and Jaguar slipped in with her blade extended. Her mask was spattered with blood, and several cuts were bleeding on her bare arms.

"Get in the bathroom!" Her voice cut through the silence her arrival had created. Akamaru yipped worriedly when another appeared on the railing of the balcony, the _tori_-masked agent's weapon also out. "Now," she snarled when none of them moved fast enough. Sasuke hesitated beside his mother until Jaguar faced the woman. "You too," the agent growled, gesturing with her blade. "You're the ones I'm worried about the most. Get in there. Don't argue, or I'll have your wrist maimed for insubordination, Uchiha-san."

The use of Mikoto-san's clan name seemed to get her moving. She and Nariko perched on the rim of the bathtub once the door was locked and kept the boys silent in the darkness with warning touches or jabs when required.

Fear rippled through the boys in an almost tangible wave. Nariko could feel it in the shaking or tense muscles beneath her blind hands. Only Mikoto-san seemed composed, and Naruto was the calmest of the boys. He was used to this. It was a horrible thing to be used to crouching in the blackness of the bathroom while ANBU defended them from an unknown enemy. Nariko had to admit that these times severely tried her resolve not to regret her choice. Dealing with the unknown wasn't something she was particularly good at.

At long last, Jaguar-san spoke the password through the door. Uchiha-san let everyone else out after using her Sharingan on Jaguar, looking for a henge. An ANBU operative wearing a cat mask brought Jaguar updated orders. "Come with me," she said, incinerating the note. "I'm to take you all to the Hokage."

One terrifying journey through the dark streets later, the seven of them sat comfortably in the Hokage's bright and warm reception room. Mikoto-san sat calmly with the boys, but Nariko couldn't say that she was in a similar state. No one had ever been around other than her and Naruto when someone had dared to attack their home before. This change was embarrassing. The nervy expressions on the faces of the boys were marks of shame upon her. It didn't seem right for them to know all about what she and Naruto put up with from the villagers.

It wasn't proper for her and Naruto's public faces to be so shattered, though Naruto hardly seemed to mind. He was reacting the way he always did, but she couldn't seem to stay still. Instead, she paced, rubbing trembling fingers over the ridges of the scar on her cheek until the entire area was tender and probably quite red. The thought of what the other _jounin_ parents would do when they heard how being around Naruto had endangered their children was making her hands shake.

All of them turned to the door the moment it opened. Jaguar beckoned to Mikoto-san. "He will see you now."

Nariko froze, glancing back and forth between Jaguar's blood-flecked mask and Mikoto-san. Sasuke betrayed all the confusion and worry that his mother hid so well. Dread coiled in Nariko's gut, but not for herself this time.

"My squad will be taking these children home," Jaguar said, pointing at Chouji, Kiba, and Shikamaru. "They have no business here now."

"Naruto," Nariko said, "thank your guests."

He glanced at her, but she was watching Mikoto-san set a hand on Sasuke's head before she walked towards the door. Jaguar made way for the wary-looking mother, her masked face turning to watch the door close behind her.

* * *

"Quickly." Jaguar herded his friends towards the door as Naruto struggled to gather his wits and say something that wouldn't sound too stupid and yet wouldn't get his sister on his case.

It was a difficult call, but he managed to mutter thanks and promises to meet up the next afternoon. He glanced at Riko, but she still wasn't watching. He turned back to his friends as Jaguar pushed and prodded them out the door. Chouji only had time for a feeble smile, Kiba a shrug, Akamaru a pathetic doggy whine, and Shikamaru a worried look before an exhausted sigh escaped as the door closed.

Now the only noise was the sharp thump of his sister's feet hitting the carpet as she stalked from one wall to the other in front of Sasuke, who was staring at the door with a lost look on his face. Naruto had never seen such strange reactions from either of them. "Why is it such a big deal?" he groused, crossing his arms. "This happens all the time."

"Don't say things like that."

"Why not if it's true?" he countered, glad that Neechan was paying attention to him now even if it was just a little. "Why are you making it such a big deal?"

"Because things like this aren't supposed to happen!" She spun on her heel to stare at him. "It's not normal for bloody ninja to come breaking down my door during a little boy's birthday party to make us hide in the bathroom! It's not normal for you to think that this is normal! At home—!" She broke off and went back to pacing, raking her fingers through her hair.

"This is home!" he shot back.

She always implied that their life here was flawed and that where she came from was better. _Why couldn't she see that it was good here?_ Whenever she started talking about her home, not his, his tummy would clench and writhe. He was terrified that someday she would decide that being here wasn't worth the trouble, she would leave, and things would go back to how they had been before she had come. He would go back to the orphanage, friendless and at everybody's mercy. When she was like this, he wished that he were brave enough to burn her letters from home so she would forget that it even existed. The place and the people were a fairytale to him that she was obsessed with. It had no bearing upon his reality.

He never got the chance to hear her retort. A strangled scream of terrible pain came from Old Man's office, and Sasuke, paler than Naruto had ever seen him, went running for the door despite the cat-masked ANBU standing guard. Riko-nee grabbed Sasuke when he didn't respect the agent's refusal to let him through.

"It's his mother," his sister forced out between gritted teeth as she struggled to hold Sasuke back.

Naruto gulped.

The ANBU must have been blind and stupid because he didn't move.

"Let him pass."

Still the ANBU stood firm.

"Kaasan!" called Sasuke. Naruto grimaced, almost embarrassed on his friend's behalf at how sissy that had sounded. The lack of answer made Sasuke's cry less ridiculous, especially when Old Man's tired and sad sounding voice called out the order for Cat to let them in. Cat stepped aside, and Sasuke battled his way out of Riko-nee's grip and wrenched the door open just before he slammed into it.

* * *

The door banged off the wall and had enough redirected momentum to shut itself again, but Nariko grabbed it. She watched Sasuke scamper towards his mother, who was curled up in her chair. Sasuke hesitantly clutched at the fabric of his mother's shirt. He was brave. Most children would have fallen short of the mark and stood wavering with confusion and awkwardness in the face of their broken parent. To see the pillar of stability and authority crumble often drove them into a similarly broken and confused state. Sasuke was made of sterner stuff.

The Hokage's face made the anxiety inside her explode. Defeat was written in every line. He tore his eyes away from the frozen Mikoto-san and met her stare. Defeat and regret… _Oh no…_

"Itachi," she whispered, some part of her certain about her guess and yet another denying it passionately. _There was no way a fourteen-year-old could have done something so terrible it would break a former ANBU agent, right?_

"Yes, Itachi," the Sandaime agreed. Sasuke's head snapped up and began shaking side to side in denial, but the Hokage didn't relent. The old man stared at the Uchiha boy with something Nariko might have called wonder in different circumstances. "Itachi has done a terrible thing this night. As I just finished informing your mother, all but eight other members of your clan are dead."

Nariko couldn't bring herself to look away despite a desperate desire to. She didn't want to see the adoration Sasuke regarded his brother with curdle. She clutched her own brother's hand when he stepped closer.

Denial.

"No… no, that's not true," Sasuke insisted, shaking his head. "Aniki wouldn't do something like that!"

"I'm afraid that he did, Sasuke-kun," the Hokage said as Mikoto-san began shaking in her chair.

Anger.

"No! He wouldn't!" Sasuke shouted, stomping forward a couple steps as though preparing to beat the horrible truth out of existence.

"He did just a few hours ago. I had a squad of ANBU watching him because of the information you gave me not long ago, ready to take him into custody the moment we had reason to or enough evidence."

Mikoto-san's head snapped up, and she stared at her son, who glanced back at her almost guiltily. "Information?" she managed to croak.

"Sasuke-kun was worried enough about the changes in his brother's behaviour that he brought things to my attention with Matsuku-san's encouragement." This time, Nariko couldn't stop the flinch that went through her when Uchiha-san shot a glance her way. Even as she cursed Sarutobi-sama for mentioning her involvement, she blessed him for continuing with his narration of events. "Shisui's death prompted me to put Itachi under observation when Sasuke described the changes in his brother's eye. The shuriken design—"

"The what!" asked Mikoto-san.

"The shuriken pattern Itachi's Sharingan had taken on after the event was suspicious. Sasuke spotted it only once, directed at Fugaku's back."

Mikoto-san almost huddled back in her chair, white-faced and glassy-eyed. "Oh no," she whispered.

"Is it what I suspected?" Sandaime-sama asked, his dark eyes staring out at the bereaved mother from the shadow of his hat as he clasped his gnarled hands in front of his mouth.

"Mangekyou," Mikoto-san breathed, looking horrified. "Where did he…? When…? No, I know when. Oh, Shisui, poor boy. I told them those records should have been burned! I told him, but he didn't listen. He said they were clan history… that the clan could be trusted to know better…"

Sasuke obviously didn't understand any of this because he took advantage of the tense silence to go back on the offensive. "Why didn't you stop him then!" he snarled, clenching his small, pale fists by his sides. "You said you had ANBU there! Why didn't they stop him?"

When Naruto made motions to move forwards, perhaps to stop Sasuke or assist him, Nariko clenched his hand tighter and kept him in place, shaking her head when he glanced up at her.

"They tried." The Hokage's head bowed under some terrible weight. "The second watch found them. They are all beyond our reach. Those that are not dead are held captive in some genjutsu that even our experts cannot break. Itachi managed to elude the second watch and their reinforcements when they finally found him. Most of that watch was taken down as well and he is now very far beyond my reach. Every effort will be made to bring him back—"

Bargaining.

"What about Father?" Sasuke shrunk in on himself a little when the Sandaime only stared sadly at him. "You can bring him back, right? We've got good medics, and Aniki wouldn't hurt Father! He just put him under genjutsu. Right?"

Nariko didn't blame the Hokage for not being willing to answer that question. The poor boy was trembling, and his hands were twitching as though he didn't know what to do with them.

"Sasuke," she somehow forced words past the lump in her throat. "Sasuke, I'm… I don't… I don't think the Hokage can do that." The confusion in his dark eyes forced her to take a few hesitant steps forward, dragging Naruto along with her.

"But—!"

"Sasuke, stop," Mikoto-san commanded, pushing herself out of her chair to kneel before him. "Life isn't something we can barter for." The Uchiha woman's voice was strangled-sounding. She set one hand on her son's shoulder and the other on her abdomen. "It can only be created or destroyed by action. Itachi… Itachi has destroyed and left only twelve of our bloodline. This cannot be changed."

"Twelve?" the Sandaime asked, sounding puzzled. "Even counting Itachi, there are only eleven."

"No, there are twelve unless things go even more wrong than they have." Mikoto-san pulled Sasuke into her embrace, closing her eyes against the possibility she had dared to utter. Nariko watched the Sandaime's eyes and the horror and terrible guilt that flooded them as the realization hit.

"Did your son know?"

"No son of mine would murder his family," Mikoto-san snarled, cradling Sasuke's head against her shoulder. "No one knew. I wasn't ready to tell them yet. It's been so long since Sasuke and things have been so bad; I wasn't sure he would… Itachi can't ever find out."

"Of course; I will see to it. He left something, but I'm having my people check it over for hidden contact poisons or seals. I will pass it along to you the moment I am certain it is safe."

Once Mikoto-san nodded, Nariko found her voice with some difficulty.

"If I may," she whispered, and all the adults in the room turned to her. She swallowed back nervousness. "I offer my home, small though it is for four. We, Naruto and I, would be glad and honoured to have you stay with us at least for tonight." She left it unsaid that the Uchiha manor would be in no state to give them rest. The knot of horrible guilt loosened when Mikoto-san nodded.

"I'm glad that's settled," the Hokage said with just the right amount of briskness to keep from seeming callous. "Uchiha-san, I have your remaining relatives under guard and of course you will receive the same—"

"I won't need it yet," she informed him in clipped tones, the hint of tears now absent from her voice. "I will see to clearing the compound. As clan head, it is my duty."

"Of course, Uchiha-san; I will do everything in my power to right this wrong."

It was disturbing to watch the mother/housewife Nariko was familiar with crumble to reveal the hardened jounin beneath. That jounin frightened her. That jounin was stone, almost unruffled by these events, save for the obvious desire to even the score. That jounin didn't know how to cry and grieve, it only knew how to kill and bring pain. That jounin didn't see Itachi as a son, only as a target. The sudden creation of emotional distance frightened Nariko the most. Mikoto the jounin, the former ANBU operative, could pick and choose whom she cared about and turn her heart to stone for everyone outside that set.

"Loss of this magnitude will end in retribution. I will see to it that he does not get off lightly." At last, Mikoto-san stood up, pulling Sasuke to his feet with her. "I want to look at what my former son has done to my family." She took a step away from her son to assume a posture that immediately struck Nariko as military.

The Hokage looked reluctant. "Very well; I forbid you from bringing Sasuke though. It is not pleasant in the least."

"Of course; vengeance is not the answer to this, at least not right now. I will not lose two sons to this madness." Uchiha-san turned to her remaining son and held her arms out to him so he could seek craved comfort, the ninja retreating beneath the motherly exterior again. Clutching him to her chest, she whispered the same sort of soothing phrases that Nariko knew only too well from her own father. "Sasuke, I want you to stay with Naruto and Riko tonight." She glanced up at the latter, who nodded.

With that, Uchiha-san detangled herself from Sasuke and pushed him towards Nariko, who gathered him into her arms and pulled Naruto to her side as well with her free arm. Satisfied that her remaining son was safe, Mikoto-san nodded to the Hokage and disappeared in a puff of smoke with five ANBU escorts to take charge of the massive burial detail ahead of her.

"Hokage-sama, can I have a private word? These two are too young to be exposed to this sort of thing if we can help it. As it is, I think they will have nightmares." When he nodded, she bowed slightly before kneeling down in front of them, setting a hand on each of their shoulders. "I'll be as quick as I can, okay? Wait for me in the chairs out there." As soon as they nodded, uncharacteristically silent, she summoned the most encouraging smile she could and gave them a gentle push out the door before settling herself in the chair Mikoto-san had abandoned.

"I want your permission to keep Uchiha-san and Sasuke with me for the next couple of days. I don't want them going back to the Uchiha manor for a while. A change of pace will keep them from falling into a funk and contemplating revenge. Sasuke is obsessive enough as it is."

The Sandaime's eyes were blank save for the regret the lines on his flesh enhanced in the falsely happy light. "I see the complications more clearly. Only too many nukenin would be happy to take him on should he have inherited the Sharingan, my traitorous pupil Orochimaru being one of the most eager. I have been worried about this possibility ever since the death of Uchiha Obito." He followed up on his grim prediction with a smoke ring.

Nariko moved out of range of the smoke, her eyes watering. She hated the habit even though her father had possessed it in a mild sense. The smell reminded her of summer nights on the patio at his feet playing shougi or chess, but she could not find comfort in the smell of the Sandaime's smoke. He used a harsher brand of tobacco. "Why is that?"

"Obito-kun had his medic-nin teammate replace his other teammate's ruined eye with his Sharingan eye just before passing away. The recipient still has the eye. He's made a name for himself with it. That development interested Orochimaru, who had plans of passing on the bloodline trait to unrelated shinobi, himself included."

Again, she was struck by just how much a shinobi's existence seemed to revolve around sacrifice. It worried her. _What would Naruto be made to give? What more would Sasuke lose? _"Did Itachi know this?"

"He may have become aware of it. I am sorry that it seems your trust was misplaced."

"Not so; you did try." He didn't need her superfluous forgiveness. He probably only asked for it because he was unsure whether or not he would ever get it from the people that he really required it from. "Four ANBU should have been more than enough."

She spoke with conviction that she didn't feel. _What did she know about Itachi's skills and about the combined strength of four ANBU?_ The books she had been reading the boys were mere beginner's guides. What those ninja must have known was beyond her comprehension, but the Sandaime needed some sort of reassurance and this pale, fragile statement was the best she could come up with on such short notice.

"But it was not, so now they and so many others are suffering for my overconfidence. This is yet another sign that I am losing my touch," he grunted almost bitterly. "Work quickly on what Jiraiya gives you."

_Ah, that was why he looked so old._ He was losing confidence in his abilities. She could think of no words to reassure him and it wasn't her place, so she acted the way a good subordinate should. "Of course, Hokage-sama."

* * *

Mikoto the ANBU agent walked through the moonlit streets of the Uchiha compound, stepping lightly over the blood-splattered ground and holding down the food she had recently consumed with an iron will. She would not desecrate this place any more than it already had been by her former son's hand. His actions were still unfathomable to her. He had been ANBU to the core. _How could he have betrayed the Hokage like this? It didn't make any sense…_ Thoughts fragmented, and she shook them away. Now was not the time to speculate.

Only extreme need drove her into the bedrooms of her nieces and nephews and little cousins, all slain. She reached out with a slightly shaking hand and drew the bloodstained blanket up over the face of Hiroe-chan, her slender little neck slit. Poor little girl hadn't even had time to scream the terror written all over her disbelieving face. She had trailed after Itachi on more than one occasion, jabbering happily about the fan dance she had been learning as part of her duty to the clan. Mikoto had watched this out the window while washing dishes. Nothing of that moment remained in this frozen corpse.

That entire meeting with the Hokage had been a farce, a cover for the true machinations going on beneath the surface. Matsuku-san and Sasuke's evidence had given him the perfect cover story to hide what had truly been going on behind. Even through her sorrow, she knew that. The Hokage's eyes had told her that. He had been too late. He had been overruled. What Itachi's actions had to do with this, she didn't know. Sandaime-sama had failed though. He had been talking with Fugaku, but things hadn't been going fast enough. There had been too much suspicion on both sides. She had seen this and had despaired. Even in her darkest nightmares, she had never imagined something like this happening. She had seen war, but not one-sided slaughter.

ANBU had never been here. She could tell by the way those picking their way around moved. They were shocked. They probably had been outside the ghetto walls. Only Itachi had been here: Itachi and another whose tracks were muffled and unrecognizable to her.

ANBU had never tried to arrest her former son. She had seen that in the Hokage's face. He had failed to hide that lie. There had never been any ANBU agents killed or taken. How he knew about the effects of the eyes though… Tsukuyomi's effects were only known within the clan since there hadn't been a user for decades. Now that puzzled her analytical mind. Why and how, those questions pressed at her.

The one called Jaguar-san must have scratched herself to create the blood. _Why feign battle? Who would have tattled? Whose image had she been made to protect?_

There were too many questions and no answers. She needed to see that message.

She stopped avoiding the issue at last when an ANBU in a boar mask carried the little girl's cooling body away. Standing up, she swept towards the house she had made her own. It took more will than she had ever needed before to open her front door and walk towards the room she had shared with her husband. She rested her hand on that door and paused, debating whether to taint her last memories of her beloved with the image of his corpse. She hoped Itachi had made it clean. Steeling her soul, she pushed the door open and slipped over to his side, kneeling down and pulling him into her arms. A gut wound extended all the way up his chest. He would have died slowly and in much pain.

She lowered his cold lids to obscure the empty eyes. Whatever had made him Fugaku to her had slipped away in death. A gaping hole began to open up inside of her, and she bit her lower lip. She clutched at the corpse and forced herself not to bawl. He had left her all alone. He had promised to stay with her. He had promised… Something inside her shattered.

A wild howl echoed through the streets. The loneliness in it was terrifying and even the ANBU gathering corpses paused. The sheer agony in it made many walking the streets nearby positive they were hearing restless spirits.

Snake-28 slipped away to deal with other corpses, abandoning the jounin to the tears she wouldn't shed because she had forgotten how.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Five Empty Cups

Storm crow, stark against the autumn sky, it flew.

If it had been a raven, Sasuke would have pitched rocks at it despite the way it would have ruined his formal clothes for his father's funeral.

The_ traitor_ had been fond of ravens.

Mother clutched at his hand almost to the point of pain. She had been so sad lately. She had always tried to keep him near, but he didn't want to just yet. It hurt too much to look at her and know that she was all that he had left now. He couldn't quite believe it. _Niisan couldn't have done this. Niisan had always been smiling when he wasn't on a mission, had always been nice to him, and had always looked out for him. How could Niisan have taken everyone away?_ She had told him again and again that none of them were coming back, that they couldn't come back, but he hadn't been able to understand. They had always come back before. _Why couldn't they this time?_

Mother had left him with Riko and Naruto a lot. When he had asked Riko what she was doing, his friend's sister had pinched her lips together in a thin line and had retrieved an old book from a wooden box in her closet that she said had come with her from the south. "Death myths," she had called it. It was filled with interesting pictures. Riko had haltingly read it out loud.

So many different stories had been in it. One said that the dead souls went to a place called the Underworld where they had to pay a boatman to get to where they would stay under the Daimyo of the Underworld, a strange kami called Pluton, Pluto, or something like that. The name had sounded odd on his tongue when he had tried it out. Another one said that there was an underworld ruled by a weird woman with two different halves called Hel. One side of her had been a girl and the other had been an ugly old woman. Riko had said that the best of the dead warriors didn't go to her, but instead went to some strange hall where they got to feast all the time in preparation for a battle that would end the world called Ragnarök.

There had been so many others: some with streams that good people walked through without pain and bad people got burns; others where people didn't actually die and came back as something else, something new; and others still where there had been a good place in the sky for good people and a burning place beneath the surface of the world for the evil people. Finally, she had come to one with a familiar sounding name: Shinigami.

"'Yomi holds Izanami and her shikome, but Shinigami holds us now. He consumes some to endure eternal torment and hoards the others, lulling them to wander in his wake.'" She had pointed to an illustration of a white robed demon walking a twisting road of mist, prayer beads clasped loosely in one hand as she had read the text. "'It is unknown where he leads them. Some say he takes them to a plane of peace and fulfillment, others say he leads them astray to pain and suffering in Yomi.' In any case, these are all just stories."

She had closed the book firmly. "What I do know for certain is that those that have died have never come back no matter how many times we call for them or send lanterns floating down the river to guide them home."

Sasuke hadn't been able to grasp the infinity in that statement, but something in him had ached.

She had glanced away then, looking a little uncertain. "Your family is dead, Sasuke. I can think of no way to soften this for you any more than Sandaime-sama could and to do so when you are going to become a ninja is wrong. They were killed, and they aren't coming back. Your mother is seeing to their final resting places in your clan's cemetery. There are many, many graves to dig." She had hugged him as Naruto had stared at the wall, frozen.

_They weren't coming back. They would never breathe again. Auntie would never offer him sweets. Uncle would never encourage him to do as well as… And Father… Father would never say, "As expected of my son."_ Sasuke's eyes had stung, and he hadn't been able to swallow past an aching lump in his throat.

"This is why I didn't want you to become a ninja," she had murmured to Naruto. "You are going to do this to someone else someday; you will cause this pain for someone else if you don't cause it for me first. Not so long ago, all ninja did was battle each other for supremacy. We civilians endured the chaos as best as we could and dug in for the long haul as one daimyo after another ruled over us. We could do little else; not even the 'current' daimyo could save us from the ninja that his neighbour would hire to destroy our fields and burn our homes.

"This is why they call my old home Ash Village. Two battling clans levelled it without remorse while fighting for their employers, though most of our people survived the assault by fleeing towards the volcanoes in the area. No one wanted to claim those as their territory, so they were safe enough." She had paused again, almost bitter looking. "No ninja has been welcome in the village since then. The stigma has lasted a long time in some families. To have ninja in one's family tree was to ask for trouble, to ask for retribution for that old loss." When Naruto had looked worried, she had ruffled his hair and had smiled at both of them.

"My family is very accepting though. We were refugees too about seven or eight generations ago, depending upon the line. My line is eight generations since my father is a lesser scion. My ancestor, Shinobu, came to what became Fire Country from the far west, where things were even worse. Hatred there was so common that Shinobu decided that his clan, the Matsuku, would live under the principle of compassion instead of binding us together in a common trade or position. All of his children were taught this all the way down to me and the rest of my generation. We would stand firm against the wars around us and extend what help and compassion we could without care for who received it since there is always the hope that such an act would encourage others to do the same. My father described it to me as ripples in a pond inspiring more waves of compassion.

"Things have improved a lot since those chaotic days of my grandfather and his father, but now I wonder at what cost our current peace has come at." That hadn't reassured him, but her arm around his shoulders had been much more comforting.

He wished she had been allowed to come with them because his mother was so stiff right now that he thought she would shatter. "What brought him to this?" she muttered, bowing her head. "What on earth could have made him do this? Why betray the clan? Why allow us to live when he managed to kill so many others?"

Sasuke didn't understand, so he clutched her hand tighter and hoped that she wouldn't see how he shamed the clan by crying with the not yet worthy eyes that had made his clan so famous and so dangerous to let exist.

* * *

Naruto fidgeted in his stuffy formal clothes and clattered on his wooden sandals across the flagstone path in Riko-nee's wake. He wondered why he had to wear these stupid things while she stuck to far more comfortable flat sandals, but he didn't dare ask. She had been very stern and solemn this morning when Mikoto and Sasuke had left to go to the first of the funerals with the other surviving Uchiha. She had made him dress up and had led him through the side streets to a quiet street he hadn't been to before.

He had seen the bigger shrines in Konoha, but this small one was more welcoming. The wooden _torii_ gate was rustic looking and only large enough to embrace the narrow stone path running into the simple shrine. Grass and moss grew in the cracks between the grey stones, making the path look friendlier than the ramshackle temple at the end of the lane, though even that was a lot friendlier looking than the statelier temples. At both sides of the gate, there was a stone statue of a heavily stylized lion. They didn't look much like the photos of lions Riko-nee had shown him in those library books. They were flecked with lichen besides being weathered and worn.

"Come on, Naruto." She led him to the ablution basin, demonstrated the proper cleansing ritual, and walked purposefully through the gate, the hem of her black, cotton yukata swaying around her ankles. He thought she was crazy: yukata were for summer, but it was late October. She didn't own any kimono though. She wasn't even using a proper obi, just a simple cloth belt. She looked rural even with her hair severely braided and pinned up in a sort of bun. "We have business here today."

He took one last look at the lions and ran after her, grabbing her free hand when he caught up. Something about this place made him nervous.

The long path was bordered by saplings on either side. Beyond these were simple gardens that had been allowed to wither slightly in the onset of autumn. If he squinted, he could see a small, round mirror on the building up ahead. "Neechan, why are we here?"

"Shinto is what my mother raised me under. Buddhism is what my aunt follows. I have no particular preference; I embrace all, as my father and most of my family does. I did not feel like observing Buddhist death rites today to mourn the passing of the Uchiha, so instead we have come here to observe purification and to show our deep respect for those that are no longer with us. Though we did not know them very well, they are gone, and we will respect that passing."

He glanced up at her face, but it was hard and focused.

His sister let him go when he spotted this shrine's other visitor and moved off to observe her own rituals. "Hey, Old Man!" he said, trying very hard not to stumble on his footwear.

Old man Sarutobi turned away from a larger altar and smiled sort of sadly at him.

"What are you doing here today?" asked Naruto, glancing up at the lined face. He hadn't known that Old Man had enough time to go pray.

"I am here to show respect," the Sandaime said, "and to seek absolution for some of my actions."

Naruto blinked up at him, a little confused by his wording. He would have to ask Riko-nee later when she wasn't tossing coins.

"Why are you here today, Naruto?"

"Eh, Riko-nee brought me because Sasuke and his mom are at a funeral." Naruto wondered why Old Man's face became even more lined and sad when he said that. "They wanted to do it by themselves, so we came here." Naruto frowned at him, a little puzzled. "Don't you usually go to a memorial stone or something?"

"Yes," the Hokage admitted, rubbing at the bridge of his nose, "I usually do." Naruto stared at him as he patted his hair and walked towards the exit. "Go catch up with your sister, Naruto. I will see you later."

"Later, Old Man!" Naruto hollered after him.

* * *

Life had an unfortunate habit of continuing on even when a person was being ripped apart from the inside out, as Sasuke and Mikoto found out. It was like walking on broken glass every day just getting up and going through the motions of the day.

The room she viewed upon waking was different, as was the breathing pattern of the person sleeping near her. Sasuke's inhalations were shorter and shallower than Fugaku's had ever been. It was just odd to wake up and see two watercolour paintings on otherwise bare, white walls. At first, even the smells had been wrong, but six weeks had made them unnoticeable. Greenery and ink became part of the smell associated with "home." It was always painful to walk into the house in the Uchiha compound and to be able to smell it.

Mikoto's normal morning ritual was disturbed as well. Her hosts rose with the sun, often leaving to run before seven, which was the hour she had found herself in front of the stove or the sink, preparing lunches for her men folk, two of whom were no longer around and never would be again. There was no time to sit around the table as a family unit: the morning run limited the time spent on breakfast, which was a quick meal that could be prepared in under twenty minutes and devoured in half the time. This household was fast-paced and always on the move, not like her home had been. She had always eaten breakfast with her three boys. It had been one of the highlights of her day.

The apartment was often empty with the boys at the Academy and Riko-san at work until six or seven. As a result, Mikoto found herself without company for most of the day, something she rectified by walking over to the Uchiha compound and observing the last of the clean-up most days. More often than not, one of her remaining relatives would spend the day with her, griping on about her traitor son and how hard done by the clan was. There was no end to the bitterness in those old hearts. Their last hope had been snuffed, or so they thought. Some days, Mikoto agreed with them.

Still, living in the apartment wasn't a complete loss. Her own friends were mostly dead like Kushina or had been estranged, so there was nowhere else to go. Her entire foundation had crumbled beneath her, but Naruto was there to distract her, Sasuke was there to provide support to, and Riko-san was there to listen whenever nostalgia hit Mikoto and she wanted to describe a happy memory to outweigh the gloom. But the thing that drove her past her grief the most was the new life taking shape in her womb. Sasuke had grown excited when Mikoto had explained about the baby and about how it would be coming in seven months. Something of Fugaku's yet lingered. The thought made Mikoto smile.

"Ohayo, Mikoto-san!" a cheerful voice called over the din of the main street at midday.

She turned and let her smile linger as Riko-san struggled to get through the crowds between them. That smile faltered abruptly when an elbow bashed the girl in the gut, making her double over a bit. She had always held the younger woman in contempt for taking in Naruto and defying the village so brazenly, but now that she saw how she paid for it, she wondered why she had minded so much.

"Are you all right?" she asked when the younger woman made it to her side.

Grinning easily, the girl waved off her concern. "Oh yes, I'm fine. You get used to it very quickly. I'm still working on a way to simply be able to figure out whom to avoid, but it's hard to read everybody. Everyone uses slightly different signals, and I can never quite tell… I'm getting better though."

Mikoto shot her a sceptical look that Riko ignored as they ambled along. "You are not. That man was spraying aggravation and aggression all over the place. You missed it completely. You are not getting better, or you were horrible before."

Mikoto had to admit that she was impressed at how little resentment flickered across the girl's face. "His face said nothing of—"

"It wasn't on his face. It was in his stance, in his hands, in his stride, in everything but his face. If you merely read the face, you miss the most important clues. Intuition can only take you so far." Silence prevailed after that harsh statement. Mikoto observed her companion, noting the clues that hinted at offence and worry.

"Can you teach me?" Riko asked, pausing mid-stride to plead more effectively. "Naruto hates it when I come home bruised. I don't want him to worry or to blame himself. Please, just some pointers, it would help so much."

It was hardly as if she had anything else to do. "Very well; we'll start here." She glanced around the street. "Do you see that man in the blue hat?"

The girl nodded with a slight smile on her face. _Ah, so she could read this consciously. Oh well, an easy example would be a good starting point in any case._

"Do you see how he stands in relation to that woman? Describe the emotions there."

"He is invading her comfort zone," Riko said as she looked through the contents of her wallet, pretending not to stare. "He stands too close. From her reaction, he is not welcome. He is dominating her by forcing her to tolerate his invasion of her space. She wavers between submitting to his domination and protesting: she alternates between relaxing despite his proximity and stiffening at his offensive dominance."

"Yes, she isn't happy with him, but she is too timid to protest. Note the closed hands, the closed posture." When Riko looked confused at the last reference, Mikoto elaborated on how her narrow stance was designed to promote a submissive, defensive image, essentially saying "I'm not big or important; don't look at me."

"Those are the most obvious clues. Of course, all those signals can be interpreted differently depending upon the situation, but the accuracy of this reading is fairly obvious. The most subtle signs say the same thing as her most apparent bodily cues. There are much more insignificant signals you can read with practice."

"Like what?"

"Eye movement, finger twitches, swallowing, concealed tongue movement, muscle twitches, breathing patterns, weight shifts, things like that. I catch them with my Sharingan at various distances. You won't be able to do the same, but you should be able to get to the point where you can read some of the more obvious signals at distances and the more subtle ones up close." As the girl mulled over this possibility, Mikoto's stomach growled at her. "You're on your lunch break, aren't you?"

"Yes," she said, glancing down at her watch, "for another forty minutes at least."

Mikoto arched a brow at the relief in her voice and at all the other small signals about her frame that hinted that work was something she was glad to be away from. "Difficult job?"

She felt like foreign food, so she led the way to her favourite restaurant. Pakora and jalebi was something she had only had a couple times during missions far from Konoha, but she knew a couple here that made the exotic dishes with enough accuracy to satisfy her. Knowing them, they would have some waiting for her. Pregnancy and grief had odd effects upon her appetite.

"No," Riko-san said as she rifled through her shoulder bag, "it's easy enough."

"Too easy?"

"No, it can be challenging. Every case is unique, so it's interesting. Every client has a different set of requirements and a different goal, so the approach has to be different each time."

"But?"

"But what?"

Mikoto rolled her eyes and shot Riko-san a knowing look. The girl blinked and hunched slightly, unconsciously trying to dodge questions. "Spill it," Mikoto commanded, altering her bearing to reinforce her order. Riko-san responded instinctively to the changes, submitting.

Mikoto cracked a smile at just how essential visual cues were in conversation. Riko-san could respond to them at an unconscious level, but with some training and practice, she would probably be able to do the same things Mikoto did almost instinctively. Of course, once she could observe them, she would be more vulnerable to their effects. Being able to see body language did not make a person more immune to it; if anything it made a person more susceptible because a conscious user would always base decisions upon that input. Like any weapon, it had two sides.

"I don't like to complain," Riko hedged, glancing about almost as though expecting an attack from an unlikely direction.

"Go on. You've spent weeks listening to me gabble on about things you don't understand. I'm grateful, so I offer the same. Tell me about it."

"I…" It was as if some dam broke. Timidity was replaced by resentment. "Sometimes I just want to strangle the lot of them!"

Mikoto blinked at her vehemence.

"They're just being petty and cruel even after all these years. One year of resentment, fine, I can understand and allow that, but four? I want to scream at the lot of them to get over it already. They're like the ocean about it. They think they can wear down the cliffs of my resolve just by being completely nasty until I break down. I'm not going to though; this was my choice, and I'm not turning back. They're not either, so we're just going to keep butting heads until one of us disappears.

"The things they do—knocking my papers to the floor, unplugging my lamp, stealing my pens and pencils, tipping my wastebasket over, leaving gum on my desk, and other things like that—just small things, but after days and days and weeks and months and _years_ it really starts to get to me. It builds up and festers and they start doing bigger things and bigger things when I fail to check them, to report them, to cave to their unspoken demands. I…" Rage left her incapable of further speech.

"Hmm, seems to me that you don't mind complaining all that much."

"Hn."

Mikoto laughed at how much Riko looked like Sasuke at this moment. Her mirth loosened some tight knot inside her. This was what she needed. She reached out and patted the wiry shoulder. Riko scowled at her and crossed her arms with a huff until suddenly the slight touch of mischief playing about her face was quickly subdued beneath a strange shroud of stifling decorum. Mikoto had the strangest feeling that she was looking at a cardboard priestess instead of a person. _Why would she hide behind an ineffably good-natured mask?_

The priestess paused in front of the humble looking restaurant that Mikoto smiled up at. Her sensei had taken her here after passing her genin exam. She had never stopped coming even after he had fallen along with one of her teammates on an A-rank mission during one of those wars that had all blurred together in her mind.

Tomomi cracked a wrinkly smile when she looked up at the ringing of the old brass bell. "Ah, Mikoto-chan, it has been a very long time, my dear. My heart aches for you, though it is warm because you are still with us."

Mikoto smiled again and accepted the embrace that the stooped old chef grappled her into. Those arms were so frail, traced with purple veins. The skin hung loose on those old bones as age let gravity get the better of it. The hair that had once been a rich mahogany was now coarse and grey. Mikoto hardly cared, too reassured by this familiar presence. She remembered the days long ago when Tomomi-san had laughingly set plates of strange dishes before her old team, flirting with her old sensei until it came time to pay the bill. Mikoto had envied the plump woman her height then. Now, she stood head and shoulders above the old cook. It hurt.

"Thank you," Mikoto breathed into the woman's hair. She knew that the elder had heard when she patted her back and then smiled up at her. "This is Riko-san. She is my hostess at the moment."

Riko smiled warmly at Tomomi-san and exchanged greetings.

"You have my thanks for assisting our Mikoto-chan through this most difficult time. Come, both of you, what will you have?"

"Ah, Tomomi-baasan, what else but pakora?"

Tomomi laughed gutturally and winked. "Ah, of course, my dear, with jalebi too, no?" Mikoto smiled and nodded, and Tomomi turned to Riko. "And for you, Riko-san?"

"Whatever Mikoto is having—I'm willing to try new things."

"Ah, what a brave young woman you are! Mikoto-chan, you have chosen well, as usual. The head on your shoulders is unrivalled. I shall work quickly, and you _will_ try my curry this time. Pakora is merely an appetizer, not a full meal no matter what you think. Would you care for roti while I cook?"

"Plain, if you please."

"Of course, dear, just the way you like it. Riko-san, perhaps I shall bring out some butter for you to try on it. We shall ease you into this new cuisine, no?"

"Just so!" Riko laughed as Tomomi retreated to the kitchen.

Her husband appeared a moment later with tall glasses of water for them and a basket full of roti. They thanked him, all smiles, and he bowed and retreated to his newspaper in the corner booth, content to sit on the vinyl-covered bench and let the fan play with his wispy hair.

Mikoto lectured on about the different body language signals, pointing out examples through the window, and Riko-san listened as she ate, earnest in her questions. Mikoto had her describe the emotions of a couple passers-by and the girl managed to dredge up a more detailed and accurate assessment than Mikoto had expected. _Maybe teaching this girl wouldn't take too long…_

They parted, Riko-san bound for work, and Mikoto ambling wherever her fancy took her. She didn't need to be anywhere for another couple hours. She felt like a ghost during these hours—without purpose or reason to continue to haunt the world. She didn't have a job anymore, her son was at school, and there was no housework for her to do. _What was left?_

"Kohai."

Mikoto spun and stared at the familiar face. Seeing her in drab, ill-fitting civilian clothes and a wig was always so odd. "Senpai."

Snake-28 nodded and jerked her chin in the direction of the hospital. "You seem at a loss, Kohai. Will you come with me?"

"Who are you visiting today?" Snake hated the hospital. That she would go there when not sporting some sort of life threatening wound was quite interesting.

"Two people, both unknown to you. Will you come anyway?"

Mikoto recognized Snake's desire for backup and agreed. Snake didn't have people she normally would have gone to visit. Just who these unknowns were was very interesting. The walk was silent: Snake had never been the talkative sort.

No one in the hospital lobby dared to stop them when Snake headed for the stairs to the restricted access wards reserved for ANBU and other people deserving of complete privacy or under guard. Snake's entire being screamed "professional killer" even more than Mikoto's had at the height of her career. Subtlety and Snake weren't on speaking terms, or perhaps the woman delighted in intimidation. Snake didn't give a damn about who ended up on the wrong side of her blade, and people could tell.

The pair of ANBU agents waiting at the top of the stairwell snapped to attention and saluted both of them. That was inappropriate; Mikoto hadn't been in ANBU for over ten years. At least they made move to stop her movements.

"She's with me," Snake hissed, and the pair relaxed. Being a senior agent had its perks.

Snake padded down the pristine hallway. The only light was from banks of fluorescents on the ceiling since there were no windows in the concrete walls. Only doors interrupted the flow of the corridor, each numbered, some locked, and some even sealed shut to keep their occupants in. Snake stopped at door thirty-six first and pulled a key out of her pocket.

"Stay here," she requested as she slid the door open and ventured within.

Mikoto stared through the doorway at the colourless old man sitting in the wheelchair by the window. Something about his posture shouted "catatonic" to Mikoto. He was here only in body, and, from the way Snake's body language conveyed muted sorrow, his absence grieved her. The similarity in their features suggested that they were close kin. His door was obviously locked to keep strangers out.

The agent knelt by his wheelchair and took one of his gnarled hands in her revoltingly mauled ones. Those blank eyes—a pale, impossibly washed-out green—didn't turn to look at her despite the physical contact. "Did you refuse to take your medication again today?" she asked him.

He gave no answer, but that seemed to be answer enough.

"How will you get well enough to go home if you continually refuse it?"

Mikoto glanced away from this pathetic scene, unwilling to watch her old captain fall so low. She hadn't known that Snake had kin left alive: the woman had always acted in such a life-disregarding manner that Mikoto had become convinced that she had no family to live for. Snake tried to draw her relative out for another fifteen minutes before giving up.

"It was not your fault," Snake whispered before she locked the door.

Without a word, they continued down the hall to room fifty-two, which wasn't locked. That meant someone inside could get out if he chose. Again, Snake bid her to stay out before knocking and entering when a hoarse grunt answered her. Mikoto peered at the young man reading on the bed, recovering from a broken arm. Since he was still here, he was recovering from other, less visible injuries as well. The effect of near chakra depletion was a likely option. He was familiar to her—she knew him because of his reputation, because of who his mentor had become, and because of his eye. She also knew of his father, but there were few from her generation that didn't. The White Fang had been one of Konoha's wartime idols before his fall.

"Why are you here?" the boy asked in a long-suffering tone as he flipped the page.

"Because several people requested that I keep an eye on you, foolish wolfling. They are worried, or they would be if they were not in their graves."

The young man's open eye glanced up from perusing the pages and shot Snake a sceptical look before he snorted and went back to reading. Mikoto nearly giggled. This, impossible though it was, reminded her of a rebellious son and a curt mother arguing. Snake would not have appreciated the comparison; she didn't have a maternal cell in her body, literally.

"Of course, Snake-san."

"Don't push my patience, wolfling. This hardly means I approve of you any more than before."

"You've made your dislike clear. Go on; you've done your job."

Mikoto's eyebrows rose with surprise. _What a brave pup to speak so to a viper that would obviously be more than happy to sink her fangs into his flesh. Just who had asked Snake to look out for this brat? _Whoever they had been, they must have been important because she couldn't see her old superior tolerating this task otherwise. Snake didn't do people favours unless there was something in it for her. These dead people must have offered her something that she could gain even in their absence. Still, even their leverage couldn't buy Snake's approval of this pup. From the sour look on her face, he was probably a genius like the rumours said. No wonder Snake despised him.

"I would go gladly, but you seem to be forgetting something."

The young man ignored her.

"You are cracking; I can see the chinks. Whether _they_ realize it or not is a moot point. Leave while your sanity lasts if you have any sense. Push it any farther and you will turn out like me."

That threat got through to him as nothing else Snake had said. "I'm ANBU."

"You are still yourself, _Inu_. You retain an identity beyond your mask. Cherish it because once you lose it, it is gone forever. You remember your name. I cannot say the same. Drop out while you still can. Piecing yourself back together isn't a crime. Besides, you have other obligations to fill. There are many legacies that you need to look after."

Whatever that last statement referred to caught his attention again. "I can watch out for him better as an agent."

"Can you now? Is that why I was the one that stood by him when Ne was being disbanded?"

"Even regular jounin get sent out on missions."

"Regular jounin can also take genin teams, or have you forgotten that? Be careful; I don't even remember my old sensei's name. Soon your mind will be a broken sieve like mine: retaining no information and losing so much of what defines you. Would you have those whose memories only you hold fade away completely because you forget them?"

Though he showed no fear, Mikoto could tell that the prospect terrified him. Snake knew what buttons to press, though why she wanted this boy to hand in his mask was a mystery to Mikoto. He didn't seem all that badly off… _Oh, there it was_; a slight stiffness that was almost a tremble, a sure sign of recent and deep trauma. Perhaps it was the beginnings of shellshock. No wonder Snake advised that he drop out.

Having made her point, Snake smirked falsely and left the room.

"Why do you look out for him?" Mikoto asked. It was only too probable that Snake would be unable to answer because of a promise or memory loss.

"I think it was his mother… I knew her once."

Snake blinked slowly, and Mikoto was seized by sudden sympathy. Snake didn't remember that woman anymore; it showed. All that was probably left was a series of fleeting impressions and forcibly derived knowledge. If Snake had been one of the few to know who that boy's mother was, then that woman was disappearing since Snake no longer knew her. Snake hadn't had to exaggerate her warning.

"She asked me to watch out for him about a month before she died." Though she said that confidently enough, Mikoto knew that Snake was just guessing now, perhaps hoping that keeping the supposed promise would keep the departed woman in her mind. "The Yondaime did the same when he entered ANBU."

"I thought you hated the Yondaime."

"I do, but he made an offer that was worthy of my attention." Mikoto knew better than to ask what that had been. "When you are ready to train again, Kohai, I hope you will come to me. It has been far too long since I was able to spar fully against one of the Sharingan users."

"After the baby is born and partially weaned, of course I will," Mikoto promised as they walked back down the guarded stairwell.

"Naturally."

Mikoto watched her go, wondering why she had chosen today to reveal the existence of a relative and why she had revealed it at all. There was something going on, but Mikoto had the feeling that it would be years before Snake's leaky mind patched itself up enough to reveal what it was.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: The King of Wands Finds Her Feet

Mikoto was glad that she wasn't required to tutor the boys in their lecture material. Sneaking about and subtle manipulation had always been more to her taste. She had never liked all that paper stuff, but Riko didn't seem to mind most of the time. There were some days when Mikoto could plainly see her struggle though. Today was one of those days.

The disgust with the material she was covering was plain. "Rule one hundred sixty-five: civilians are not viable targets unless eliminating them will ensure the success of the mission."

"What does that mean?" Naruto asked as he bounced on the couch despite the warning glares that Mikoto and Riko were levelling at him.

"It means," Riko managed to choke out, "that you can't kill people that aren't ninja unless it will make your mission successful. Then it is okay."

"So people like you?" Chouji asked.

"Yes, people like me."

"So if you got in the way of a mission, a ninja could kill you?" Chouji said while Shikamaru frowned. Mikoto watched Riko's struggle as her fingers clenched Sasuke's notes.

"Yes." Naruto stopped bouncing long enough to notice that his sister looked sick. "That's enough for today," she managed after a while, passing Sasuke's notes back to him with a frail smile.

He took them with a confused frown. "But we were going to cover the next fifteen—"

"I need some tea," she said before he could get into protest mode. "You can keep going without me."

"Hana-neesan doesn't need tea breaks and neither does Mikoto-obasan," Kiba complained as he reluctantly looked through his bag for his own copy of the day's notes. Riko didn't reply as she disappeared into the kitchen.

Shooting Kiba a stern look for his lack of tact, Mikoto eased herself out of her chair and took a seat in the dining room where she could observe the activity in the living room and the kitchen. Riko was staring out the window, her hands braced on either side of the kitchen sink. The kettle was filling under the tap. Only when the water sloshed out the spout and onto her hands did Riko pull herself out of her stupor and turn off the tap, pouring out the excess water ruefully. "It's amazing," she said.

"What is?" Mikoto asked as she observed the study session dissolve into roughhousing without an adult to keep order. Naruto and Kiba had started squabbling over one point or another, and things had just gone downhill from there as Chouji and Sasuke were recruited into the argument. Shikamaru was left to grumble from the couch in peace because all four of his friends knew full well that getting him involved in what he deemed "idiotic bickering" was an effort in futility.

"How quickly even innocent children can be corrupted," Riko said bleakly. "How quickly they make child soldiers out of them. I don't want this for him; I never did, but he wants it, so…"

"So you'll support him through it despite your misgivings," Mikoto finished for her, thinking of Fugaku and Itachi. She hadn't wanted Itachi to follow in her footsteps in ANBU. She knew the dangers far better than her husband had, but he had been convinced that it was the best way. "It's what family does. What you want doesn't really compare to what they think is best for themselves. I know."

"How do you stand it?"

"Ninja aren't given much of a choice in what they can stand. They either learn how to accept the way things are or die. I am still alive because I learned. They will have to learn too or we will end up burying them. It's better to simply help them learn to accept than to try to impose a contrary belief system on them that will clash with what they need to be."

"Learning to be compassionate shouldn't be brushed off as a 'contrary belief system,'" Riko insisted angrily. "It is the core concept in a workable society. Without compassion, war would be ceaseless. It is compassion that keeps the vilest crimes to the darkest watches of the night."

"Not for ninja. Murder can occur before and after lunch." Mikoto watched as the girl paled further and broke away from her gaze. "But," she relented, seeing just how hard this was for the younger woman to swallow, "just because we do this, it doesn't mean we believe in it all that much. We are just tools."

Riko's expression belied her disbelief. "Just tools…"

Mikoto let the matter drop. Shoving this down Riko's throat would not make her more willing to accept it.

Instead, Mikoto touched on a subject she had been mulling over for the past few days. It was a light enough topic that it was unlikely to ignite bitter argument. "What is also amazing is how you manage to keep your household out of debt considering how much more you are charged. This wouldn't happen if I took over the shopping. You've kept us in your home for nothing. At least let me do this if you are going to wheedle the Hokage into ordering Sasuke and me to stay until the end of my pregnancy."

"You knew about that?"

"I guessed. It seemed like something you would do, and I know that the Hokage would agree to such a request."

"I apologize for going behind your back."

"It's all right, but there shouldn't be the need for such things in future. You can trust me, you know."

Riko's relieved smile made Mikoto realize just how much the younger woman had been cut off from the village if she was this starved for female companionship. Mikoto managed to argue Riko into submitting to her desire to help pay the rent since she was taking up houseroom. She also convinced Riko to share kitchen duties and the cost of food, gas, and electricity. Throwing up her hands, Riko abandoned the argument, claiming that she could never win against a kunoichi of Mikoto's calibre.

"Well?" Sasuke poked his head out from underneath Naruto's elbow and sent Riko a questioning look. "Are you going to befriend this Shino boy or not?" she asked with her hands on her hips, having been able to figure out the gist of the latest argument.

"We haven't decided yet," Kiba said with a glower directed at Chouji, who was not light.

"We should, dattebayo! It's not Shino's fault that his clan uses bugs. I'm sure he's lonely. _Nobody_ talks to him, dattebayo!"

Mikoto wondered why on earth Naruto kept using that stupid phrase. The odd quirk did nothing in terms of making him sound more mature if that was what he was aiming for. She wondered where he had picked it up.

"You are so troublesome." Shikamaru said from the couch. "Fine, we'll try tomorrow."

Mikoto found it interesting that once Shika agreed to do something, everyone else committed. Maybe it was because no one wanted to seem lazier than he was.

* * *

Once upon a time, she would have been greeted with veiled suspicion and contempt. Clan Uchiha had not been well respected before the massacre. _Oh, there had been awe for their skill as ninja, lots of awe. What was that when compared to the possibility that the entire clan was a bunch of traitors to the village though? No, the Uchiha had not been in good social standing, not with all of those ANBU constantly watching them… _While not as overt as the discrimination against Naruto, it had been there. She hadn't been subjected to price gouging, but vendors had always left the impression that they were doing her a grand favour by letting her spend her money at their stalls. The segregation of the Uchiha section of the village hadn't helped things.

If nothing else, the massacre had erased that contempt. The remaining Uchiha were the darlings of the village, and Mikoto had no difficulties securing the foodstuffs as she had promised Riko. Indeed, she often got sympathy discounts. She was the matriarch of the clan now and was treated with the respect and obedience due to that position. The Konoha Military Police had offered her an administration position, but she had turned them down. She would not accept scraps that had been offered to the clan to keep them placated. She had no need. With so few Uchiha left, the cordon on the clan had been destroyed. The clan's section of the village was free to be sold to anyone with enough money to satisfy. Yes, the Uchiha clan would do well in the face of this betrayal. It was pale comfort.

She smiled at her great-uncle as he moved through the crowds to her side. He linked arms with her, supporting her changing body, and took a couple of her burdens in a hand that was only beginning to be marred by liver spots. She was grateful for all of the years that separated him and her grandfather. Otherwise, he would have been in the ground with her ojiisan instead of with her here.

"Sasuke will need lessons," Akio said.

"Yes, many lessons. He hasn't had the training that the traitor was given."

"There isn't much time. We have the secrets and he will have the skill, but we haven't got much time for the transfer to occur. Matsu is beginning to falter. He had maybe a year left before this occurred; the stress has reduced that time dramatically. The rate of liver failure is increasing. We are too few to finish—"

"No need," she said in a steely tone. "There was never any need, but you fools didn't see that. You were blinded by indignation."

She noted the startled and offended glance that Akio shot her, but he wasn't the clan head. She was, and she wasn't Fugaku. They would follow her or learn why she had been in ANBU and they had not. She would not suffer their foolishness any longer. She no longer had to hide beneath the meek and mild exterior expected of her by the clan. She was in charge.

Their actions had been hasty and would have led to war. She didn't doubt it was partly the reason her former son had acted as he had. Following orders had been ingrained in him too deeply. He must have been so conflicted, but this was only speculation. She was sure that there would have been orders if Itachi hadn't taken matters into his own hands, if he had, of course. There was no way to be sure, but she was not stupid. She could read the trends and spot the motivations. She had been trained to do so.

"The clan—"

"—will start anew. All will be well. Do not poison Sasuke with your bitterness. Leave him be. Teach him how to use the genetic gifts he has been given. I will handle the rest."

* * *

Sasuke followed Naruto and Riko to the library. _The building looked okay, but who knew what sorts of strange people hung out in there? _He had only been here a handful of times before and that had been with… He shook off those memories, scrubbed at his eyes to make the dust go away because it was making his eyes water, and swallowed the strange lump in his throat down. He must have eaten something bad for lunch. It wasn't because of _him_… It couldn't be. _He_ didn't matter anymore.

He glanced back up and found Naruto holding the door, staring back at him with an eyebrow raised. "Are you a slowpoke or something?" he called, and Sasuke sprinted through the portal into the unknown with a scowl. _Stupid Naruto…_ He sidestepped so that he didn't run into Riko, who put a gentle hand on his shoulder when he shuffled behind her leg at the sight of all the strange people.

Naruto stupidly bounded into the building and spun in a circle with his finger extended and halted. "That way!" he announced, leading the way into the aisle that he had ended up pointing at. Sasuke glanced incredulously at Riko, who shrugged.

"He always does this," she explained as she trailed after the idiot. "It's the way he picks out what subject he wants to get books out on every time. It's led to some interesting choices. He got out a book on cellular biology because he'd had a little too much sugar. He spun into the librarian and ended up in the microbiology section. Neither of them was happy."

Sasuke snorted at the typical way Naruto managed to screw up something as simple as picking out books.

"He did manage to get a good one though: it was a recent one with good pictures. He was spouting off about mitochondria for a couple days afterwards. He named a couple of his new plants after the endoplasmic reticulum and the other organelles because he thought they sounded cool." Sasuke could hear the amused smile in Riko-san's voice. She was weird for putting up with Naruto for so long.

"This one!" Naruto hollered, waving a scroll around.

Riko grimaced when the librarian started moving out from behind her desk with a furious expression on her face. "Run," she advised him.

Sasuke didn't need to be told twice. He slipped away and got lost in the bookshelves in the back where most of the ninja stuff seemed to be kept. Titles leapt out at him like _Fuuton Chakra: a Dissertation_, _Chakra Displacement and Its Effects upon the User_, and _A History of Genjutsu in Melee Combat_. He had the feeling that Iruka-sensei would have been pretty at home among these books, but he didn't feel quite as happy.

He froze when somebody familiar appeared at the end of the row. He knew her from this year's class vaguely: she was an irritating know-it-all and was either painfully shy or horribly loud; it all depended on whether or not she was trying to impress him. She was a _fangirl_, a member of the frightening human subspecies that was starting to morph out of nowhere. They were just beginning to stalk him. The rules his mother had drilled into him prevented him from fleeing as his instincts screamed that he needed to. He hoped he wouldn't regret this.

"Hi, Sasuke-kun," she nearly squealed, but she seemed to understand the need for quiet more than Naruto did.

He grunted in reply, considering his duty to exchange pleasantries over. This was a _fangirl_. He owed her no common politeness. She was grating on his ears.

"Are you looking for something?"

She was coming closer, so he started shuffling away. Normally, such a retreat would have been beneath him, but this time it was justified.

"No," he muttered and nearly sighed with relief when Naruto showed up, the stupid scroll that had caused this meeting still clutched in his hand. "Loser, where's Riko?"

Naruto bounded closer and frowned at him, reminding Sasuke of his promise. Rolling his eyes, Sasuke complied. Naruto tried too hard to look like an idiot. There was no need: he already was one.

"Ha! _Teme_!" Naruto crowed, pointing a finger at him over the fangirl's shoulder. "You must be here to try to catch up to me!"

"Sasuke-kun doesn't need to catch up to you," the fangirl insisted, sounding offended. "He's the best!"

Naruto's triumphant grin fell off his face. _The_ _idiot really was getting better at acting… _"Sakura-chan!" he groaned.

_Ah, so that was her name. _She scowled at Naruto and then turned to smile at him. Sasuke resisted the urge to freeze like a deer faced by a cougar. He huffed instead, sticking his chin in the air. Naruto started spouting a whole bunch of random gibberish about how awesome he was, and Sakura lost her temper defending Sasuke's image. The subject of the conversation became aware of the break Naruto had created for him and slipped away to find Riko. Her weirdness would surely keep the other crazies away.

She raised her brows at him when he sidled up beside her in the physics section. She glanced away from her scientific journal and smirked at him when he used her as a shield when Sakura appeared at the end of the aisle. "I think the coast is clear for now. Shall we go before another girl shows up?"

He shrugged, but she seemed to see right through it because her lips twitched. She tucked her journal and a book under her arm with a scroll on something called calculus and led the way to the checkout desk, where Naruto miraculously appeared two minutes later to sign out the book on botany and a comic book on the adventures of a master swordsman. Sasuke resolved to snitch it later as they slipped out of the musty library without incident.

* * *

"Henge no Jutsu," Mikoto said a month later and she sat at the base of an oak tree with some discomfort. Groans echoed around the clearing, though Shino was just as silent as ever.

"Why?" Naruto whined. "That's the easiest one now!"

"Yet you still cannot perfectly appear like another man. You always come out looking feminine." It was true. He couldn't seem to help coming out looking female even when he tried to assume Hokage-sama's appearance. "One has to wonder why."

Naruto scowled at the ground and scuffed it with his toes.

Mikoto activated her Sharingan and gestured that Chouji start them off. "Henge no Jutsu is one of a ninja's most important skills," she lectured, watching Chouji's chakra fluctuate as his hands formed the appropriate seals. "It allows the user to take on any appearance required. Such a skill allows infiltration to occur or allows a ninja to lose any pursuit in a crowd simply by appropriating another appearance. Appearance is everything." She nodded at Chouji, indicating that he had done well.

Kiba stepped forward next, and she corrected the position of his left thumb for the third seal. Its misplacement had started causing problems around his navel. The chakra had been losing its purpose. He assumed Raidou's appearance without difficulty. She smiled at him and gestured that Shino come forward.

"Appearance is everything because sight is the sense people rely on the most. Most people's sense of smell and hearing is pathetic"—she nodded to Naruto and Kiba, acknowledging their exception to this rule—"and people do not use taste or even touch, very much either. People use their eyes in this very visual world. If you can confuse those eyes, you have won half the battle. Most of human conversation occurs not with words, but with posture, facial and hand movements, and other such physical changes. Most of the exchange is picked up visually.

"Being able to control your unconscious responses in a conversation can allow you to dominate it very easily. For example, when two humans recognize one another, they will unconsciously raise their eyebrows at each other, stretching the skin of their eyelids in a gesture that almost makes them less threatening to each other." She could tell that they didn't quite believe her. It amused her. They would figure it out soon enough.

"You can twist an entire conversation without saying a word by being able to control those unconscious responses. By not raising your eyebrows at a person, you are refusing to acknowledge them as an acquaintance you find unthreatening. In that simple denial of the gesture, you have dictated the entire meeting. They will think you are hostile and will respond to that. That is how a jounin manipulates when she gets good enough."

They stared at her, mouths agape. She smirked and laid her hand on her distended belly when her child shifted inside her. She extended delicate chakra strings from her fingers through her flesh gently to caress the baby's developing brow. It was almost as good as touching the child with her own fingers, and these chakra strings had helped her calm the child on numerous occasions so she could actually get some sleep. She nodded to Shino, indicating she was satisfied with his henge of Shikamaru's father.

"Naruto, your turn," she called, watching him slouch forwards and run carefully through the seals.

His chakra control, which had improved, still bothered her. He had too much chakra, far too much. He probably had about half of what she had had when she had been at her peak. He should have had maybe a twelfth of that. He shouldn't have been using enough chakra to be expanding his reserves like this, but all of those pranks did require it from him and there was the fox to think of. Her face darkened slightly at the thought of that beast resting just behind this boy's navel. _What had the Yondaime been thinking?_

She snorted when Naruto assumed her shape, pregnant and all. It was a perfect copy as far as she could see, but she shook her head at him. "A man if you please, Naruto. You won't get better if you don't practice. Do Iruka."

He pouted and dropped her appearance. How odd. Such an undignified expression had not been allowed on her face since she had turned fifteen. She shook her head and sighed when Iruka came out looking distinctly feminine looking.

"Naruto, men don't have hips, not like that. Improve upon the build and watch the positioning of the scar. You've got it a little too far up on his nose. His hair is slightly shorter too. The eyes are too large. Tone them down. Iruka is a man, not a feminine creature. Again."

Kiba and Sasuke snickered as Naruto mimed flipping the bird at them and tried again.

"Better. Again, the scar. Put more meat on his calves, take the fat out of his thighs, and watch those bandages around his ankles. Lower the cheekbones and give them less definition."

Naruto sighed and did it again.

"Even better. Flatten out the buttocks. His are not round. Thicken the ankles. He isn't a scrawny, birdlike creature like your sister. Adjust the position of the ponytail and strengthen the chin."

"Loser, you should just admit defeat and always become a girl."

"Shut up!"

"Sasuke, quiet. Naruto, focus. Your hands lose the proper seal shape when you form the _inu_ seal. Concentrate and create the proper intention for the chakra."

The tomoe in her eyes spun as she tried to figure out just what always made Naruto go wrong. When the smoke cleared, she sighed and shook her head at the unfamiliar blonde girl standing in his place. If Henge had forced physical changes, she very much doubted Naruto would have assumed a shape with an F-cup. The back pain would have been beyond belief if the girl had actually existed and been that slender. The wary reactions of the other boys told her that they were waiting for her to detonate. Maybe Riko had caught Naruto doing this once.

"Naruto, drop it and try again."

Pouting, Iruka appeared out of the smoke a couple seconds later. She turned to the other boys, waiting to see if they noticed any mistakes. They traded glances and shrugged. She sighed at their obliviousness. Even Sasuke hadn't noticed. She would need to work on this with him.

"Naruto, fix his ear. Iruka-sensei doesn't have a jade stud in his left earlobe."

Naruto laughed wickedly and the other boys sniggered when they realized its presence and the shape of it.

This was going to be a long afternoon.

* * *

Today was the day; he could tell. It was the day, just as yesterday had been, and just like the day before that had been, but it was going to be worse somehow, much worse. It was almost time to run.

Sasuke glanced nervously at the clock, whispered a prayer under his breath, and glanced desperately at the empty seat at the back of the classroom. Naruto was skipping today. Sasuke hoped he came through somehow. Shikamaru and Chouji weren't much help yet, Kiba was always too busy laughing to be of much use, and Shino… well, Shino tried, but he didn't really understand yet even though it had been two months now. He would soon though.

Sasuke's hands acquired a thin coating of sweat as the minute hand crept closer and closer to the hour. Iruka-sensei wound up his lecture and began assigning homework. Sasuke jotted it down and tucked his papers away. Kiba better have done a good job taking notes today or Sasuke was going to help Naruto pummel him. The last set had been spotted with drool. It was a good thing that Shikamaru hadn't actually been slumbering. He had managed to remember which pages Iruka had been lecturing on in the manual. That had been a lucky save.

He was startled out of his thoughts by Iruka announcing that that was all. He traded serious looks with his friends, who scurried out the door. Well, everyone except Shika did. Shikamaru was lazy and no amount of desperation on Sasuke's part could change that. Sasuke gave them two minutes. It was all he could afford to spare. The vultures were closing in on him, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun!" squealed one of the predators, her hands clasped in front of her and her eyes opened much wider than was necessary to convey excitement. Sasuke was sure they were going to fall right out of her head if she tilted it forward. "Do you want to walk home with me?"

"Hey!" shouted another girl, appearing behind the first of the wolves and grabbing a handful of her hair. "I saw him first!"

"Shut up!"

"No, you shut up!"

Sasuke almost thought he could escape until another three girls abandoned their desks and gathered around him. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted the sole sane girl in the class gathering up her books and walking forlornly towards the door. Her name was Hyuuga Hinata, and he was convinced she was the human among the wolves masquerading as females. He was sure that she had some sort of crush on the moron because he was the one she always seemed to be staring at in class. Sasuke wasn't sure if this actually made her much better—what sort of person could see something worth idolizing in the loser?—but he shrugged it off and slipped out the door after her. She had kept it open for him, so used to this routine that she had actually taken to helping him.

He had the feeling that his and Naruto's act wasn't fooling her. She had probably seen them slip up a couple times after school. Acting like enemies only happened in the presence of anyone from the Academy. Sasuke was sure that they had missed Hinata on more than one occasion. It would have irritated him, but she was so quiet that he hardly knew she was in class most of the time.

In any case, she was human enough to leave the door open for his escape. He shoved his other arm through the strap of his knapsack as he scurried coolly down the hall and out a window, ready to run like hell. He had to run because the mob was after him today rather than just the one or two scarily obsessed girls. He scowled at the blow his dignity suffered as he leapt up on top of the stores near the Academy and ran lightly on the rooftops, letting Chouji begin phase one. The chubby boy managed to distract a couple by claiming he had seen Sasuke head down an alley to the market. Sasuke had no time to gloat though. A couple was not the entire hunting party.

He shimmied down a drainpipe and sprinted down a couple alleys, passing Kiba and Akamaru. The former winked and laughed at him. Sasuke was tempted to show him the finger, but settled on scowling instead and continued on his way as the sound of many feet got closer, leaving Kiba and Akamaru to freak out the girls by posing as starving stray dogs. Kiba would probably pretend to have rabies again. It was amazing how the fangirls didn't learn.

Sasuke continued on his roundabout way home, sometimes backtracking to put some off the chase until he ran into Shikamaru, who was acting as lookout and coordinator.

"They are still eight on your trail." He yawned, leaning up against a tree amidst the afternoon crowds. "Shino got a couple of them when you went through that warehouse. They ran pretty quickly in the opposite direction when his bugs got them."

Sasuke waited for the master strategist to get on with it.

"I got word to Naruto." Tension leaked away, but only slightly. The idiot didn't always have good ideas when it came to helping. "He was preparing for this today. It is Valentine's Day."

Sasuke scowled. He hated today.

"He claims he's got a good use for all that chocolate and some glue he was saving up for."

Sasuke finally grinned.

"Head east. He's set it all up on that street with the supermarket. He wanted maximum carnage."

Sasuke only had time to nod because the sounds of the hunters were getting louder. Shikamaru waved him onwards, but Sasuke hardly needed such encouragement.

He ran.

The fangirls pelted after him.

He ran faster.

The fangirls started entreating him.

He fled towards the end of the line for them.

All hell in the form of chocolate and superglue broke loose and the girls screamed bloody murder when the sweets plastered them, catching in their hair and messing up their clothes. Sasuke had no doubt a lot of them were going to have to cut off great hanks of hair to get those chocolates out. Some were insanely determined though. Four kept after him, so Sasuke ran like hell along the homestretch while Naruto kept up his barrage of overly sweetened junk with a slingshot until he got to the end of the roof of the supermarket. Sasuke sprinted along the very twisted course he used to put the deranged creatures off his trail.

Two minutes later, he flung open the door, slammed it behind him, panting heavily, and leaned against it once it was safely locked. Some of them had gotten faster. He was going to have to work on Shunshin no Jutsu with his mother, or he was going to get mauled. He glanced up at spotted Riko-oneesan staring archly at him from her desk, her pen suspended above her paper. He really wished that she didn't get off early some Thursdays.

"Rough day?" she asked, keeping a straight face.

He was very grateful for that mercy. If she had laughed, he didn't know what he would have done. He nodded.

"Your mom is out. No telling her?"

He shook his head.

"Got it," she assured him and turned back to her papers, leaving him to catch his second wind.

He was so glad this horrible day only came once a year.

* * *

Mikoto clutched the note Itachi had left that had stayed in the Hokage's care. The Sandaime sat at his desk as she processed the hints her former son had given her. He had made her wait so long for the chance to read this note. Why, she didn't know. All she knew was that the emotional distance she had gained over the months had disappeared. The wounds reopened and bled anew. Every bit of bitterness from before welled and threatened to choke her.

He had spared her only for Sasuke, only for now. He had spared her because he had seen that she had resisted the coup. The lack of affection cut deep. She had borne him, raised him, triumphed with him, loved him with a mother's fierce and unfailing regard, and he hated her. It was as though he had wrapped his wiry fingers about her heart and was compressing it in a grip of steel. She had failed him. She had maybe three years. When Sasuke graduated, he would be an adult in the eyes of the village. Itachi would consider her fair game after that.

There was so little time to impart so much to her son. She had to get him as ready as possible without pushing him too hard. He was precious. She wouldn't break him, not when he was all she had left. Fugaku had always wanted too much from his children. She wouldn't make his mistake.

She clutched at the note and tried to stay calm. Itachi didn't know about his youngest sibling. The baby was safe for now. Itachi's affection for Sasuke had saved two lives. The rest had all been accidental.

Sasuke couldn't be told. Itachi wanted it that way, and she wouldn't object, not when she wanted Sasuke focused on the future instead of the past. If the traitor were killed, then the means would be what he willed. She wouldn't let her precious younger son fall, not when she had lost one son already. They had both been so dear to her. _To have them fighting… To have one destroy the other…_ She hardened her heart to her firstborn. He wanted this. He would have it. Sasuke would advance. She would let him have his goal, but she wouldn't let it drive him insane. Revenge never did work out the way it was intended.

"You should be safe for now," the Hokage assured her, about to lie and say that he had ANBU after her son and that he would be brought to justice soon, but she snarled at him.

He didn't understand. Everything she had worked so hard for was shattered in her hands. Her understanding was ruined now. _Who was responsible? Danzou? The council? The Sandaime? The elders? _That unknown kept her from lashing out. She didn't know, but he did. She wanted to pull the words from him so that she could have a target, but he would keep silent. He would protect them and try to cover up his failure to stop this tragedy. Besides, revealing her suspicions would be dangerous.

"Safe? When was anything ever _safe_? No, we are in more danger than ever."

_What should she do about Itachi though?_ He wanted peace. She would give him peace in one way or another. He had protected his brother to the best of his ability. She could forgive a little because he had done that, but no more than that. He had chosen the village and stability over his family. She couldn't forgive him for that. It was beyond her.

"_Beware. Our eldest still lives."_

That was his parting line. _What_ _did it mean? _ When she asked, the Sandaime shrugged, lying again. The blood on Jaguar-san's arm flashed through her mind. _Who had put it there?_ Itachi wouldn't have bothered to hurt her like that. _Two sets of footprints…_ Maybe ANBU had done more than fake battle.

"I'm afraid I have no explanation for that."

_More doubts now…_

* * *

One Sunday saw Naruto in the middle of setting up his start-of-the-school-year prank; he had had to put it off for two months because the jounin and chuunin had been watching him like hawks. He had chosen his target carefully: a street in downtown Konoha was about to meet toilet paper. He was carefully moving his supplies (about ten jumbo-sized packages of the stuff) into a dumpster nearby when Shikamaru came running. Naruto's jaw almost hit the dirt when he saw that; whatever it was had to be really important to get Shika moving faster than a lazy amble. Shikamaru sprinted towards him the moment he picked Naruto out of the shadows.

"You've got to come right away." Shika panted, propping his hands on his knees, "Mikoto's having her baby."

* * *

Where Itachi and Sasuke had been quiet babies, so quiet indeed that the doctors had fretted, the little girl that was delivered at one in the morning was loud enough the people in the halls heard her first cries. When Riko, Naruto, and Sasuke arrived after work and school were finished, they all gathered around to see little Ryuuka, so named because of her mighty roar.

"She's so small," Sasuke muttered, awed as she wailed gustily.

"If she had been any bigger, your mother would have had problems getting her out," Riko pointed out.

Naruto was quiet for once, in awe of the little hands the girl possessed as she sleepily wrapped them around his finger, quieting as her mother rocked her a bit.

"She'll get bigger pretty fast. Soon you won't even recognize her," Mikoto said, smiling gently at her son. "She'll need her big brother to protect her until she can do it herself though. Are you ready to do that?"

Sasuke nodded gravely, his eyes fastened on his little sister.

Mikoto smiled grimly, satisfied that her daughter would not suffer the same fate as the rest of her family. Sasuke would watch over her and she would watch over both of them and keep them alive despite the wishes of others. Her clan would _not_ die with her son no matter what other, supposedly wiser, heads thought. The Uchiha were a problem that would stick around for a good long while if she had anything to say about it, orders be damned. The Uchiha had helped found Konoha. Konoha would not continue without an Uchiha presence.

She would not be placated with paltry offerings as the clan had been with the creation of the Military Police. She would not accept how the clan had been cordoned off, separated from the village, and made into outcasts. She had been ANBU. She had known about the clan's fall from grace. She had left the black ops because of the conflict of interest. It had begun even before the Kyuubi's attack. Fugaku had seen. Fugaku had wanted to rectify this. Fugaku was dead, but she wasn't.

Sasuke was Naruto's best friend. If Naruto became Hokage—she was beginning to think it was possible the more time she spent with him simply because of his sheer tenacity—Sasuke would be given a position of trust. The Uchiha would assume their proper place in society. She would make sure Naruto got to achieve his goal. There was no need for a coup, not when there were better ways of achieving the same end.

That had been what Fugaku had refused to see and that was why the clan was dead. He had been impatient. She wasn't. She could wait decades for her hopes to bear fruit. Sasuke would see the Uchiha right and he would do it without understanding the degradation of the Uchiha in the past. There would be no bitterness in him for that. As heir, he needed to have a clear head. Thus, she would handle the darker end. She would see to it that the proper people paid for the massacre someday, but she could wait until they thought they were safe and that all had been forgiven and forgotten…

She was a woman. She could hold a grudge quietly for decades if need be. Time would only allow the rage to grow.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Five Pillars of Enlightenment

Mikoto grunted as she pushed away her attacker. It had been a long time, too long, since she had last been made to fight for her life.

Fires raged against the enemy's earth only to be quenched by the water. Jounin could utilise more than one element, but fire was Mikoto's crutch. Uchiha always used katon. It helped associate them with the ultimate representative of fire, the Kyuubi. Of course, this connection hadn't done them much good.

_Pain!_

"You lose focus, Kohai."

Her opponent slipped out of range and was ready to strike again before Mikoto managed to suppress her reaction to the hard blow to the knee. This one gave no quarter and killed without provocation. Mikoto hoped she was up for this challenge. She retaliated with speed that blurred motions as ninjutsu demolished the training ground with terrible ease.

"Forgive me, Senpai. Bitterness is hard to suppress even in the midst of battle."

"But not good when you should only be fixed upon the prize. You know this. I know you do. A good competitor keeps her focus in the game."

"But is it a game?" Mikoto asked, her trios of tomoe circling her pupils in order to figure out Snake's next more before she grimaced and shut off the doujutsu. There was no point. Fighting with Sharingan against another user was about the same as battling Snake on a level playing field, and that was why she was here. She needed to prove to herself that she didn't need Sharingan to be a jounin.

The stocky woman only known as Snake-28 smiled thinly, her chapped lips stretching across her asymmetrical skull. One eye canted above the other and that was only the beginning of the slight differences between the two faces. The mask with the green markings of a solo agent was the face Mikoto usually associated with her old captain though.

"It is always but a game, Kohai."

Mikoto shook her head: only Snake would see Konoha's ruin as a game. She had forgotten how Snake's faith in the village had never existed. It was why she was a good contact in ANBU though. Snake was efficient, experienced, and utterly disenchanted with humanity. Without scruples, her only drive was to be the best at everything. Snake was ANBU to the core save that she didn't care a whit for Konoha or the Hokage.

Once, Mikoto had despised her superior for being this way. That was before she had learned of the interrogation and the resulting gangrene infections Snake had once faced during an old war. Snake couldn't really be classified as female anymore; for that, there was no recompense. With her family slaughtered and mostly forgotten, Mikoto was beginning to understand her senpai. It was disturbing.

"You always say that," Mikoto joked and summoned the chakra required to activate the fiery dragon ninjutsu that would end the match. Fire and heat roared victory, but Snake bulled right through them, unfazed. A watery snake saw to the dragon before it could open its mouth and a light touch with kunai to her ribcage above her heart and to one of her kidneys settled things instead.

"My point, Kohai."

Cursing typical Uchiha arrogance, Mikoto nodded, acknowledging Snake's victory. Doing otherwise would be foolish. Snake hated sore losers.

"I say it because I believe it. All is but a game, Kohai. You had best figure out what team you play for." Snake's pleasant expression was a lie.

"When you can't even say you truly belong to the one you run with?"

Snake's hypocrisy knew no bounds. "I run with them. That should be enough. I don't have to believe in them any more than you do.

"Ask your question. You know as well as I do that I don't fight the same way your former son does. Your skills are almost at the level they were at before. You can't tell me you're improving simply because you fear Itachi. That's not like you, Kohai."

Mikoto stifled her amusement that her old captain could still read her like a book. "Do you know if the attack was ordered?"

Snake wouldn't report her traitorous queries. Snake's definition of "traitorous" was very iffy: she had once let an assassin get within striking range of the Sandaime just for kicks; he had gotten the message and had taken her off guard duty. Besides, Mikoto didn't know whom else to ask. Questions were dangerous things nowadays. There were only so many in the know that she could trust, and fewer still that she could trust with this particular set of questions.

"Ah." Snake smiled again, the wrinkles of age gaining deeper shadows at this false expression of mirth. No laugh lines graced this old face, just regular wrinkles and old scars. Snake had never had much to laugh about. "You didn't believe the cover story."

"No. Sandaime-sama merely lied with his words. His eyes were easy enough to read."

"He must have been moved to pity, more the compassionate fool. Pity never won him any matches against the council. His power is waning. Vultures are circling, you among them, though you are not the most powerful or driven. No, I do not know of what you speak. Suspicion I have in great supply, but proof… No, I have nothing that you could bear to act upon, even if you were as crooked as me."

"Do you think there are written orders?" Mikoto asked, but Snake shook her head, the scars spanning her bald scalp gleaming dully in the shifting light as leaves rustled in the wind.

"No, genocide would not have come with written orders, Kohai. You know that. That's not how ANBU works. Papers can't lie as easily as agents can. You know who is likely though."

"Danzou, the advisors, the feudal lords, the Daimyo, and Sandaime-sama; only they would have enough authority to order the annihilation of one of the founding clans. Itachi understood the chain of authority. If he was acting under orders, he would only have bowed to those people."

Snake nodded, nothing in her manner leaning towards one option over the others. "Sandaime-sama is unlikely though, given how much he advocated the talks. He is too much of a scholar and peacemaker to advocate genocide under normal circumstances. He knows the full story, but I doubt his orders are behind it. He knows better than to interfere with the clans in such a direct manner. It is more his style to assign watchers and to wait for a peaceful resolution. Even the Hyuuga sacrifice to Kumo happened without his direct influence."

"I didn't know that."

"The Hyuuga have stiff spines. Like all groups, they bicker internally and present a united front to outsiders. They amuse me."

Mikoto pushed uneasiness and the desire to laugh beneath surface calm and said mockingly, "You have said so many times, Senpai. Ever the cynic."

Snake smiled that insincere, thin-lipped smile. "As you become one, Kohai. Be wary of delving too deeply into this. I tried once. Senior ranking though I am and possessing more than three and a half decades of service at that point, I was denied. You are still watched; teaching the fox boy has made many suspicious. Prying will not be tolerated by whoever may be guilty. I would advise you to go directly to the source."

"To Itachi?"

Snake nodded.

"It's impossible."

"Then you are at a dead-end, Kohai. You are bound by the ethics you should have abandoned. Kill first; find out if you were wrong later."

Mikoto knew better than to ask Snake to act on her behalf. She didn't do missions out of charity or loyalty. Money had no sway on this deranged creature.

"For now," Mikoto promised.

Snake donned her ceramic mask and truly smiled at her. "For now," she agreed before pulling her cowl back on and disappearing.

* * *

Weeks later, Mikoto's arms ached and shook, but she kept her hold on the tree limb. It was horrible how she had lost her edge over the years. Before, she could have hung here for five hours before she reached this level of strain. She had only been here for forty-five minutes.

Mikoto's branch shook under the new arrival's weight. The visitor crouched and peered into her face. Only her eyes were visible behind the soot-streaked porcelain.

"You've put faith in a shuriken fodder replacement for the old jerk."

Mikoto could only stare. Snake had obviously just gotten back, yet here she was throwing too accurate accusations about her plans for Naruto's future in her face. The mission must have been dull to allow Snake to ponder on wild theories.

"You know, your silence is as telling as denial would have been in another." Snake stood and casually put her foot on Mikoto's right hand. Their eyes locked. "The Hokage would be displeased to discover that his irrational hopes of redemption through you and your son are nothing. However, others would only be too glad to have me finish the job. By rights, I should kill you for plotting treason for events that didn't officially happen."

The pressure on Mikoto's hand spiked until she was sure her bones would buckle, but she concealed her agony. "That would be hypocritical of you since I know you blame the Sandaime."

Snake laughed and bestowed the same treatment on Mikoto's left hand before crouching again and balancing on the balls of her feet to concentrate the force on the first joints. Mikoto could only grit her teeth as Snake's breath echoed in her mask. "Do you honestly think they're going to let him live much longer? They've been debating it since the fucking Flash dropped the mess in their lap."

"Killing him might release the Kyuubi. He is the last of the Uzumaki, the best equipped to handle containing the beast. He will have a sensei," Mikoto managed to hiss without screaming as Snake ground her fingers into the bark.

"Oh, and men are infallible. Fugaku delivered. Sandaime delivered. I forget these simple truths, but then my mind is not what it was in my youth." Snake stepped off her hands and almost seemed to smile patronizingly down at her, though Mikoto couldn't see those thin lips stretch in to the shadowy facsimile of joy. The porcelain expressed the sentiment better. "But boys can be made more, I suppose. Be wary."

The branch was still jouncing from Snake's departure when Mikoto hauled herself up and cradled her poor hands.

This complicated things. She would have to make sure he was capable of surviving, quickly.

* * *

"_The Scroll of Seals…"_

"… _and of course they guard the Scroll..."_

"_Chuunin…"_

"_The Hokage himself!"_

"_ANBU don't…"_

His sister's voice hacked through sleep. "Naruto, it's time to go if you want to run with me!"

Naruto had never thought that such a tiny mention would trigger dreams like this. He had heard Jaguar say something to Neechan about it years ago. He had been half-asleep at the time and far more worried about the horrible things that usually happened on his birthday. Ever since a training session with Mikoto-obachan a couple days ago, that reference had come back to bite him in the ass.

They had been sparring. Landing one hit on her would have signalled the end of the game. Unfortunately, his bunshin scheme, while good in theory, hadn't worked out the way he had hoped.

"Do you think that these illusions are actually good for something?" she had asked him, frustration obvious, after handing him his ass in an embarrassing manner. She had been especially ruthless for some reason. "People are going to be trying to kill you and you ruin the purpose of Bunshin no Jutsu by trying to knock your opponent off his feet! They're just projections, simple illusions!"

"What's the point of them then?" he had grumbled. "They can't even hit someone! Why should I waste energy on them? I mean, 'clone' is a word that means a real copy, isn't it? That's what I want, but this jutsu…!" He had clutched at his hair, trying to come up with a better reason, but Mikoto had held up a hand.

"There is a jutsu that does what you want. There are several, actually, but you could not handle them: they use elements you aren't compatible with. There was one that could make armies, but…" She had shaken her head. "No, it's foolish. That one is forbidden."

"What do you mean?" he had pressed, peeved at how she had dangled hope in front of him only to yank it away. "Why would it be forbidden?"

"Oh, just that form of the jutsu is forbidden," she had said. "The regular form is permissible in other countries, but it isn't recorded here except for… Well, maybe…" He had been ready to scream with frustration until she had turned to him. "Solid clone jutsu are useful, just as you say. I've copied a lot of them. Usually, the jutsu can only generate one or two clones, which isn't what you want, but it's all I can offer. The only way to create masses of clones is in the Scroll of Seals. Since that is out of your grasp, I'll give you the limited, safer version, which is still useful."

Mikoto-obachan had copied over five hundred jutsu according to Sasuke, but Naruto had never seen Obachan use any clones except for Bunshin no Jutsu. He got the feeling that she didn't like them. When she had shown him the messy set of handseals and coached him without demonstration through the first use of this unwieldy Kage Bunshin, Naruto had been a little miffed. She had known these all along, but hadn't shared. When the clone had reacted sluggishly to his poke, Naruto had had to grin even though this version of the jutsu sucked. He had to wonder if the guy Mikoto had copied it from had been incompetent.

It was hardly better than Bunshin. With that, he could get ten illusory clones if he sweated and swore. With Kage Bunshin, the jutsu resisted more than two clones. He supposed that his exhaustion and the sheer solidness of the clones had something to do with it. The guys were slow, but they reacted to spoken orders. They burst into smoke when Obachan knifed them, but were otherwise reliable. They weren't what Naruto had wanted though, so that reference to the Scroll of Seals stayed with him, tormenting him with promises Mikoto-obachan hadn't actually voiced.

Neechan badgered him into running with her before they had breakfast. As he stumbled through Neechan's breakfast quiz and grabbed a bag of limes he had acquired yesterday for his latest prank to keep the boredom of skipping class at bay, the beginnings of a crowning scheme tugged at his brain. Perhaps it was time to show Konoha exactly why he would make as good a Hokage as those old faces on the mountain.

* * *

Nariko shook her head at the memory of the memory of the vile grin on her brother's face as she quickly slipped off the main road to make her way to work on the side streets—she hated how she had to brave main street censure to buy her favourite meat buns for lunch. That boy, he was going to do something horrendous. She was sure of it.

The last time he had gotten that smile on his face, sixteen ninja had hunted her down. Oh, it had been brilliant to spike the chuunin lounge coffee with laxatives, but bringing the chuunin down on her head had not been appreciated. At least he had had the sense to leave the jounin or—gods forbid—the ANBU lounge alone.

The effects of that grin had rippled. The audit of one of her clients had put her in danger of losing her teeth to fury as the taxman had gone through records with a sneer. Sasuke had then managed to get in a heap of trouble for fighting at school.

Nariko wondered if bailing out to the marshes for a few weeks to avoid the coming storm was worth it. But no, Naruto would never go along with it since he would miss his exam. Ii-san would boot her for sure too. He wasn't superstitious, but she had good reason.

* * *

The best places to hide from wrath were often right in the thick of the sway of authority. Naruto had discovered this contradiction very early in life. When in doubt, go hide in Admin and no one would ever find him. It usually worked.

Today, he admitted to ulterior motives.

His lime prank had gone very well. The old windbags that jabbered at Old Man before and after meetings were currently screaming about how their eyes stung. Now, let it not be said that Naruto was vicious. Sure, he had bought two whole limes, but he had not gone in intending to burn the creaky ones' eyes out. In fact, he had only meant to inundate them in sticky residue.

He had slimed lime over every flat surface in their homes. Lime residue on fingertips had apparently had some effect on eyes. He was currently calling this unintended side effect "risk of contamination," and it was why he was hiding from the wrath of two old fussbudgets and the exasperation of the Hokage.

He flattened himself against the ceiling above the door of the wheelchair only bathroom as angry snarls and running feet passed by. Doors were flung open in the hall; it was only a matter of time before they got here, but slipping into the ventilation duct wasn't feasible. He cursed the fact that while his five-year-old frame had fit snugly, his twelve-year-old bulk could do no such thing. It was a good thing that little kids didn't get sent to murder Old Man because they could have dropped right on his head.

The wall's shaking interrupted his peculiar musings.

"When I find him, I don't care what Hokage-sama says! I'm going to have him drawn and quartered!"

Now, Naruto didn't feel that any artist would be capable of depicting his awesomeness and being shoved in a room didn't sound like fun, so he focused on not utilising much chakra. Using a henge to better conceal himself in an alley had only drawn the hunters down upon him last time. Iruka-sensei had hinted about clumsy chakra use being as subtle as beating a ninja over the head with a club and having a neon sign say, "Naruto is that way!"

Since such signs were detrimental to his ears and the way he spent his free time, Naruto had taken the lesson to heart and had reduced his use of chakra when being hunted. Keeping out of harm's way required a delicate balancing act between using chakra to escape and not using it to avoid detection. Obachan's daily practice sessions only improved the stability of this balance, so he was less inclined to argue with how she forced him to repeat the same stupid exercises.

He willed his nose to be shorter when the door whipped open underneath him. Since he could always feel it when people stared at him, he shut his eyes and kept his breath slow and quiet, glad that he had eschewed orange today if only because he had forgotten to do laundry yesterday.

The rush of air through his thin shirt and hair when the door shut again nearly raised a ragged sigh of relief. Thank Ramen that Izumo got clumsy when he got angry.

It wasn't time to abandon ship though. Being "in the clear" meant that moving was a bad idea unless Kotetsu started covering for his partner's klutziness.

"Geez, man, cool it or you're gonna miss something. Hokage-sama will kick the little bugger's ass this time. The Elders are hardly going to let him slide."

_Oh, crap. _Now it was time to abandon ship.

Naruto quickly reviewed his mental map of Admin and tried to remember search patterns. _Hmm, the Hokage's level would have already been swept, but it would be heavily guarded…_ However, safety lay beyond that cordon and his target was in the Hokage's archives.

_Decoy time! _Naruto formed Mikoto-obachan's complicated series of handseals, and a kage bunshin exploded into being on the floor. It glanced up at him incredulously, but Naruto merely shot it an evil grin as Kotetsu shouted about feeling him nearby.

"You're a bastard, you know that?" the clone spat before ripping the door open and disappearing with a mighty burst of speed.

Naruto graciously forgave the rude clone as chakra drain hit him. _Damn kage bunshin always took so much out of him! _He maybe had thirty percent of his vitality left. The floor roiled below him as Kotetsu ran past the open door, howling his name as the clone managed a vile cackle in the general vicinity of the stairs.

"He's heading towards the electrical room on the next floor down!"

"Hurry! Head him off!"

"Raidou, he's heading for you!"

Naruto's world righted itself as the sounds of pursuit faded away. Since that bugger clone had more chakra than he did, it had better last a good long time.

He dropped to the floor and began stealthy action towards the stairs. He was Katsu, the master spy following Hiroji in _Bent Trees_. He was slick, smooth, and six times as suave as the awesome Hiroji. Katsu could be anyone, anywhere, and fought with an outdated pistol, which wasn't much good against ninja. Naruto imitated this by forming a gun with his fingers as he stealthily slid alongside the wall.

With the theme music from the movie playing in his head, Naruto worked his way around to the back stairs and stuck himself to the ceiling, gecko-like, as he used a mirror to see who was watching this stairwell. There was a chuunin leaning against the door back into the main building, but he was lax. He had obviously underestimated the awesomeness of Katsu.

Naruto wriggled past the chuunin. Pressed in the corner between the ceiling (the next floor's landing) and the wall the chuunin was leaning against on the other side, Naruto assessed the probable visual range of the chuunin and avoided that area as much as possible, hoping that his mental map was right. Working his way along the outside would be easier for the next two floors since this stairwell ended and he would have to cross the floor to find the next one.

The next chuunin was not as relaxed. Naruto cursed how the window was in her range of vision and wondered if backtracking would be necessary.

Naruto decided the moment his evil clone ran right past the window as the chuunin was looking that he was going to get a better version of this jutsu, hell or high water. It was infuriating how the stupid smoke dude had enough chakra to go bouncing past windows and how it could just disappear into a noxious cloud if something went wrong. However, the clone was useful. The twitchy chuunin darted out the window with a snarl, and Naruto only hesitated briefly before following her. Naruto shimmied up the wall, carefully avoiding windows despite the henge he had reluctantly donned.

Two floors up, he looked for a likely window. This was the aides' level and most of them were gawking like chickens to avoid work. Naruto found an open window near an abandoned desk and praised the March weather that had inspired this security breach. After slipping in, he crouched behind a desk.

Naruto flattened himself to the floor to see how crawling would go. He had managed to get from stairwell to stairwell at seven by crawling, but with things in an uproar, it was likely such indignity wouldn't be necessary. Besides, all those old desks had been replaced with ones that sat on the floor with no room to crawl under like the old ones had. He blamed the effectiveness of the balloon escapade that had followed the crawling feat.

As his clone and several chuunin darted around like maniacs, Naruto headed towards the stairs, keeping his head down and his chakra as quiet as he could while looking busy. There were a couple close calls as the desk workers shifted from window to window to get a better view, but Naruto prevailed and darted up the steps, putting his fingers back in the gun shape and dropping the henge.

He nearly ran into an ANBU operative.

Fortunately, his clone unwisely tried to scramble through the window right near Tiger, who apparently was delighted with the opportunity to show the bunshin why such an action wasn't recommended. Naruto took advantage of this opening, eschewing all chakra and creeping on his toes. He had the feeling that Tiger thought this whole debacle was hilarious because Naruto heard deep chuckles as his clone screamed and disappeared.

Naruto prayed Jaguar was similarly affected when slipping through the door to the Archive revealed her standing guard there. He felt horribly silly with his fingers still holding the gun shape as the door hit the wall and bounced back only to slow to a stop. They stared, not daring to blink, or at least Naruto didn't. It was hard to tell what Jaguar did.

"Was it really a lime and not a bottle full of acid?" she whispered.

"You really think I would buy acid when limes are cheaper?" he asked with injured dignity. "Besides, they always look like they'd sucked on lemons when they looked at me. Lemons were too strong though. I didn't want to burn their eyes out." Suave, he had to be suave and charm Jaguar into letting him off the hook. _How did one "be suave?"_ "Umm, your armguards are very clean today; did you polish them or something?"

When Jaguar stared at him, the theme music in his head skidded to a stop. Naruto fought hard to keep from smacking himself. _How the hell was that suave?_

"Don't hurt yourself, Katsu." _Flipping hell, how did she know?_ "I think you've watched that movie enough times on Sasuke's TV. It's obviously not helping. Wait a few years before you try that again."_ Dammit! She had been watching through the window again, hadn't she?_

It was time to bullshit his way through this. He drew his gun closer to his face and pulled on a desperate and stern look. "You'll never take me alive!"

He was a little disappointed when she snorted and her shoulders shook. However, the way she stepped aside and mockingly gestured that he could go on in made this insult a moot point. He skedaddled past her with a merry grin.

When the door shut him in the gloom of the hidden library, Naruto fought back the urge to gulp. He had never been in here before. This library filled up the centre of two whole floors and it was heavily guarded with all sorts of seals and steel. Usually, chuunin guarded the only entrance. It was a post of honour and great tedium if half the gossip he had overheard was true. Jaguar must have gotten assigned the job to free up two chuunin to hunt him down.

Naruto was trapped like a fish in a barrel, but he didn't mind too much. He knew, as only a seasoned prankster could, that the best place to keep forbidden things was in a room with only one entrance that the Hokage guarded from down the hall. This was where the forbidden scroll was.

He grinned, showing all his teeth to the darkness.

* * *

"Why on earth did you have to pick them of all people?" his sister grumbled as she frogmarched him through the market. "If it had been anyone else, I could have finished my day without being hauled in to be scolded for letting you get away with murder. It's not as if you listen to me anyway…"

He tuned her out to deal with crushing disappointment. The forbidden scroll had been lacking giveaway markings. He had searched through eighteen shelves in the crushing blackness until someone had casually blinded him by flipping on the light switch he had missed in his rush.

He had tried to muffle his agony, but it had been like being stabbed in the eye. Even if he had kept quiet, he didn't doubt that Old Man would have found him. Jaguar must have sold him out.

"Looking for something, Naruto?" that gruff voice had asked as Naruto had rubbed at his watering eyes. "I'm afraid there's only non-fiction in here. You will have to wait just like everybody else for the next _Adventures of Hiroji_ novel to come out."

"But you've got every book ever written in here, Old Man! How come you don't have _Hiroji_?"

"Ever written, as you said. _Hiroji_'s author and editor are not yet finished."

This had added insult to injury.

"How do you know that?"

"Konoha was commissioned to find out for a very addicted daimyo's son. He was far more upset by what we found than you are. Now, come; a pair wishes to have words with you. I'm afraid that this meeting is unavoidable."

Naruto's only comfort was on the way out he had spotted a huge scroll labelled with very fortuitous kanji: forbidden and Yondaime. Old Man had noticed his glance.

"No, that hasn't got _Hiroji_ in it either. Trust me; you don't want to go looking in there. It's full of boring old seals and poems from tea ceremonies."

Naruto had not been fooled, but he had feigned disappointment.

What had followed had not been pleasant. Lemon-sucking expressions had been upgraded to sulphuric acid, which of course meant that Old Man's teammates now had radioactive glares. The great Katsu wouldn't have withered under such pressure, but the sting of their wordy displeasure and the weight of the community service punishment Neechan had negotiated for him had made him a lesser man than Katsu. He was stuck scrubbing every surface of the acidic pair's homes and then graduating to every public toilet in Konoha. Neechan had spared him cleaning out every fountain in the Red Light District, which he knew from chary investigations were full of horrible, horrible things.

He was dragged out of his musings when Neechan shoved a sack of rice into his arms as she loaded herself down with other groceries. He hauled rice in her wake as she cut through the market crowds and slipped into the safer alleys. The echo of the scuff of their footsteps bounced off the walls, which were dappled with light penetrating the trees on the main drag.

"Alienating them more wasn't very smart, you know," she said, pushing flyaway hair behind her ear.

He shrugged. He hadn't really been worried about the consequences of targeting them other than the effect it would have on Admin. Getting the chuunin out of the way had been his primary objective, though having ANBU replace them hadn't quite been in his calculations. "Sometimes, the sacrifice is outweighed by potential gain," he quoted from the ninja manual.

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "And what was the potential gain?"

"I can't tell you yet. It was just a preliminary strike." He had to laugh at the way Neechan blanched. _Ah, this last week of the Academy would be amazing even with the prospect of toilet scrubbing!_

* * *

"So, Moron, how's the view down there?" Sasuke taunted him as Kiba snickered. "Do you see any toilet monsters?"

"Shut it, Bastard, or I'll show you the leavings of a monster." Naruto brandished his scrub brush and flicked water towards the snarky pair. The slime coating the bristles made Kiba silent with dread. "Besides, it isn't like you haven't got it any better. Breaking that window on Valentines Day wasn't very subtle."

Now Kiba's laughter was music to Naruto's ears as Sasuke flushed. Sasuke had gone so far as to "borrow" the keys to the girls' washrooms and had tried to lock his tormentors in. When this had failed—girls were apparently just as good at picking locks as boys—he had shoved a window open so frantically during his escape that the pane had shattered. Sasuke had opted to scrub floors rather than have his mother be informed of the incident.

Naruto had to wonder at the lengths that Sasuke had gone to keep Mikoto-obachan from finding out about his girl problems. He supposed that there was some reason for the stupid thing: probably just because Mikoto would coo and giggle about how the girls liked her handsome son. Obachan was freaky like that.

The one thing that made sense was how determined Sasuke was to keep fangirls from finding out about his sister. Naruto had no doubt that Ryuuka would be suffocated by the affection of fangirls trying to curry favour with the bastard.

"At least I'm not scrubbing toilets in the stadium that haven't been cleaned since the last chuunin exam. The private washrooms for the Kage are next on the list."

"Hah!" Kiba jeered, "You know how Geezer Hokage's bowel movements are the stuff of legend. The Raikage was here last time according to Hana-nee. That guy probably backed up the pipes completely!"

Akamaru yapped agreement and poked the plunger's handle.

"Aw, shut it already!"

Phase Two would be sweet with such horridness now behind him.

* * *

Naruto's last four days before the exam were very busy since Old Man would be free to rake him over the coals after he graduated. Immunity could not be wasted, so Phase Two ended up having to wait. He rigged the Academy director's desk with dung and exploding tags, glued the doors of the meanest Academy teachers' offices shut, soaped the seats of the cruellest kids in class, and planned his two crowning accomplishments.

Iruka-sensei was beside himself, but Naruto evaded Iruka's attempts to chain him to his chair with Orioke no Jutsu, which he had invented four months ago after he had gotten into an argument with Shikamaru of all people about whether turning into a girl with Henge was pointless or not. For once, the chuunin guarding the gate and their nudie magazines had been good for something since studying the women in his life would have resulted in certain death. Iruka was apparently not as immune to women as his lack of love life indicated. Naruto, like a good ninja, refused to let the opportunity to exploit this hilarious facet of his teacher pass him by.

In the chaos left by his less expansive exploits, Naruto researched watch schedules in Admin. He needed to know which chuunin would stand in his way and plan accordingly. Listening in on the chuunin lounge by crouching in the cupboard under the coffeemaker had been very enlightening. Every chuunin worth anything would be heading to some old bar on Academy graduation night to wager on which teams would pass since the list was only revealed that night. Quite a bit of money changed hands by the Tuesday after graduation.

"Hey, Naruto…"

He glanced up from gloating as he read the _Adventures of Hiroji_ novel he had stolen back from Sasuke-bastard. The guy never admitted to liking the series and made a point of snitching the books Naruto got from the library so his "reputation" wouldn't be ruined. Naruto had yet to make his room airtight enough to keep Sasuke's rotten fingers off his books. Neechan stood in his door, looking a little nervous.

"What's up?"

"Why is there paint in the linen closet?"

"Uh, well…"

"This is one of those 'you don't want to know for your own safety' things, isn't it?" She groaned when he nodded and scrubbed at her face. "Okay, that's it. No matter what happens, I want you to attend one last class, okay? Stay in class all day and try to fix it in your memory."

"But—!"

"No buts. I need to be sure that I won't be dragged out of work tomorrow. This past week, it's been one thing after another. I know you're trying to squeeze the last drop out of this, but if I get called away from work tomorrow, Ii-san is going to explode. I need to keep my job, okay?"

"Only if…"

"Only if what?" she asked too calmly, crossing her arms.

"Umm, I kind of need to be out late—"

"How late?" Guilt began to gnaw at him as Neechan abused the powers of posture and expression.

"Sort of late." Her face gained a gentle smile, one that promised misery, and he quickly spilled. "Like midnight late."

"Why?" Her stranglehold on his conscience tightened. It was very fortunate that he could outrun her now, but this emotional ear twisting was hardly any better.

"I can't tell you. I want it to be a surprise." His winning grin overpowered her tiny smile, and she conceded the match to him.

"I'm still going to make you go running with me."

"There's no way I'm going to miss it," he promised.

She shot him a sceptical look before she sighed and shrugged. "Enjoy it while it lasts, brat. Try to make tomorrow at the Academy good. You'll miss it when it's gone, just like everything that passes you by forever."

He blinked at her wistful expression before sealing the promise with a nod. He wondered what had made her so sentimental, but she shook it off and reminded him that it was his turn to wash dishes before he went out to wreak havoc as she disappeared down the hall. The sound of her door closing sealed the apartment in silence. Glancing at the clock on his bookcase, he reluctantly shoved a scrap of paper into _Hiroji_ to mark his place and flipped to his feet, leaving his futon in a messy pile.

The dim light from the kitchen failed at his door, making his thicket seem thicker than usual. He wended his way through the saplings and bushes and slipped into the dining room, leaning across the table to pat Ribosome before breaking the silence of the kitchen with the fan in the fridge right behind him. Water splattered into the sink as he squirted dish soap in. After he finished washing, he sculpted bubbles until the drain sucked down air and reluctantly washed them down with fresh water.

Waiting for the clock to strike ten thirty, he grabbed the watering can from under the sink and gave Ribosome and the others a good soak. Checking the stove clock one last time assured him that it was go time. Grinning, he dug his supplies out of the linen closet and flipped the latch on the balcony door as he cursed the wire handle of the paint can, wishing he could stuff the unwieldy thing in his backpack with the brushes and spray cans. He cursed again when he realized that he had forgotten to water the plants on the deck. They would have to wait until he got back.

Balancing carefully on the railing, he saluted Neechan, who was watching him through her window. She cracked a weary smile and saluted him back. Glancing up, he tightened his grip on the handle and launched himself onto their building's roof. He worked his way across town, far above the late night crowds in bars and seedy restaurants, and kept away from the Red Light District without trouble. Lots of other rooftop walkers were headed that way, so he stood out a bit, but he doubted those guys were too worried about him.

When he stood in the shelter of the trees at the base of the mountain, he pulled on the grey coat and hat he had bought just for this purpose and cracked open the can of orange paint with a grin. Next, he shoved four spray cans into his jury-rigged harness and armed himself with a paintbrush.

He had some long overdue painting to do.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The King Deep in His Cups

"Naruto, come on, wake up! You promised to go running with me, rain or shine."

Yawning widely, he curled up tighter in his next of blankets and ignored the banging on his door. _Stupid kipper sister with nothing better to do and no social life…_ "Gwah?" he groaned, cracking an eye open and not getting customarily blinded. It was strangely not bright in his room.

"It's raining, oh master prankster. Come on, a little rain never killed anybody."

_What?_ His eyes snapped open and he gaped at the overcast scene out his window. _Dammit!_ "Neechan!" he wailed, tripping over his blankets and nearly tipping one of his saplings over. He recovered and wrenched his door open. "How long does it take paint to dry?"

"Fifteen minutes at max if it's latex paint. Why?" she asked as she pulled on a hoodie.

Relief was sweet. "You'll see." He could hardly contain his smugness as they left the house.

"You didn't," she whispered, skidding to an ungainly halt in the mud and staring through the sheets of rain at the Hokage Monument. "Gods, you did. Mercy, why are you such a brat?"

"You're it, Neechan," he said, tagging her on the back while she stared at his masterpiece, as horrified as everyone else in the streets at this early hour. His ears caught her muttered complaints as she sprinted after him through the muck, intent on making him face plant for starting the day so auspiciously.

Thoroughly muddy, Naruto slouched back through the door and slipped off his sandals. Neechan's glare made him wipe his muddy feet off on the mat too. A quick battle of jan-ken-pon later (scissors beat paper), Naruto gloated as he locked the bathroom door in her face and showered until the water going down the drain wasn't full of dirt. Breakfast and Iruka-sensei's worst glare were waiting for him when he ran down the hall in a towel, having tossed his mud-caked clothes in Riko-nee's closet.

Neechan, still plastered with muck, studiously worked on not looking humiliated while the chuunin nursed a mug of coffee at her table. She flipped another pancake before pre-empting Iruka-sensei's rant. "Naruto, go get dressed. The people across the street hardly need to see you half naked."

For once, he was grateful for Neechan's constant badgering. He disappeared before Iruka could get a word in edgewise. He took his time picking out clothes. A clean hoodie was accosted in his closet and blackmailed into keeping him warm and semi-dry in the rain. When he cautiously emerged from his thicket, Iruka-sensei was flipping pancakes in Neechan's absence. Apparently, she had used Guilt Trip on him too so she could have a shower and not be late for work. Unfortunately, this left Naruto without sisterly backup.

"So," Iruka-sensei began as he scraped the last two pancakes onto a plate and turned off the stove, "it looks like you had a late night. The bags under your eyes are a dead giveaway."

Guiltily, Naruto knuckled his eyes and bit back a yawn. Interrogation Iruka style was on its way, and he needed to be prepared. He cautiously sat down at the table and smothered his pancakes in syrup, but didn't start wolfing them down yet. He needed to save them for staving off difficult questions.

Iruka-sensei sat down opposite him and slid a piece of paper across the table. It was waterlogged and dirty, but the faded ink made him hide a gulp. It was a receipt from the hardware store. It listed paint and four spray paint cans. At least the paintbrush had just been lying around in the closet from the last time they had painted. "I found this at the base of the Monument this morning."

"Okay…" Naruto said around his pancakes, cursing himself for breaking the fifth shinobi rule: never leave any evidence.

"Orange paint too, hmm?"

"Well, maybe the guy has taste…"

"Pink mascara for Shodaime, blue lips for Nidaime-sama and a poor imitation of a nose ring, green nose hair for Sandaime-sama… and that's just the beginning! The only one left mostly off the hook was Yondaime-sama, who got orange highlights, eyelashes, and a goatee. Naruto, two witnesses say they saw something moving around up there last night at eleven. Your sister won't talk, but she doesn't need to. Two jounin saw you on the roofs."

"Where were they headed so late?" Naruto asked as he gulped down pancake mush.

Iruka's uncomfortable squirming made him grin. "That's beside the point. The point is I know you did this and that you're not going to get away with it. You're not skipping today and that's—!"

"He promised me that he wouldn't." Neechan grabbed her pancakes off the counter and sat down with a grateful smile for Iruka-sensei. Naruto forgave Neechan for being evil just for taking the wind right out of Iruka-sensei's rant. "He's going to the Academy today to attend his last regular class before the exam."

Naruto nodded.

Iruka-sensei deflated. "Detention."

Now Naruto pouted.

"Hokage-sama's orders. You took it too far again, Naruto. You get to clean up at your own expense."

"After class though, right?" Neechan said with what Naruto knew was dangerous calm.

Iruka-sensei caught that too: he nodded quickly. "Yes, of course. Hokage-sama hardly wants Naruto to miss the classes he's supposed to attend, like that last lecture from Fuu-sensei he missed on Tuesday."

Riko shot Naruto a stern look. "Why did you skip out on that? You know that it's important to attend those lectures if nothing else."

Iruka-sensei looked as self righteous as he had been pitiful only moments before. _What was it with his guardians shifting moods all the time?_ If it wasn't Neechan's weird week, it was Mikoto-obachan's bouts of melancholy or irritability, or Iruka-sensei's need to vent about how much better Naruto could be doing in school. "I sent you a warning through Sasuke, and you still didn't show up! Fuu-sensei covered some very important coping material and—"

"Sasuke got me the notes," Naruto protested.

"But you didn't participate in the lecture. That's the important part. Knowing and doing are two different things."

Neechan nodded agreement with Iruka's points before slipping away from the table to get ready to leave.

Iruka-sensei drained his coffee mug with a grimace and glanced out the sliding glass door to watch the rain. "Why orange?"

"Because orange is a kick-ass colour." Naruto snickered as he put his plate in the sink.

"It completely gives you away."

"I know. I wanted them to look up and know who should be up there. Backhanded advertising."

* * *

Class was as boring as expected, but his partners not in crime were sort of glad to see him, if only so they could gloat about how they had figured out the Monument's current state was his fault in no time flat and about how he had to go scrub it in front of everyone.

"Honestly, idiot," Kiba said, tipping his chair back to set his feet on his desk, "you spend more time scrubbing things than you do being a ninja. Maybe you should drop this whole thing and start up a cleaning business."

Naruto was not impressed when some of the guys snickered at Kiba's lame joke. Even one of the girls sitting behind the mutt since that was as close as she could get to Sasuke giggled. Naruto shot her a sour look before rolling his eyes at Kiba. "Somebody give the mutt a bone. He actually said something intelligent."

"Loser, intelligent is not a word you should be using. Such ignorance-fuelled usage is unbecoming." Sasuke needed serious payback for that wisecrack.

"Sasuke, what do you mean you think you might have a crush on one of the girls in class? How on earth could you say such a thing without saying which girl it is? Come on, speak up!" The amount of attention suddenly fixed on the gaping bastard was very satisfying. Iruka-sensei couldn't have timed his entrance better.

"All right, settle down. Let's review bunshin."

* * *

Sasuke made him pay for that by sitting like the bastard he was in the shelter of a tree while Naruto scrubbed paint under Iruka-sensei's dauntless supervision. Naruto figured that such a hiding spot was necessary since Sasuke's skills with the newly rabid girls were nil. By the time six rolled around, Naruto was cursing the fact that paint was much easier to apply than remove.

Once Iruka-sensei let him off the hook after extracting a promise from both of them that they would study for tomorrow's exam, he and the bastard headed home. None of the other guys had bothered to show up for this study session, but Sasuke hung around if only to avoid the inevitable chores and lessons that the Uchiha would shove down his throat the moment he got home. Neechan sprawled in her favourite chair, forgoing work to quiz them on various topics and keep any fights from damaging the furniture.

"Sasuke, rule eighty-five!"

"When faced with a samurai, there are two options: circumvent him or appeal to his sense of law if in the employ of his master."

"Naruto, which option is better in Grass?"

"Option one because there aren't many lords to keep order and because samurai keep their own code now because they're a bunch of—"

"Naruto, ninja can hardly talk. Sasuke, who is the current Kage in Suna?"

"Yondaime Kazekage: a man attempting to revive tradition."

"Naruto, what is the current Raikage best known for?"

"Hammering out a treaty with Konoha after it fell apart the first time."

"Why?"

"Hey, we didn't cover that in class! That's no fair; you can't ask me questions about that! We only touched on two things about the current leaders."

"Fine, fine," she grumbled, waving aside his protests. "Rule twenty-six?"

When Sasuke was quizzed out, he rolled off the couch he had ousted Naruto from two hours earlier. "I've gotta go home. Ryuuka's going to start whining, and Kaasan will have supper ready."

"Say hi for me. Good luck tomorrow."

"Later, Stick."

Sasuke glared at Naruto for that moniker, nodded at Riko as though he hardly thought her luck would help him, and left.

Shaking her head, Neechan set aside his notes and her back cracked as she stretched, sliding into the splits before rolling over into the bridge. She always did gross things like this: she claimed it was habit from when her clan had made her learn dance six days a week. Naruto thought she did it to show off how much more flexible than him she was. "I'm surprised you didn't con ramen out of Iruka."

"He wouldn't let me. He kept on saying we had to study. He didn't give me a chance to start whining."

"Smart man."

Naruto stuck out his tongue.

"Well, soup today it is then. You can help me if you want."

He shook his head. "I'm gonna read over some stuff," he said, missing her knowing look as he disappeared into his room.

As soon as it was safe, he set aside his scrolls and pulled out his book. Grinning, he cracked his book open and immersed himself in Hiroji's adventures; he never seemed to get caught by the bad guys and always had awesome ideas for dealing with his opponents. Hiroji was incredible, and he always seemed to get the girls. Sasuke could have used this guy's advice, but Sasuke had a stick wedged up his ass and wouldn't admit that there was a problem with his relationship with the female Academy population.

The bastard was in denial as far as Naruto was concerned. _How was it healthy or normal that ninety-nine percent of the girls in school were trying to jump him when he was such an ass? _Sasuke fled like a chicken, which was amazingly funny, but not so cool for the guys left in his wake.

"Brave Sasuke, the chicken lord, was miffed by the lack of a ford. Poor bastard should have run faster, for the girls have the stamina to outlast him." He cackled.

"Naruto, what was that?"

He snapped the book shut, shoved it under his pillow, and fumbled with one of the taijutsu scrolls as her footsteps approached. He glanced up innocently when she pushed the door open.

"I hope you haven't been reading Itsuki's letters," she said with dangerous passivity. "You should leave the poetry to him. Gardening, being a ninja, and becoming Hokage will take up too much time." She observed his nest and grimaced. "When was the last time you made your bed or changed your sheets?"

"Umm, three months ago?"

She glanced skyward and shook her head. "Do so before you leave tomorrow, huh? Do you want mice and nits to take up residence in your nest? Anyway, come and eat. It's pretty late, so I'll wash dishes."

* * *

"So how are you going to do this?" she asked him the next morning, steady under his weight.

He propped up his chin on her shoulder and shoved aside the frightening thought that she wouldn't be able to give him piggyback rides anymore if he kept getting bigger. "I dunno, I guess I'll just barely pass. Make it a clean streak and all that."

"I don't know how you can stand it when you're so competitive."

"It's 'cause I know that the bum won't be laughing when I graduate and get good enough to kick his chicken… butt." Orange clothes still needed protection from her prejudice about swearing.

"You really mean that, don't you?"

"Hah, of course! Just because he can beat me now, it doesn't mean that I'm going to let him stay so stuck up."

"Of course," she agreed as she jostled him to counter how he slipped down her back.

"At least I beat him hands down at healing. He's still moaning about bruises when I can start fighting again." Though she laughed, something troubled him. "Hey, Riko-nee, is my ability to heal quickly why they hate me?"

His stomach lurched when she stumbled. She stayed quiet for a long time. "Yes, it's part of the reason they fear you."

"Fear me?" She had never phrased it that way before in her vague hints. He knew she wanted him to figure it out for himself, but he didn't want his guesses to be right because each was more horrible than the last.

"Yes, they fear you, and it makes them hate you in some cases. It depends on the person."

He hated how she would seem to give an answer and yet leave him more in the dark than ever. _What had happened to plain explaining? Was it out of fashion in her old village? _Still, he was no fool. "Neechan, I think I might know why."

"Ah." The dread in her tone matched his. "Well, don't tell me now, hmm? Wait until after you've graduated so we can make Hokage-sama explain everything to you. You deserve the whole story, not just my speculation. Besides, you need your facts straight if you want to tell your friends."

"Do I have to?"

"It would be a good idea."

"But what about that stupid law you always use as your excuse?"

"You're exempt from it. Besides, you want to show them that you trust them, right?"

He was not impressed at how she had wriggled out from under his accusation. _This wasn't fair! _At this rate, she would never admit to being mean about knowing for sure what he had been agonizing for years about just because of that law. Naruto was going to tell that geezer to shove that law where the sun had never shone.

She set him down. "Good luck, okay. I'll see you after work."

He watched her walk away before turning to face whatever evil exam the Academy threw at him as a parting gift.

* * *

Lunchtime saw a visitor to the rundown shrine. The miko knew her by reputation only, but it was more than enough to make the girl certain that getting in the tall woman's way would be a bad idea no matter how little she liked her presence. Curiosity was a strong pull though, and the attendant found herself hovering just out of sight as the regular visitor performed the proper rituals. Halfway through the woman's visit, the attendant recalled just what day it was. _Of course, this person would be asking that her demonic brother successfully pass through the Academy._ The miko scowled, not liking that possibility. _Kyuubi no Youko serve as a Konoha shinobi? Never!_

The girl was therefore astonished when she overhead one of the whispered prayers.

"Please let him fail."

* * *

To the unwary, Iruka-sensei was a youngish, inexperienced, and light-hearted chuunin. This exam taught Naruto better. Iruka was a master of deception because this exam was evil incarnate. It had three parts: taijutsu, knowledge, and ninjutsu just for kicks.

Taijutsu was overseen by the jackass, Mizuki, the usual practical instructor. Perhaps Naruto's description was misleading. Mizuki wasn't too bad, but he drowned in comparison with Iruka. Mizuki was one of those horrible judgemental people. When Chouji and Naruto performed the same way, Chouji got seven and Naruto got four. Naruto had to compensate for this during his spar with Kiba, so he performed better than he had in four years. Sure, Mizuki looked sort of suspicious, but Sasuke reported that the grade was a five point five, a pass.

The written exam was horrible. Only fanatics could have aced it, which was probably why Iruka-sensei had written it as he had. He wanted to find the dedicated ones, the ones that wouldn't die. Naruto didn't intend to die, so he had slogged against the evil questions, scrapping his initial plan to pick random answers for half the test. Questions like "What is the handseal, eighth back from the end of the sequence, for the jutsu that is often used in concealing not only numbers, but position and intention of various acts in acts that may or may not include combat?" stumped him for a good long while.

He had a bad feeling when Iruka-sensei pried his test paper out of his fingers despite his pleas for thirty more seconds. Chouji looked similarly anxious.

_Ah, ninjutsu…_ Such wonderful memories were to be forever cherished from this particular exam. It was Henge.

For a grand total of three seconds, Naruto hoped that he would be able to choose whom he transformed into, but Iruka-sensei flattened that hope. "Henge into Mizuki-sensei."

Naruto took that as a challenge. Perhaps it was because he had pulled pranks all week and the exam was the biggest prank of all. Naruto was quite proud of how improved his ninjutsu was and he needed a good mark to make up for his probable lousy test grade. As such, he took this a step farther: combining Henge and Kawarimi just for the heck of it. Mizuki replaced him in front of the examiner's table, and Naruto casually glanced over the marks on Iruka-sensei's clipboard. _Hah, Sasuke had only scored a nine!_

"Naruto!" Mizuki-sensei growled, shaking his fist. "You were supposed to transform, not replace!"

Iruka-sensei flipped the clipboard over and fixed Naruto with a penetrating stare, checking the henge for any flaws. "That was pretty ambitious, Naruto. Were you worried that your henge wouldn't be up to par so you wanted to use the real thing?"

"Something like that," Naruto agreed, letting the transformation dissolve with a chuckle and scrambling out of Mizuki's seat when the other sensei stomped forward.

"Showing off isn't a good idea for a ninja, Naruto, but I'll let it slide this time. That was pretty creative. You may go now."

Naruto scampered out of the room, grinning like a loon according to Kiba, who had scored a seven. Naruto took delight in informing the mutt of this fact.

Their rankings were written on the board after lunch. Sasuke was at the top from their group, then Shino, then Shikamaru, then Chouji, then Kiba, and finally Naruto. Apparently, Iruka-sensei marked showing off down because it could get people killed. Sasuke had scored highest overall in the class and Naruto had managed to keep his record clean by barely passing.

"Well, you're dead last officially now."

Sasuke's "witty" comment was not appreciated in the slightest.

* * *

Mikoto-obachan's quiet pride in Sasuke ran counter to Ryuuka's loud bragging while the other kids received their forehead protectors in order. They weren't as happy as Naruto had thought they would be, but maybe they were thinking about how Sasuke's dad might have been proud.

When his turn to receive the cherished bit of metal and cloth came, there was deafening silence and then harsh, angry muttering sprang up. People left the courtyard in protest, dragging their formerly elated children with them until only the oblivious and Naruto's friends were still around to watch. When Iruka-sensei held out the shiny new forehead protector, the most horrible thing imaginable happened: the plate fell right off the fabric and hit the dirt with a dull thud.

Even Ryuuka stopped nattering on about how Niichan had passed too and said, "Oniitama, is metal 'posed to do that?"

Sasuke was brief, "No."

Iruka-sensei looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Naruto. Sometimes they're faulty when they come from the factory. Here, how about this?" His favourite sensei reached behind his head and undid the knot. "You can have mine. I know it's old and dirty and—"

Naruto cut off the rest of his stupid excuses by trying to squeeze the air out of the best sensei in the world. Maybe he understood, just a little, the sentimental things Neechan had said yesterday. He would miss the Academy and being Iruka-sensei's student.

* * *

Mikoto watched the sun set with quiet trepidation. Sasuke was considered an adult by the village now. He had been one in the eyes of the clan the moment he had mastered the jutsu that proved he could control fire properly, but this was different, official in the village. _Would Itachi come to finish things?_

She glanced at her daughter, who was giggling as she played with her brother's forehead protector. Sasuke watched her fondly, though he didn't look pleased with how his newest possession was acquiring wear and tear.

All her plans would come undone if Itachi ruined this simple peace now. She needed more time so certain arrangements came to their appointed ends. If she failed, died, and left her two children in the bitter hands of the remaining Uchiha or, even worse, the hands of Konoha's leaders… Mikoto swallowed her terror and kept washing dishes as the moon began to rise. No, she couldn't let that happen. It would be too terrible for words.

The box in her closet called to her as the dishwater dripped from her hands. She closed her eyes against the measure of what little time she may have had left and pulled the plug out of the drain, listening to the scummy water flow away, unable to resist gravity's pull.

She was similarly affected. The dark box in her closet called her again, and she heeded it, slipping past her two children and heading towards her room. Once the door was closed, she took off her apron and laid it across the back of a chair. She tied her hair up in a stern bun, her hands only trembling slightly. To fight her former son to the death… she would do so for Ryuuka and for Sasuke, though Sasuke had nothing to fear. That alone reassured her. Sasuke would be fine, but all the other Uchiha…

As matriarch and as the strongest remaining Uchiha, it was her duty to protect her people, few though they were. They followed her, albeit sometimes reluctantly: having a woman for a leader had never happened to the Uchiha before.

She pulled on her old battle uniform. She had survived so many wars, but this was a war of a different sort. She had never killed her own flesh and blood.

She pulled the lacquered case from the back of the closet. After lifting the lid, she stared down at the simple-looking blade. She hadn't touched it in years. Reaching out hesitantly, she pulled it from its brackets and stood up, unsheathing the ninjatou in a smooth motion. She had been practicing with other blades, saving this one's edge so it would be perfect when the time came.

She should have fallen beside her husband. She would not do so now, not until she had finished things.

She tested the ninjatou's edge with her pointer finger, relieved when it slit the skin with the slightest pressure. Sheathing the blade after checking its cleanliness, she finished equipping herself and slipped out her window to crouch on the roof as the moon rose.

She would get no sleep tonight.

* * *

"Where are you going?" Riko-nee asked as he bolted down Ichiraku ramen with unusual haste.

"Kwfffere," he replied around a mouthful of noodles.

Neechan arched an eyebrow at him before rapping his forehead protector with her knuckles three times. "You're going to do something stupid, aren't you?"

"It's my last prank, I swear!" Naruto didn't appreciate how even Teuchi shook his head at his words. Ayame giggled. He slurped up broth and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"You're leaving now? I thought you said Iruka was coming to celebrate?"

"He is, but I need to get going," Naruto insisted, glancing at the stand's clock. It was ticking nearer and nearer to eight with every delay. _Flipping hell, why were big sisters so nosy?_

Neechan frowned at his impatience. "And what am I supposed to tell Iruka when he shows up?"

"How much you love him for passing me," Naruto said with feigned blitheness. He waved off Neechan's sceptical and unamused look. "Please? I really need to go or else it'll be too late."

"I'm going to have headaches about this later, aren't I?"

Figuring out that she wasn't in the mood to be put off, he tried to come clean in the little time he had without spoiling his cunning plot. "The watch is changing, and I need to get in place or else I won't make it. Please, I'll make sure you don't get dragged out of bed if I can!"

"It's that bad?" Neechan sputtered, looking alarmed. "Naruto—"

"Neechan!"

"Brat, I mean it! If it's something illegal—!"

"Bye, Neechan! Thanks for ramen and everything! Tell Iruka-sensei I'm sorry about my answer to question fourteen, but I was pulling stuff out of my ass!"

"Naruto!"

He prayed for his orange clothes as he launched himself onto the rooftops.

* * *

Konoha used birds as messengers. Sparrows and other little birds notified troops in the village and hawks and pigeons carried long-range messages. They had separate aviaries for the hawks since they would eat the pigeons or the sparrows if not hooded.

The top floor of Admin was partially devoted to the aviaries and the rooms for the translators. Fewer guards stood on the stairs between that level and the one where the Hokage's office and the library's entrance were. Perhaps this was because it was assumed that other watchers would keep intruders from getting on top of Admin. Perhaps it was because the Hokage was just that awesome. Whatever the reason, Naruto fully intended to exploit it.

Getting on top of Admin without setting off the guards around the base was not easy. Naruto rigged a painter's chair on the Monument and set to swinging back and forth, building up enough momentum that he dropped right from the chair onto the roof. The clatter of the chair against the Monument was loud. He had counted on this though. The clone crouching on the Nidaime's nose grumbled expletives and took his place on the painter's chair, paintbrush in hand. Naruto created another clone with massive effort and managed to henge into a hawk while the clone assumed the appearance of one of the aviary staff that he knew had illicitly slipped down to Hojo's to place a last minute bet.

When a guard came running, the clone squawked insults at the painting Naruto alongside the enraged chuunin, who howled dire threats.

"I'll go get Hokage-sama! We can't let him get away with this again!" the clone insisted before scurrying down the steps, using the hawk's presence to get by the guard without questions while sending the man to hassle the painting clone. This clone banged on the geezer's door, shouting about the situation as Naruto slipped down the hall, dropping the hawk henge as he went.

The clone made a sufficient commotion that the door to the Hokage's archives burst open almost before Naruto got behind it.

"That damn demon has done something again," growled one.

"If I weren't busy here, I'd go kick the little asshole."

"Get a hit in for me. I'll cover for you. Somebody has got to make sure he doesn't get off without a scratch."

These two guards were why Naruto had chosen to infiltrate during this shift. They loathed him, often violently. He had no doubt that they hoped that they would finally be allowed to exact punishment on him, a fresh genin. He was rather surprised that they both hadn't abandoned their post to get him, but they were chuunin.

"Are you sure? He did make you ruin those pants…"

"Just go before I change my mind. He ruined your date with Kurenai-san and now Asuma-san is beating your time. That's worse than pants."

One chuunin ran down the hall. The other was just about to close the door when shouts echoed about the brat escaping over the mountain and Shodaime-sama now having the mark of perverts drawn on his forehead. Naruto praised the clone's memory as the other chuunin snarled and left a simple bunshin in his place. Since bunshin were just illusions, Naruto grinned at the enraged projection and walked right through it.

The deep silence of the Archive sucked him in.

Naruto crouched in the deepest corner, reading by the light of his flashlight. Nothing would give him away in a stupider way than the returning chuunin guards discovering a light under the door.

"Okay, lots of chakra… No using this if you've got MPD, whatever that is… 'Clones shall assume differing personalities of those with the disorder…' Wow, that sounds nasty. Geez, I wouldn't want to touch those clones with a fifty-foot pole… Memories? Okay… 'Speeding up experience accumulation…' That's for training faster, hmm. Excellent! Armies! Awesome! That's what I want. Why the hell did the Yondaime outlaw this? It sounds awesome!"

He flipped off his flashlight and ran through the handseals until he was ready. A quiet "pfft" broke the silence, and Naruto's mind echoed with the presence of another. _This was weird… Kage Bunshin didn't do this…_

"Boss?" whispered the clone, and Naruto experienced the oddest echo even before the fingers reached out in the dark and touched his face. "Oh, there you are. I can't see."

"Well, duh."

Naruto flipped on the flashlight and inspected the kage bunshin before him, whose pupils were pinpricks in the sudden light. It was a perfect copy, and Naruto didn't feel too exhausted. It was supposed to take an equal proportion of his chakra, so Naruto guessed it had half of what he had had left. Eight clones meant one ninth of his chakra per clone and so on. This worried him._ If he created eight clones one at a time, he would have… um… what was one half to the eighth power? If he created a thousand… Gah, geometric series and exponents were so evil!_

"Boss, stop thinking about the math stuff! My brain hurts!"

This was just bizarre. The clone was getting his thoughts. Kage bunshin never got his thoughts. Maybe Taijuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu clones were psychic like Ino… He glanced over the scroll again.

"Right there, Boss," the clone said, pointing out the reference over his shoulder.

"Thanks," Naruto muttered distractedly as he read it over.

So, there was a network leading from him to the clones, but not the other way. _How the hell was that fair?_ At least he could feel them, though the scroll said the awareness of the bunshin faded over distances. Now to try this feedback thing.

Sighing, the clone released the jutsu without a word said, and Naruto's eyes widened as he experienced the entire interaction from the clone's angle. _Holy cow, that light was bright! Maybe he could blind somebody with it one day so he could get a kick in…_

A strange sound reached his ears: a gurgle and a thump. The door opened, and a smell Naruto associated with the butcher's stall wafted in.

Naruto flipped off his flashlight, fumbling in his fearful haste. He held his breath, carefully rolled the scroll back up, and clutched it to his chest as soft footsteps prowled down the main aisle.

The intruder hadn't turned the lights on.

The impregnable walls closed in around him as the intruder stalked between the shelves, hissing impatiently now and then. Naruto crouched, hemmed in, as the guy worked his way closer.

"Little fucker is good for something after all," the man muttered, and Naruto reeled with shock. _What was Mizuki-sensei, who was supposed to be doing a border sweep near Training Ground 54, doing here?_ Dread and suspicion hung heavy on him when Mizuki spoke again. "Where the fuck is that scroll?"

Terror made Naruto horribly certain that Mizuki was after the scroll in his hands. Mizuki was not a good person to approach right now, instinct and his gut agreed on that. The beam of a flashlight hitting the ceiling told him that two aisles stood between him and getting caught.

He could not get caught.

_Quiet._

_Up the wall._

_On top of the shelf._

_Freeze._

_Breathe._

_Act._

_Quiet chakra._

_Lay flat to avoid the light._

"Naruto-kun?"

_Shiver. Don't breathe. Don't think. Don't move. Don't use any chakra._

"Naruto-kun, you don't need to hide. I know it's just a harmless prank. I won't tell Hokage-sama. It's all right, but I could use a hand. I'm trying to find something for the Hokage."

_Don't answer._

"He wants me to bring him a scroll, Naruto-kun. Have you seen it? It's the Yondaime's scroll; Sandaime-sama wants to study before he retires for the night. If you show me where it is, I'll make sure you don't get in trouble for what you did to the Hokage Monument. It was clever of you to hide in here."

Mizuki was coming closer. Anger was obvious in the sound of his steps. Naruto kept silent.

"Naruto-kun, come down from there. You're going to get dusty."

_Light. Blinding._ When his eyes adjusted, he could see pale grey eyes framed by the platinum hair he had done a henge of only a few hours earlier. Those eyes were full of steel and his smile didn't quite make them crinkle the right way. Naruto saw only efficiency and calculation.

"Damn, Mizuki-sensei, you found me!" Naruto grinned, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head.

"You thought I was bluffing?"

Naruto's grin became sheepish and then brightened into a superior smirk. "Hah, well, I did use Kawarimi on you today! That's how I graduated, right?"

"That's right, Naruto-kun. That was rather clever of you."

_Creepy._ Mizuki had been so pissed about that at the time. People only got over embarrassment like that if they had revenge in the offing. He had learned that lesson firsthand.

"Whatcha looking for then, Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto asked loudly enough to alert any guards outside the door.

Mizuki didn't even flinch. Now uncertainty infected Naruto. Mizuki wasn't supposed to be here. _Why wouldn't he be afraid of being caught? The butcher's stall scent… Blood… No, that couldn't be right._

"A scroll the Yondaime wrote. It contains some forbidden jutsu that Sandaime-sama wants to look over. Have you seen it?"

"Nope," Naruto lied clumsily. _Damn Neechan!_ Her screwing with his conscience made this harder than it should have been.

"Naruto-kun, don't lie to me." Mizuki narrowed his eyes.

"I'm not lying! I haven't seen it. I've been hiding in here. Why would I go looking for some boring old scroll that the only the old geezer would want to read?"

"Because you know what's in it."

Naruto tried to muffle the uneasiness that statement caused. Mizuki's leer broke his efforts.

"That's right; I know you know what's in it. You're hiding it, aren't you, demon. You know it can release you from the prison the Yondaime made for you."

Naruto had a very bad feeling about where this conversation was going. Some deadly fervour was creeping into Mizuki's eyes. That this teacher that he had partially trusted was calling him directly what everyone else muttered damaged some stored trust that had naively lingered. The betrayal of someone that Naruto had thought he had known for three years hurt more than it should have given how this had happened to varying degrees before. Naruto had foolishly wanted to trust his sensei though because he hadn't seemed as much of a bastard as some of the others had.

"Your miserable second chance ends here, Kyuubi."

_Kyuubi..._ _So, that was what he was? _The very thing that had killed his hero, the very thing that had killed Iruka-sensei's parents, and he was it. _No, it couldn't be true!_ He would be responsible for every murder on that day. He would have to pay for it, for that was justice. _What kind of recompense could he give for that slaughter?_ If it was true, he deserved every slur, every bit of pain, every deceitful ploy, and the rare kindness should be a lie. Iruka-sensei should hate him. Neechan should despise him for every death. His eyes stung at the thought.

The enormity of the blood that stained his hands if it were true was like a crippling blow to the gut. He didn't deserve to even consider being Hokage. His plan for the future shattered, and he was left in the fog of not knowing what to do with himself. The noblest, oldest traditions demanded suicide, but Naruto cringed away from the idea, feeling horrible as he did so. He was monstrous, wanting to live despite his crimes.

Naruto's keen ears picking up the sound of a kunai scraping against its fellows in the pouch seconds before one clattered against the stone behind his ear. Yelping, Naruto launched himself to the next bookcase, towards the door. The blinding beam of the flashlight followed him and two kunai ricocheted off the stone ceiling. Naruto dropped into the aisle and huddled in the biggest empty space in the bookshelf he could find when the sound of Mizuki landing on a bookcase reached him.

The beam of the flashlight illuminated the dust overhead and Naruto nearly cursed when he realized that Mizuki had a clear trail to follow. Across the centre aisle and three bookcases closer to the door, Naruto burst out of hiding and pelted towards the door.

He never made it.

Naruto, still crouched in the shelf, shuddered silently as a link in his mind petered out and he felt himself die. The blackness of it, the pain that had exploded in his chest before… He had died! He shoved a fist in his mouth to keep from snivelling with terror.

Then Naruto finally realized just what else the clone's last moments showed him.

The chuunin whose pants he had ruined must have returned after a while because he was lying in a heap, bleeding freely from a gaping slit in his neck. Mizuki was not here for anything good. Mizuki had potentially killed a Konoha-nin. Mizuki had killed him.

Mizuki had to be stopped.

Terror was shoved aside. Trembling hands formed a seal. Clouds of steam impinged on the dusty beam of light from Mizuki's flashlight before the light moved and blinded Naruto, who grinned and used his own flashlight, blinding the chuunin in turn as the hoard of Narutos set to getting that kick in as the chuunin's eyes adjusted.

Many smoky constructs didn't survive that first kick since kunai were swiftly brought into play, but Naruto had gotten the hang of the wall Fuu-sensei had always preached. The memories of dying in agony again and again built up behind it to fester until he could purge them. He couldn't snivel when trying to take down a chuunin that had proven to be capable of taking down one of his own. Besides, Naruto could only hope that he made enough racket that somebody, anybody, came running, preferably somebody that would believe him and not Mizuki.

A clone slammed into a shelf, toppling it and all those to its left as the clone disintegrated, its spine broken, only its memories remaining to torment Naruto later.

So this was why Taijuu Kage Bunshin was forbidden. It was enough to make someone go insane. Overlapping memories, overlapping agony, overlapping existence: it was all too much for the human brain to handle without proper coaching, without the wall the notes on Fuu-sensei's lectures had described. That wall was temporary sanity, protection from the multitude.

Naruto was exhausted and Mizuki was still going strong when the light from the open door flickered as a shadow entered and dealt a rap that sent Mizuki to the floor.

"Hey, I almost had him," Naruto protested to the pale mask.

Cat tilted his head as Ram slammed Mizuki against the wall. The geezer flicked on the lights, revealing just what kind of mess Naruto had made of the Hokage's Archives.

A clone clutching the scroll appeared from under the pile of toppled bookcases as Old Man arched an eyebrow.

* * *

Naruto fidgeted. Guilt and terror made him uneasy, and the Sandaime wouldn't talk until Neechan arrived. It was maddening, so Naruto turned around in his chair to look at the photos of the Hokage.

Whenever he was in Old Man's office, Naruto studied the pictures. Maybe he did so because the faces in the mountain really didn't do them justice. Maybe he did so because the Yondaime looked so much like him that it had made Naruto sure that Hokage was his destiny. He had tried to divine what in their faces had made them the beloved leaders of the village. He had thought it was their inability to fail. Now that he knew that the Yondaime had failed to kill Kyuubi, Naruto wondered.

It was strange how little the Shodaime and Nidaime looked alike. They were brothers after all. Sasuke and Itachi-bastard looked like Mikoto-obachan. Ryuuka looked like Fugaku. Neechan had assured him that looking like relatives was normal.

He studied the Yondaime's picture with fresh eyes, noting the resemblance anew. _Wait a second…_ The Yondaime had blonde hair and blue eyes. The only other people in the village with similar colouring were the Yamanaka, and they had paler blonde hair and almost turquoise eyes. Ino looked like her father. A possibility almost made him fall out of his chair because it certainly didn't make sense if he were the Kyuubi made human.

Neechan entered and interrogation put Naruto's desperate questions on hold. As he and Old Man hashed out what had happened and why he had been "so incredibly stupid," she blanched. When they came to how Mizuki had named him Kyuubi, Naruto was reassured that she choked on fury.

"If I am… you know… why haven't I had to pay for—?"

"You're not," Neechan and the Sandaime insisted at nearly the same moment. Naruto was reassured until the Sandaime levelled a stern glare at Neechan, who shrank in her chair, pasty white.

The Sandaime turned to Naruto and sighed. "I suppose keeping this from you any longer would be unwise. You are not Kyuubi. Mizuki and the rest of the village don't really understand what the Yondaime did to you. You see, the Kyuubi is the greatest of the tailed beasts and essentially has a limitless source of chakra. Even the Yondaime couldn't defeat him. However, he could seal him into the body of a newborn baby. Unfortunately for you, you fit this requirement. The Yondaime gave his life to trap the fox within you and to purify his chakra for your use in small doses. You aren't Kyuubi; instead you are the Kyuubi's jailor." The distinction made Naruto almost giddy. He was okay. It was okay.

And that meant the possibility wasn't that farfetched. "The Yondaime looks like me."

Both adults blinked at his sudden changed in topic. Old Man looked as though someone had nailed him with a door until Neechan snickered and applauded. Old Man nodded cautiously, but Naruto knew he was answering the question beneath his statement. _Yes, you have family_. It made Naruto warm.

"The Yondaime, Namikaze Minato, had requested that you be seen as the true hero of that night, but he underestimated prejudice." The Sandaime shrugged contritely.

_Well, that had worked out well…_ Naruto felt a bit better about how badly his own plans had gone since his dad had miscalculated too.

"Unfortunately, having Kyuubi may be dangerous for you. The seal is intact right now, but it is possible that it could weaken in future and let the fox send his chakra out through the seal before it can be purified. Should you ever lose yourself to rage or something similar, that is what may happen."

Naruto made a mental note of that. It hadn't happened before when he had gotten pissed off at Kiba or Sasuke, but maybe they had been minor annoyances. He couldn't wait to tell them that.

"So it's because of Kyuubi that I heal faster?" _So the fox healed him even though it had tried to destroy the village?_ This made no sense to him.

"Yes, we think he does it to keep you alive because if you die, so does he. The marks on your cheeks are also because of Kyuubi, and Nariko-san insists that your love of the colour orange is also due to the fox."

"Really?" Naruto was slightly frightened that the fox could have so much power over him. _Dude, orange should have been cool despite the fox, not because of the bastard!_

"Possibly. We're not sure."

"What does it mean when you say that the fox is inside of me?" he asked, staring down at his belly, worried that the fox was the reason his sister sometimes called him a bottomless pit. _What if the fox ate all of his food? What if the fox was munching on his ramen right now? That bastard! That was his ramen!_

"Well, the Yondaime sealed himself and half of the Kyuubi's power inside the Shinigami. The other half of Kyuubi as well as his spirit is trapped inside you."

That didn't really answer his very important question. Half of Kyuubi was floating around in him somehow. That made complete sense. His sarcasm would have done Sasuke-bastard proud. Saying that he was sealed did make it a little easier to believe though. Seals could do all sorts of cool stuff.

"Will I ever feel him or meet him?" If the fox had eaten some of his ramen, Naruto wanted to know if he would be able to make the fuzzy bastard pay. The fox would suffer if he had threatened a single noodle.

"I don't know. Perhaps you will feel him in your mind if he becomes more powerful." _In his mind? Well, dang._ He couldn't pummel something in his mind as far as he knew. "We simply don't know. What the Yondaime did has been done before to other people, but not in the same way. There are other people like you though. We know Sunagakure has made a jinchuuriki of the son of the Kazekage. You may meet Gaara someday."

"So there are other people who have the same problem as me?" That was interesting… There were people out there that would have understood him?

"As far as we know," said the Sandaime.

Naruto almost pouted. Old Man was no help. Naruto wanted names and answers, not guesses.

"Do you have any other questions?"

That was a loaded question. Naruto had lots of questions, such as when Old Man would finally hand over his hat, when he would be allowed to go to bed, when he would be promoted to jounin, and when Sasuke would figure out just how inferior he was to Naruto. However, Naruto doubted that Old Man would answer those. He checked to make sure.

"Will you answer anything?"

"If I can."

_Well damn, that put a damper on a lot of his questions. Hmm…_ "Can you tell me everything about my family?"

The Sandaime shook his head sadly. "Promises to the dead have to be kept."

"Then can you tell me who my mom was?"

"Her name was Uzumaki Kushina. She was a Hidden Whirlpool kunoichi. You were given her name because of the threat of your father's enemies." Naruto caught the unspoken command to keep his trap shut about his dad before the geezer shifted gears. "Oh, congratulations for graduating, by the way. You won't have to pretend anymore will you?"

Naruto smiled and shook his head.

"Where did you hear about the scroll?"

"Eh, Jaguar said that I was wrapped in wool compared to it years ago. She didn't explain, but I was sort of curious…" Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "What's gonna happen to Mizuki?"

"That's nothing you need to worry about."

From the way Neechan cringed again, Naruto figured that Mizuki-jackass was going nowhere pleasant. Naruto almost felt sorry for him.

"Now, are you sure that—"

"I've sworn up, down, and sideways that I only learned Taijuu Kage Bunshin!"

"Good. They are all very dangerous, but Taijuu Kage Bunshin is the least so, at least with your reserves."

Naruto resisted the urge to go into lots of detail about how horrible the jutsu was. If it drove him crazy, he was totally going to blame Old Man.

"Report to the photo office at three tomorrow for your photos for your file. Other than that, I suppose that you can go and enjoy what's left of your weekend. Don't forget to report to the Academy at ten on Monday for assignment."

* * *

Dawn found Naruto resting his head on Neechan's thigh as she read _Hiroji_ for him. Her free hand kept playing with a loose thread on a couch cushion, but he wasn't ready to break this peace, and she let him hesitate. Besides, he liked listening to her read aloud. The wall that had kept the clones' memories at bay before had been fragmenting, and he had had the horrible feeling that he was going cry until the story had removed him from that struggle.

She put the book aside when she got to the end of the chapter, and suddenly everything came rushing back and the wall was more unstable than before. She smoothed his hair when he started shaking in an embarrassing way, his eyes stinging.

"Is that what you'd guessed before that bastard told you?"

He knew that she was still furious because she was swearing. Riko-nee never swore unless she was very angry. She also insisted that he follow the same policy: the one time she had caught him swearing, she had made him scrub the floors with his orange shirts and then had made him wash them in bleach so that the colour faded to a pale tan. Naruto had avoided swearing in her presence to protect his precious orange clothes.

"I did sort of figure it had something to do with the fox," he admitted. "The whisker marks are a dead giveaway. The villagers aren't all that subtle when they're angry. Calling me 'monster' and 'demon' really helped me figure it out."

"Are you scared?" Only she would have dared to ask him that and expected a straight answer. If it had been his friends, he would have insisted that he wasn't, but this was his sister. Neechan understood these things and she never lied to him. If he lied to her, it would be like punching her in the face after she had given him a present. He couldn't do that to her.

"Yeah. What if what Old Man told me about happens? What if I hurt somebody? What if I don't return to normal?"

"Yeah, that scared me too. I can't imagine you being lost within yourself. I suppose that it would be like being in a coma. However, I trust you. I know that you can do anything you put your mind to." She was always saying things like that. It sort of balanced out the lack of faith the village had in him. Her opinion mattered to him; the opinions of the village didn't matter quite as much even though he heard them more often.

"That's not everything." She stayed quiet while he explained about his new jutsu. When he got to how he could remember the deaths, horror distorted her features and she pulled him against her as he snivelled just as he had been afraid he would.

"You need to build up that wall," she advised him as her voice shook. "You need to make it strong and keep it strong until you find somewhere safe to let it crumble. If it breaks in battle…"

"I know," he told her hoarsely. Fear made him tremble despite her comfort.

"You'll be fine. I have no doubt of that. You'll get used to it, or you'll find a way to stop it from happening. You'll figure out how to close your mind to it. You won't go crazy. You're awesome," she told him brightly, laughter bubbling in her voice despite the fear he could hear burbling beneath the surface.

The words helped: he stopped blubbering like some sissy and the panic went away. He repaired the wall and shoved all those horrible recollections behind it. They didn't matter as much anymore. He had dealt with them now and it was okay, just as Fuu-sensei had said it would be.

* * *

He hadn't come.

Mikoto breathed a quiet sigh of relief, glad to still be able to witness another dawn.

She still had so much work to do.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Nine Swords Delivered

"Why is our sensei so slow?" Naruto grumbled, lying back on an uncomfortable desk. Sakura—the girl put on Team 7 much to her chagrin and joy—ignored him in favour of Sasuke, who was trying to ignore her.

"I don't know, loser." Sasuke sighed, irritated. _Hell_, even Sakura seemed annoyed if the way she was drumming her fingers on her knees was any indication. He had the feeling that it was the timer on a bomb. Once it reached a crescendo, Naruto had no doubt something would explode.

"What kind of shinobi is he if he can't even be on time? You know what? I'm going to teach him a lesson." Naruto smirked when Sasuke groaned. _What had Sasuke thought he was going to say?_

"Stop it, Naruto," Sakura said. "You're going to get us all in trouble." _Why were girls always such goody two-shoes?_

"He deserves it. We've been here for two hours!" Naruto wedged a blackboard eraser between the sliding door and the wall. He could have come up with something better, he supposed, but using something this lame was Naruto's way of showing contempt. "At least the other four are already with their team sensei. Isn't it great that Shikamaru and Chouji got to be on the same team? I was worried that we'd all get split up. I'm not so sure about Shino and Kiba though. Shino never talks."

"It's good for Chouji. Shikamaru knows him best; he'll be able to keep Chouji from falling behind even if their sensei is lousy."

Naruto wondered. Shikamaru was damn lazy, and Chouji was too nice to call him on it. _How would that be good?_ "Yeah, that's good. What did your sister think of your headband?" Naruto spotted Sakura listening.

"Ryuuka drooled all over it." Sasuke grimaced. "Kaasan thought it was hilarious."

Naruto laughed. He had always known that Ryuuka-chan had the makings of greatness in her. She would never be a bastard like her brother, though he wasn't sure that girls could be bastards in the first place. No villagers ever called his sister a bastard; they called her a bitch. _Very well then, Ryuuka would never be a bitch._

"She's getting so big. She'll be three in June."

Naruto rolled his eyes at his friend, who was puffed up with brotherly pride; he _had_ been around when Ryuuka-chan had been born and could count. "Yeah, that's great; she'll be a really strong kunoichi, even stronger than Ino. Shikamaru told me that Ino beat him up once when they were little and had to play together."

"Really? Didn't he fight back at all?"

Naruto scowled at Sasuke. Sasuke still had no idea about the terror that Ino could inflict. "Nah, he tried a little bit, but his dad got really mad at him for it. Ino's dad had a fit apparently. That's why he hates sparring with girls."

Sakura looked miserable at being so thoroughly ignored. Naruto almost felt guilty. Almost.

"You won't believe what happened when I went to get my picture, dattebayo." Sasuke raised a brow, signalling that Naruto had better continue. "I was yakking with Old Man when this spoiled brat ran in, tripped over his own feet, and then accused me of setting a trap. His tutor had it in for me, I swear. You should have seen the creepy look this guy had on his face."

Naruto went on to elaborate on his day with Konohamaru after the brat had taken to shadowing him (poorly) and on how Konohamaru was competition for the Hokage title. "He was a good subordinate, so I taught him how to do Orioke no Jutsu. It took a long time; I swear that the kid looked like a puffed up grapefruit with eyes the first time he did it. He eventually sort of got it when his tutor finally found us. After Konohamaru failed, I defeated Ebisu-sensei with a new jutsu. I call it Haaremu no Jutsu: I perform Taijuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and then all the clones do Orioke. You should have seen it; you would have laughed your ass off. The closet pervert went flying!"

"I can't believe that Riko lets you use that jutsu. I thought you were dead for sure the first time."

"She actually seemed kind of happy. She says it serves perverts right. So long as I use it 'to make men more respectful of women,' she has no problem with it." Naruto held up a hand.

Long accustomed to Naruto's freaky hearing, Sasuke shut up. There was no mistaking it: muffled footfalls were coming closer. All three new genin waited for their instructor to come through the door. When he finally did, they blinked at him when the eraser bounced off his weird, silver hair. This guy was supposed to be a jounin?

"Hmm… My first impression of you is… I don't like you guys at all."

Naruto wasn't impressed enough to care, but he could tell Sakura was distressed. He couldn't imagine what was keeping her from accusing him. Maybe she was worried about ticking Sasuke off now that she knew they were friends.

The jounin sighed as he scooped up the eraser and set it on the blackboard ledge before sitting cross-legged on Iruka-sensei's desk, scattering papers. It was rather distracting when he began clicking one of Iruka's pens. "Now, let's get these introductions over with."

"What do you want to know?" asked Sakura.

The jounin favoured her with a long look. "What do you think I should know?"

Sakura didn't seem to be able to handle this sort of open-ended question. "Basic, simple stuff?" Naruto couldn't blame her for her hesitance. Maybe this was a strange excuse for a tricky quiz, like Iruka-sensei's hidden tests.

The jounin shrugged. "Maa, sure. Simple stuff: likes, dislikes, goals, hobbies…"

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged glances. Why the hell would a jounin want to know such generic stuff? Hadn't he studied their profiles before agreeing to take them on? Why on earth would he ask retarded questions on his first day when he obviously didn't care about the answers?

"Why don't you go first," Naruto said.

The jounin shut his eye in an almost jovial manner. "Okay then. I'm Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you guys about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future…? Hmm… well, I have a lot of hobbies."

The trio shared another set of incredulous glances. This guy was just weird. He asked questions and when asked to demonstrate, gave the fewest answers possible. _Was he already teaching them or was he being a jackass? _Naruto figured it was the last one.

"So all we learned was his name?" Sakura looked delighted when Sasuke nodded.

"It's not much of a name," the bastard muttered, and Naruto snorted while Kakashi pretended that he hadn't heard.

"Now it's your turn. How about you start, Blondie?"

Naruto bristled a bit. He shoved the minimal answer approach out the window just to annoy the guy and rattled on about his friends, family, and plants, and how he would have Ichiraku ramen all the time when he became Hokage. Naruto had the feeling that he dropped lower in this guy's opinion just by being so talkative.

Sasuke kept his scheme going though, being surprisingly wordy. Naruto figured it was because his mom had reprimanded him about being standoffish again. Mikoto-obachan did not consider grunts proper polite conversation. Sasuke managed to clue Sakura in to his apathy by mentioning how he loathed traitors and mindless sheep. She curled in on herself a little while he went on to his goal to cream Itachi and rebuild his clan while making sure Ryuuka kicked ass as a ninja.

Sakura said her piece, neglecting to mention anything to do with Sasuke or Naruto to keep in their good graces. "My name is Haruno Sakura. I like studying and getting good grades and …" She shot Sasuke a look out of the corner of her eyes and flushed.

Naruto briefly considered ritual suicide for having ever dared to have a crush on her pink hair. _How could such a cute girl be so silly?_

"I dislike disrespectful people"—perhaps Sakura felt that was safe enough as a description of him—"and I don't appreciate liars and bullies. My dream is to become better at aspects of being a ninja that don't involve bookwork. I…umm…I research jutsu and tactics as a hobby."

That was better. Naruto nodded sagely, and Sasuke lost his "she's dead weight we're going to abandon ASAP" look. Sakura looked relieved, as though she had expected them to laugh at her dedication.

"Okay, that's enough of that," Kakashi said. "We'll start our duties tomorrow."

"What sort of duties, Sensei?" Sakura asked.

"First, we're going to do something with just the four of us."

"What?" Naruto was pumped that they were finally going to get down to business.

"Survival training." Naruto's elation evaporated. He had just been promoted and the first thing he got to do was train. That was not awesome, not at all. _Weren't genin allowed to do missions and stuff?_

"Huh? Why?" Naruto was proud that he hadn't screamed any expletives.

Kakashi smirked behind his mask. "Of the twenty-seven graduates, I expect that at least eighteen will be sent back to the Academy. This training is super difficult with an average failure rate of over sixty-six percent."

Each of them flipped out in their separate ways: Sakura had a spaz attack, Sasuke scowled, and Naruto dropped his head into his hands and groaned.

"Why are we being tested again?" Naruto asked as calmly as he could. He could tell that Kakashi took pleasure in his panic. "We worked hard in the Academy, dattebayo!" Well, that wasn't exactly true in his case: he hadn't worked hard _in_ the Academy, but he had worked hard to get _through_ the Academy.

"Oh, that? That was just so we could weed those who never actually had a chance of becoming genin out of the ranks. Tomorrow you will be graded on the training field. Bring all of your shinobi tools and don't bother eating breakfast; you'll just throw up." Kakashi's visible eye crinkled with amusement. "All the details are on this printout. Don't be late tomorrow." With that, Kakashi waved jauntily and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Aw, this sucks!" Naruto complained as he read over the printout. "We have to be there at six? What's the point of that? This guy will just be late anyways. And skipping breakfast? As if! If this training is as tough as he says, we'll need the energy, right, Sasuke?"

"Yeah…" Naruto got the feeling Sasuke hadn't heard him. _Typical bastard._ "Hey, can we head over to your place? Your sister will have food ready for us by now, right?" Sasuke was thinking with his stomach. It had to be a first.

Naruto glanced at the clock. "Not yet, she's still got half an hour 'til five, but we can just hit the library on the way back. I've got to return _Hiroji_," he said as they walked through the halls of the Academy, Sakura nervously trailing behind them.

Naruto faced her and steeled himself for a painful course of action that he was only attempting because he was under severe duress. Hiroji would have never caved to this pressure, but Hiroji wasn't a minor still dependant financially upon a mean older sister. "Sakura-chan, I know that you don't much like the person I was pretending to be at the Academy, but since we're on the same team, are you willing to forget about it?" _This was so bloody painful! Neechan was going to pay for making him suffer this indignity!_

Sasuke stared at Naruto, shocked. Grimacing, Naruto explained. "You know how Mikoto was going on about our teams? Neechan told me that because of how I had acted in the Academy my teammates might be stupid about it. Since you were on my team, Sasuke, I knew that I would be okay, but she said I had to 'explain properly' and that if I didn't she wouldn't take me out for ramen on Saturday."

Sasuke nodded and let Naruto do what he had to.

"Look, Sakura-chan, I know that you won't understand my reasons for slacking off in the Academy, but I didn't do it because I wanted to." Naruto had never thought he would fall this low. He was explaining himself to a fangirl. He had spent good ramen money helping Sasuke get them off his trail. If Sakura didn't buy this, Naruto was going to pummel Sasuke. "See, all the kids that did worse than I did got in big trouble with their parents. It was a really big mess. I started acting like an idiot so nobody would get hurt anymore."

"What the loser is saying is true," Sasuke grunted, which convinced Sakura as nothing else could have. Sasuke's word was divine command to fangirls.

Sakura's sour expression stayed in her eyes even as she smiled. Naruto had the feeling that she was only accepting this because of Sasuke's favour and that if Sasuke's support waned, there would be trouble. "So long as you don't act like an idiot, I won't treat you like one." While grudging and conditional, Naruto was impressed she had allowed him this much considering what pranks she had suffered over the years.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan. Do you want to come with us to my house?" Sasuke shot Naruto a disgruntled look, but Naruto ignored him. "My sister wanted to meet all of my teammates."

* * *

Shrugging off her parents' warnings about the boy in front of her, Sakura nodded. If Sasuke-kun trusted Naruto, that was enough for her. Besides, her parents were annoying sometimes.

"There you all are!" a tall woman at a cluttered desk said when they walked in. She had been facing the pair on the couch: an older woman that looked like Sasuke and a brown-haired toddler fiddling with a stone bird and babbling. The girl ran over and wrapped her arms around Sasuke's leg, screaming something about oniitama. Sakura figured that the girl was the sister that Naruto and Sasuke had been talking about. There were plants everywhere; Naruto hadn't been lying about his hobbies. Another thing that struck her was the amount of ninja literature on shelves and tables. "Sasuke, you're on Naruto's team?"

"Tell me you didn't anticipate this," the woman sitting on the couch drawled, propping her elbow on the backrest and cupping her cheek in her palm.

"Of course not, Kaasan," Sasuke muttered.

Sakura nearly squealed. _This was Sasuke-kun's mom! She was so pretty! No wonder Sasuke was so handsome._

"Iruka said the teams were supposed to be properly balanced. As dead last in the class, Naruto was put with me."

The brown-haired woman got up, rolled her eyes at him, and ruffled his hair. Sakura almost had a seizure from the shock of seeing Sasuke let someone ruffle his awesome hair, though he scowled and fixed it.

"Shut your trap, bas—! I mean, bum." Naruto emerged from the kitchen with a glass of water and shot the brown-haired woman a wary look before scowling at Sasuke. "Someday—"

The brown-haired woman noticed Sakura and jumped, startled. Uchiha-san watched, an amused smile on her lips, and the little girl stared at her around Sasuke's leg. Sakura frowned and shuffled her feet as the tall woman collected herself.

"Naruto, introduce us to your teammate!"

Naruto ducked his head and grimaced apologetically. Sakura had the feeling that he forgot important stuff like this all the time. "Sorry. Sakura, this is my sister, Matsuku Riko. The lady on the couch is Uchiha Mikoto, Sasuke's mom. The kid is Ryuuka, Sasuke's sister. This is our teammate, Haruno Sakura. She got the best marks in the class on written work." Sakura forgave Naruto for his lapse for giving her such a good review.

"It's very nice to meet you, Sakura-san." Riko smiled at her and held out her hand. Sakura, who had read about this ritual, eagerly shook it.

Uchiha-san got off the couch and bowed, and Sakura bowed back as deeply as she could without seeming ingratiating. Ryuuka bobbed from behind her brother's leg. Sakura bowed back with a sweet smile for her; if Sakura had known about his sister earlier, she admitted to herself that she would have tried to curry favour with him by doting on the toddler.

"So I suppose that Sakura-san is going to be joining our training sessions now?" Uchiha-san asked. Sakura cringed at the long silence.

"Sure," Naruto said. "She's on our team. Of course she's going to train with us. That's if she wants to, of course," he added, glancing at her.

"I will be very glad to." She would hardly miss more time with Sasuke.

"Excellent," Uchiha-san said, glancing at Matsuku-san, who was heading towards the kitchen. "Riko, what is it?"

"Late lunch," Naruto's sister explained. "Naruto, everyone can sit at the table. You might want to water Ribosome while you're at it. It's looking a little dry."

Naruto emptied his cup of water into the pot of the tree in the middle of the dining room table and gestured at the table before he left to refill his cup. _A tree called Ribosome…? _Sakura followed Uchiha-san while Ryuuka-chan ran ahead and snagged the chair at the head of the table, Sasuke-kun close on her heels. Sakura sat down while Naruto emptied another glass of water.

"Thank you, Matsuku-san," Sakura said when the woman set a smaller plate and a set of chopsticks before her.

"Don't worry about it, and please don't call me by my clan name. It makes me feel old. Riko is enough." Riko-san finished doling out plates to everyone else, and they dug into the snacks, Ryuuka with particular relish and some difficulty with her cutlery. Sasuke ignored everyone else in favour of helping her. Sakura envied her. If she had thought he would believe her, she would have developed incompetence with her chopsticks as well.

Uchiha-san and Riko-san took over the conversation, steering the discussion to areas that all three new genin could talk about. Sakura knew full well what the women were trying to do: make them bond to some degree. Sakura was rather glad that they were handling this. It would have been hard to keep Naruto on track otherwise. Sakura had the feeling that Sasuke-kun would have been a lot more taciturn if his mother hadn't been present.

Initially, things were very awkward, but Sakura was desperate and frequent threatening glares kept the boys willing, so there was significant progress. In an hour and a half, they had managed to build enough of a rapport that they were talking almost normally: Sasuke remained aloof where Sakura was concerned. However, having Ryuuka pulling and pushing at him seemed to soften him quite a bit.

Riko-san looked over their survival training printout. "You have to report at six tomorrow?" The floodgates that had kept the genin's grievances about their sensei at bay burst. They were united in their dislike. All three of them began complaining. Sighing, Riko-san waved her hands and let them go one at a time as Uchiha-san stifled laughter and Ryuuka stared, bewildered by their sudden vehemence. "So you think your sensei is sadistic and terminally late?"

"And he dresses really weirdly, dattebayo!" Naruto gesticulated so wildly that his chopstick went flying over Sasuke's head. The boy scowled as Naruto dashed around the table to retrieve it. Sakura was disgusted when he didn't bother to wash it before going back to eating. _Boys._

"What does he look like?" Riko-san asked as Uchiha-san propped her head in her hands and smiled.

"Well, he wears his forehead protector at an angle so it covers one of his eyes. He also wears a mask over the lower half of his face. He's pretty tall, has weird, grey hair—" Sasuke listed until Riko-san's hand shot up, signalling him to stop.

"Weird, grey hair," Naruto's sister repeated.

"Yeah, it sticks up and tilts to one side." Naruto trailed off.

"What was his voice like?"

"He drawled. I'd say it was an alto range." Sakura's description didn't seem to help Naruto. "His mask muffled it a bit. The one eye we could see was kind of droopy, like a dog's—"

"Hey, I remember," Naruto said. "Dog-san, right?"

"Yeah, that's it!" Riko-san said. "You did say once that his hair was weird. Sasuke's wording triggered the memory."

"Dog-san?" Sakura asked, "What's that?"

Ryuuka blew bubbles in her glass of milk, uninterested in the conversation. Milk was more intriguing.

"All ANBU are referred to by their masks when on duty," Riko-san explained. "Dog-san watched over Naruto sometimes."

"Are you saying that our sensei is a former ANBU operative?" The thought made Sakura nervous.

"He could be. I can't be sure. Dog-san was only recognizable by his mask. He only spoke in my presence once. Naruto may be able to tell tomorrow." If anything, this only made Sakura more uneasy about the training test.

"ANBU or not, we'll get past Kakashi-sensei for sure, dattebayo!" Naruto's spirited words made Sakura feel a bit better.

Uchiha-san laughed and pulled Ryuuka's glass away from her when the bubbles started making milk drip all over the table. "The test is unlikely to be impossible." Sasuke's mother stole the washcloth from Riko-san, waved her back to her seat, and tackled the mess as Ryuuka whimpered about her stolen milk. "You said his name was Kakashi. Was it Hatake Kakashi?"

"Yeah." Naruto nodded violently, and Sasuke glared at him, his eyes fastened on Naruto's chopsticks. In the hand of a hyper ninja, they were a deadly weapon. Naruto stuck out his tongue.

"Yes, I remember him. He joined ANBU around the time the Yondaime came to power. I don't know if he is the Dog-san you refer to—there are only twelve main mask types, so there are a lot of overlaps—but it is very possible. He was incredibly skilled and has probably only become more so over the years. Experience is the best teacher." Uchiha-san laughed when she saw the genin's horrified looks. "Calm down. Theoretically, three genin should be able to take down a jounin."

Riko-san grimaced and stared at her hands. Sakura blinked at her, puzzled by her mood change.

"Teamwork is the key," Uchiha-san said with a sly smile on her lips despite the milk dripping over her fingers as bubbles popped.

* * *

"Key indeed," Sakura muttered as she hid under the foliage. Uchiha-san's lecture about teamwork made sense now. _Why else would Kakashi-sensei only use two bells?_ He wanted to isolate them from one another, to make them compete, or at least to make them think they had too. This question was more difficult than any she had faced on paper, but with the hints from Uchiha-san, she got it easily enough. Now all she had to do was convince Sasuke-kun and Naruto-dobe.

Once Kakashi had finished explaining the rules after arriving two hours late, Sakura had been nervous enough to be less than grateful that she had eaten breakfast. Their objective was on Kakashi-sensei's belt loop on his right side, the side that was not blinded by his forehead protector. Even this advantage was negated by the fact that Kakashi-sensei was ignoring them outright. He was reading a little orange book that was marked for adult audiences only. Obviously, it was some sort of porn.

Pulling a mild henge over herself so that she appeared green and brown, she searched for Naruto and Sasuke-kun. Finally, she spotted her preferred target. "Sasuke-kun," she hissed as she approached.

He held up a hand to stop her. "What do you want?" _Even his indifference was so cool…_

"We need to work together. We can't beat him alone, just like your mom said. Together, we might be able to snatch a bell. I've been looking for you and Naruto." At last, Sasuke nodded and let her come forward, but now she was wary. "Tell me what Riko-san told us about Kakashi-sensei."

Sasuke's face broke into a grin. "Very good, Sakura," 'Sasuke' muttered before his henge dissolved, revealing Kakashi-sensei. He pressed his fingers into the _ne_ seal. "Shinobi tactic #2: genjutsu."

The world dissolved into leaves.

* * *

Naruto slunk through the foliage, his merry band of clones fanning out behind him. He couldn't get their thoughts, but he was aware of them and of how they seemed to respond to his unspoken orders. Jutsu were just plain weird. He had never realized just how weird until he had come face to face with himself in a form that could argue with him.

"Eh, Boss?" One of his clones poked his shoulder.

"What is it?" He stared himself in the face and watched his confusion and slight hesitation.

"It looks like we've stumbled over the fangirl." Naruto glanced in the direction the clone was pointing and spotted another two of his clones crouching in the trees. He scrambled over to crouch beside his clones. Why was Sakura just standing around with a woebegone expression on her face?

"No idea," the bunshin to his left muttered, which freaked him out. _Okay, no clones were to respond to unspoken questions!_ The clones all hung their heads and shut up.

He signalled that his clones cover him in case Sakura turned out to be some sort of demonic creature sent by Kaka-sensei to roast him. "Hey, Sakura-chan," he said as he approached. She turned to him, her eyes very wide and her lower lip almost trembling. Naruto felt like an ass. Geez, he must have scared her.

"Naruto?" Yup, that was Sakura. The slight contempt and wariness were all hers.

"Did I scare you or something?" He rubbed the back of his head and donned his best apologetic grin.

"No." She huffed, crossing her arms. "It's just that…"

Naruto tilted his head and stared at her. _Why would she be embarrassed? _She was a shameless Sasuke-stalker. "It's just what?"

"Kakashi-sensei almost got me," she said. "First, it was Sasuke, and then it wasn't. He… he had his book and everything and then…"

Damn, he hated it when girls cried. Ryuuka-chan did it _all the time_, and it made him feel like hell. According to _The Adventures of Hiroji_, the guy was supposed to comfort the girl when she burst into tears. How he was to accomplish this without being beaten to a pulp confused him.

Against his better judgement, Naruto awkwardly patted her shoulder. The slight tremble of the muscles under his hand was all the warning he got.

He was tempted to scream bloody murder and beg for mercy when a puff of smoke revealed Kaka-sensei with his hand wrapped around the wrist of the hand that had been intended to comfort. Kaka-sensei was strong! Trying to break that grip was as futile as trying to break braided wires.

It turned out to be a good thing that his clones could follow unspoken orders. Next time, he was totally going to send a clone in first. One of his clones must have performed Kawarimi because Naruto suddenly found himself in a tree. He was grateful to the poor sod that had taken his place; he winced as that clone exploded into a puff of smoke. Ouch, that had hurt! Damn bastard had struck him right in the ribs. He rubbed the spot that was whole and unhurt even as he pushed the clone's dying moments behind the wall in his mind. Kaka-sensei must have known. That or he had intended to stick that kunai in him all along. Naruto hoped that the latter wasn't likely.

"Naruto," Sensei called, "how far do you expect to get?"

Naruto bit his lip on his proud rejoinder that he would get far enough away to find his team and come back to kick ass. Shouting that would only give away his position. He knew this because Kiba had used this tactic against him countless times while playing Hide-and-Seek and Tag. It was likely that Kakashi already knew where he was, but there was no need to confirm this. Instead, he organized his clone troopers as he figured out the best direction to flee in.

First, bait was needed. Bait for a pervert that read porn would have to be female, busty, and scantily clothed. He prayed that Riko-nee never discovered how he had broken her rule about no nudity. With luck, Kaka-sensei would be embarrassed enough that he wouldn't mention it to her if they ever met.

A clone hopped into the clearing and announced that he knew a jutsu that would even down a jounin. When the jounin in question looked incredulous, the clone performed Orioke.

Naruto didn't have time to enjoy the reaction of his prey. Steps 2 and 3 were already in motion. Kunai rained down upon the jounin, which he predictably avoided. With the racket to cover his escape, Naruto created another six clones and had them scatter in different directions to hide his tracks as Step 3 got going. Naruto was far enough away when the memories of his poor sacrificial bunshin hit that he was able to hug the nearest tree and whimper without having to worry about being ass-poked by his sensei. That was a bloody evil technique, thousand years of pain indeed!

ANBU truly was a force to be reckoned with if they could do that.

* * *

Sakura, weak-kneed and drained, forced herself to move. Kakashi-sensei knew where she was now. She was very grateful that he had not decided to test her further. With renewed purpose and an even greater sense of caution, she continued her search. The next time she found something, it was both Naruto and Sasuke. Anxious, Sakura observed them from a distance. If they were clones or something, they would not be as merciful this time.

"Well, Moron, can you find her or not? I'm not wasting any more time if you can't. We can do this without her—"

Hurt echoed through her, but hope whispered that this was one of Sensei's evil illusions.

"Shut up; it's hard to focus when you keep on asking me. With you talking, for all we know she could be right behind us. Geez, I liked it better when you were shy." Sasuke growled and was just about to make a stinging retort when Sakura revealed her presence.

"Psst!" she hissed; both boys turned towards her location and tried to distinguish her from the forest with some difficulty because of her henge. "Sasuke-kun, tell me what Riko-san said about Kakashi-sensei."

"She said that he could be Dog-san." Naturally, he had remembered this perfectly. She had less faith in her other teammate.

"Naruto, tell me how many plants are in your living room."

"Twenty-two." Relieved, Sakura moved forward until Naruto held up his hand. "Tell us about Kaka-sensei's eye."

"It's droopy like a dog's," she said, now sure that the two were her teammates.

Naruto grinned and lowered his hand. "I'm glad you're here, Sakura-chan. I guess you ran into Kaka-sensei's copies too?"

"Yeah, one was pretending to be Sasuke," she admitted, glancing at the boy in question. He stared at the ground, refusing to make eye contact. "He couldn't answer my question though."

"That's better than me, dattebayo!" Only Naruto could be excited about failure. "He fooled me into thinking he was you for a bit. I don't know you as well as Sasuke here, so I almost got caught. I managed to get away from him though. I got him with Orioke. I distracted him with that while I hit him with a bunch of kunai thrown by clones and a log trap we rigged. Sasuke almost got caught, but Kaka-sensei doesn't know me too well anymore: he had me bouncing around like an idiot. The bastard knew I wouldn't do that around such a cool tree during a test."

"Orioke? You mean that jutsu you used on Iruka-sensei?" she asked him, a little puzzled and indignant. A doofus like Naruto taking on the appearance of a skank was criminal.

"Yeah, the pervert was stunned." Naruto's jutsu and its creator were redeemed in her eyes. "It was a lame reaction as far they go, but Sis would've been proud, especially if she knew what he's reading right now." Sasuke-kun smirked, and Naruto cackled. Sakura, feeling left out of the loop, waited for them to finish. "What's the plan?"

"What do you mean?" _Why were they asking her this? How was she supposed to know?_

"Sakura," Naruto whined, "you're the one who likes to study so much. You always aced tests and were the best in the class at strategy. Sasuke-bastard here was the best at cunning tactics, but we need a long-range plan. That's your specialty."

She flushed and began scribbling in the dirt with a twig. If she screwed up here, Sasuke-kun would hate her forever for making him go back to the Academy. "Okay, what do we know about Kakashi-sensei?"

* * *

One moment, Kakashi had been reading; the next, nearly half a hundred blonde women had raced out of the forest calling his name. He flicked a kunai at one, and "she" disappeared in a puff of smoke. _What were those kids up to?_ At least this attack was original, if lewd for twelve-year-olds. Maybe they had learned something at the Academy about analysing opponents for visible weak points. If so, maybe he would forgive them for falling prey to the obvious. Everyone did, but if these brats were going to pass, they couldn't be grouped with "everyone."

Still, he would play along this time. These women didn't seem intent on damaging him, but they were distracting, so Kakashi ended their existence, weaving in and out of their seeking arms. When all of them were gone, all was quiet save for the rustle of leaves in the nonexistent wind.

More women emerged, faster and far more determined to grab him. Any other occasion, he might have been willing to let them, but this was not the time. Just as he finished terminating the fifth woman that attempted to nab him, they began morphing into puffs of smoke _en masse_, obscuring his vision. Kakashi guessed their intent, but it was too late. His belt loop was bare. He strained to see through the smoke, trying to pick out the genin that were surely scouring the ground, but there was no one.

When at last the smoke dissipated, all three genin were standing on a large bough. Sakura stood beaming in the centre flashing him the victory sign while Naruto and Sasuke each held a bell on either side of her.

"How about it, Sensei, do we pass?" Naruto looked quite worn out. There was a nervous quality to his motions. Kage Bunshin wasn't coming easily to him. It would have been better if he had been the dunce he had pretended to be. The jutsu wouldn't have bothered him if he had been oblivious to the memories.

"Tell me what you did."

"Well, first we almost got caught," Naruto said with sweeping gestures that probably should have made him fall out of his tree. Kakashi suspected that Uchiha-san had been tutoring her son and his pack of friends quite a bit. "I got tricked into thinking you were Sakura and managed to get away." It was good that Naruto admitted to his failure. "Sasuke saw me, but he knew it wasn't me after watching for a couple minutes, so he went around—"

"Tell me what you did once you found each other." That was what interested him. There had been considerable friction between them yesterday. _What had smoothed that out?_

"Oh, well, Sakura-chan here had a great idea while she was looking for us."

_Sakura had been the one with the idea, hmm?_ She had the best marks in anything of a strategic and tactical nature from what he had read, but it surprised him that Sasuke and Naruto had acknowledged that. She had been the loose link yesterday. Sasuke and Naruto's strong friendship had only made her position worse. He had expected her presence to be the reason this team failed.

"She saw you reading your book, so she figured that my Orioke would be the best choice for distracting you, so I told her about my Haaremu no Jutsu that uses shadow clones. Sasuke here figured he could use the smoke as cover for snagging the bells. Sakura and I figured out how to get the bell away. One clone from my first wave got it off you and dropped it when you 'poofed' it. I knew where it was then, and I told Sasuke where to find it."

Ah, so Naruto did realize the potential of the memories of shadow bunshin, though he was suffering from them as well.

"Well, that's all good, but Sakura didn't get a bell." Sakura gulped when Kakashi appeared behind her. "That means she gets tied to the post." Two bells were tossed at her. She flailed to catch them, but a hand snatched them out of the air by their strings, letting them jingle menacingly.

All three genin froze.

The bells swayed in Kaka-sensei's grip.

The alarm went off.

"Kakashi" and the "bells" exploded into wisps of smoke.

"_No_!" He could see that single thought engraved on the trio's faces.

* * *

"Hmm." The real jounin ambled out of the forest as he flipped a page, the bells jingling at his hip. The three genin stared, horrified. All that work and they hadn't even managed to _touch_ the bells. "In fact, none of you got a bell. I guess that doesn't bode well for any of you," the jounin said as he glanced at his students over the cover of his book. "Sakura didn't even touch a shadow bell though, so we'll stick with that punishment scheme." That "smile" on his face was menacing.

"Hey, Sakura helped us get those, dattebayo! If she gets tied to a post, then I do too!" Naruto said with false bravado. Kakashi cocked his visible eyebrow. Naruto refused to back down though and elbowed Sasuke into action. If they had to fail, they could at least fail with flare, as Hiroji would have!

* * *

"She's our teammate. She helped us. If you tie her to the post, then you must tie all of us to a post. This test was stupid if it didn't consider teamwork. If Sakura can't have lunch, we'll just have to leave our lunches too and go get some elsewhere."

Deeply grateful, Sakura clenched the fists that would have held the shadow bells. _Would Kakashi-sensei let their partial success slide?_ It was unlikely. She wished she had thought to include the possibility that Kakashi-sensei would resort to using bunshin again. That had been a major planning flaw. She cringed, hoping the two boys wouldn't hold it against her. If they did, she really hoped that she was able to make it up to Sasuke if they did manage to get on the same team again.

Finally, Kakashi moved.

His visible eye crinkled up into what she hoped was a smile. If it wasn't, they were all screwed. "You all pass." They slumped with relief. "You managed to see underneath the underneath to a degree: the whole test was about teamwork."

Actually, that wasn't true, but Sakura was hardly going to correct him. She shot a warning look at Naruto, but he seemed aware of the delicacy of their position. He was gloating. Unfortunately, swatting Naruto upside the head, as he so richly deserved, would have countered Kakashi-sensei's "teamwork" assumption.

"The ninja rulebook insists that those that don't follow its contents are trash. The rulebook keeps shinobi in line and alive, so it can presume to say this. There are things worse than lawbreakers: those that abandon their team simply because they are blind sheep. Those people are _lower_ than trash." The serious look on his face and his dead tone made her certain that none of them would forget this particular lecture. Kakashi pointed to an anomaly in the training ground. It was simple stone, faded and weatherworn, but the rows upon rows of tiny characters struck her as morbid. "All ninja KIA have their names carved into that stone. My best friend has his name there because he understood what you did even when I did not."

"Is the Yondaime's name there?" Naruto asked. Kakashi nodded, and Naruto bowed his head. Sakura felt sort of sorry for him: it was no secret that the Yondaime was Naruto's hero.

"You are the first team that I have passed. All of the other teams blindly followed my instructions and refused to work together, getting caught up in what they saw on the surface. Let their failure be a lesson to you. Tomorrow we will begin our duties as Team 7."

Naruto cheered and flipped off the branch. "Come on, guys; let's go get some ramen. Sis said she'd meet us at Ichiraku's. She's skipping out of work early today, and she said she'd pay for all of us if we passed. Iruka-sensei might even drop by later. Kaka-sensei, you should come too!"

"Maa, I've got to report your success to the—"

"Ah, that can wait an hour, right? Come on, you can't say no to ramen, Sensei!" Naruto herded them all to Ichiraku's.

* * *

"Ah, so you did pass! Congratulations!" Matsuku-san ruffled Sasuke's hair, ignoring the Uchiha's glare, patted Sakura's shoulder, and ruffled Naruto's hair as well, exchanging whispers with her brother before smiling at Kakashi, her brown eyes keen upon his features. He went cold. There was fury in those eyes. None of the kids noticed, they were too busy eating, but her posture suggested defeat and he had the feeling all of it was his fault. "Inu-san." _Ah, so Naruto had known._

"Matsuku-san, I'd rather you didn't mention that."

"Ah, of course, Hatake-san."

He nodded, trying to figure out what he had done to infuriate her. He had passed her brother. She should have been pleased and proud, not disappointed and drawn. _Why the hell did women never make any sense?_

Her bleaker emotions disappeared as she settled on a stool beside Naruto. "Now, let's see this ramen. There are rumours going around that three other teams passed with you, so let's hope that the other four made it through as well."

"Hah, Kaka-sensei!" Naruto pointed his chopsticks at his sensei. The lopsided jounin glanced at him with a mildly curious look, but Naruto was hardly deterred. "You were wrong! Four teams passed! That means twelve of the twenty-seven graduates are genin. You can take your average failure rate of sixty-six percent and shove it up your—! Ouch! Neechan, let go of my ear! I wasn't going to cuss, I swear!"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: To Forge a Magi

To say that Sakura wasn't especially pleased when Naruto turned out to be the one banging on her door at seven the morning after the bell test would be an understatement.

He nursed a black eye while she reluctantly prepared to meet the day with him.

"What's this about again?" she groused as he bounced along. Nothing human should be that kipper at seven. "Kakashi-sensei said we weren't supposed to meet up until nine. I wasn't going to head down to the bridge until ten thirty." All that sleep she could have had!

"Ah, Sakura-chan, just because Kaka-sensei is a lazy bum, it doesn't mean we have to be!" When she stared, her fist clenching at her side, he chuckled. "Mikoto-obachan likes to work with us. Because all of us have sensei and missions and stuff now, she's gonna work with us before and after that stuff. She wants to make sure that you've got the same skills and stuff that we have."

Sakura frowned. Naruto had rarely been in class and when he had been, he had usually slept right through it. _What would he know that she wouldn't?_ This was Uchiha-san though, so she figured that losing a couple hours of sleep was worth this. Besides, she would get to spend more time with Sasuke-kun!

"Why did you come to get me?" she asked, disappointed that Sasuke hadn't.

"I'm not Sasuke."

She resisted the urge to deck him again. _Of_ _course_ he wasn't Sasuke. He was nowhere near as cool and wonderful as Sasuke-kun was.

"Sasuke's an ass." She glared, raising her arm threateningly, but he held to his point. "I've been his friend for six years now; he's an ass. He doesn't get along with girls: mostly because you all stalk him like he's a golden stag that will give you three wishes if you catch him, but that's not everything. If you stop stalking him, he might actually talk to you."

Sakura did _not_ appreciate Naruto's advice. This was a matter of true love and a point of contention between her and Ino-pig. Naruto was _not_ allowed to butt in, and she didn't need his help! She huffed, crossed her arms, and stuck her nose in the air, and Naruto did the first intelligent thing for the day: he backed off.

"Anyway, Riko-nee is waiting for us at the next street over. I run with her in the mornings, which is why I'm up so early. Do you want to help me catch her? She's probably hiding by now."

"Catch her?"

"Yeah, we sort of play tag while we run."

Sakura let Naruto gab on about his strange training method as she inspected her reflection in a store window. In it, she noticed a figure crouched behind the crates in the alley across the road. Pivoting, she checked and saw nothing. Naruto was still talking about his not so amazing feats of wonder.

She glared him into shutting up, and he scowled at her as though he was regretting coming to get her. _Good. Maybe Sasuke-kun would come next time._ "There's someone in that alley." She was annoyed when Naruto ignored her paranoia and grinned.

"Good job, Sakura-chan!" He dashed in the direction she had pointed. A brown-haired figure leapt up and sprinted away. "Come on! If we don't hurry, we'll have to track her without sight next time. Smell is always difficult on Tuesdays because all the crowds on Mondays smell funny!"

Bewildered, she ran after him as he disappeared around the corner of a building framing the dingy alleyway.

Sakura hadn't known that non-ninja could sprint like this for so long. Maybe Naruto hadn't been joking when he had said he had been doing this merry chase thing every morning for six years. Riko-san darted down side streets and scrambled over fences to slip through private yards. Naruto steadily closed the gap. Sakura stuck with him with some difficulty, having the feeling that he could have caught his sister easily, but that he was prolonging the chase to add to the fun of it. _How was he sticking to walls and walking on the tops of narrow fences like that? Was it a technique Uchiha-san had taught him? Maybe this training would be a very good thing._

Sakura was appalled when Naruto took his sister down with a flying leap. Both of them went tumbling, kicking up a large amount of dust before their momentum dissipated, leaving them sprawled in a heap. Sakura was disgusted when Naruto started laughing.

"Hah! You didn't check for that today!"

His sister wheezed, rubbing her ribs. "I… thought… you… wouldn't be… up for it."

Sakura asked her if she was all right.

"I'm fine, thank you, Sakura-san. He didn't knock me into a building this time. It's all good." Riko-san's politeness melted into annoyance as she turned to her brother.

"Otouto, you are a brat: an awesome brat, but still a complete brat. I'm not as tough as you." She glared him into silence. "I'm going to have such bad bruises." She sighed and dusted off her shorts as Naruto got up off the ground and swatted the dirt off the seat of his pants. Sakura couldn't understand why Riko-san hadn't belted the idiot for hurting her like that.

"You've got to work on your tackle." Riko-san flicked her hair over her shoulder, not seeming bothered by the dirt and twigs stuck in it at all. Sakura couldn't understand that at all. _Did the woman have no pride in her hair? _Sakura would have never allowed her own pink locks stay so disgustingly dirty. This woman was also ignoring scrapes that were starting to bleed all over her legs. It was as if she didn't want to make a big deal about them. "You didn't secure me the way Mikoto says you're supposed to. If I hadn't been winded, I could have gotten back up and started running again. Remember: shinobi are going to be a hundred times tougher than I am. They would have escaped you easily."

Naruto nodded and reached under his shirt to scratch his back. Bits of leaves and a pebble dropped to the ground behind him. His black clothes were looking rather brown and grey now. "Don't worry so much, dattebayo." He flapped one hand to dismiss Riko-san's concerns. "I know."

Riko-san looked sceptical. "All right then; Mikoto's waiting." She turned and picked up the pace, a definite limp evident in her stride. Sakura noticed that Naruto ran on the side that Riko-san was limping on, which made her a little less angry at his callousness. Maybe Matsuku-san was weird like that. The limp became less obvious as they covered ground, the ankle obviously only having been rolled or something.

They stayed on the side roads even though the main streets would have gotten them to the training grounds faster. When Sakura ran up on Riko-san's other side and pointed this out, the woman shot her a strained smile and shook her head.

Naruto scowled, his sunny smile gone as though it had never existed. "Running on the main streets isn't safe," he grumbled, putting on a burst of speed to outstrip them by a couple metres.

"Don't mind him," Riko-san called above the whistling of the wind in her ears. "He's just upset about how little they like us. Running on the busy streets isn't quite safe for us. People like to trip us."

"Because Naruto pranks people all the time," Sakura said, sure that that was the reason. Some of her smugness must have leaked into her voice because Riko-san's face became cold. It made Sakura cringe. Maybe giving Naruto a black eye hadn't been a good idea.

"No," Matsuku-san said icily, "it's for different reasons. Even when he doesn't play pranks, people do that to us." Sakura mumbled an apology, and Matsuku-san's expression eased. "Naruto, let's go try today." Her teammate glanced back incredulously, but Riko-san repeated her order, her determination to make Sakura understand apparent. "It'll be good practice. Think of it as an obstacle course."

Naruto's biggest grin sprouted across his face as he led the way through an alley that connected the side road to the main street and the market. Sakura's stomach swooped at the expressions on people's faces when they were noticed. Those visages were even colder than Riko-san's had been.

This wasn't an obstacle course. This was… this was horrible. Sakura had been bullied before, so she knew exactly what this was. Elbows jabbed out, legs tried to trip them up, and people either got in their path on purpose or avoided them like the plague. Naruto wove through it all like an expert and Riko-san avoided the worst of it as they darted through the crush around all of the vendors manning their stalls. Sakura felt odd to be left alone when the two ahead of her were being so abused.

When they left the market behind, Sakura couldn't think of anything to say .

Riko-san lagged a bit to let her catch up. "Awesome job, Naruto."

He turned around, running backwards with a huge smile on his face, and gave them a thumbs-up. Sakura called out a warning, reaching out futilely, when a man that was probably a little younger than Riko-san stepped out of the crowd. Naruto demonstrated just how used to this he was when he pivoted around from one step to the next, ducking under the elbow as he turned. Sakura heard Riko-san sigh with relief.

Naruto led them along the paths connecting the training grounds until they reached one deep in the forest. Riko-san halted, panting hard for a few moments, before she walked off around the edge of the clearing. Sakura hardly minded her: Sasuke-kun was here. Naruto had already bounded over to his side and had tried to tackle him without success.

"Boys, stop it and get over here," said Uchiha-san from where she was kneeling beside Ryuuka-chan, who was pulling up great hanks of grass. "Sakura-san, it is good that you could make it. Riko, are you okay? What happened?"

"Naruto tackled me." Riko-san caught the water bottle Uchiha-san threw to her and took a swig before squirting the abrasions on her legs, the pinkish water running in rivulets over her dust-coated skin and into her shoes. Uchiha-san arched an eyebrow at the ruffian in question, who raised his hands in front of himself to ward off the attack.

"It wasn't my fault that she didn't dodge!"

Uchiha-san glared, and Sasuke elbowed Naruto.

"Naruto-niichan," Ryuuka-chan burbled, tossing grass at him and missing, "why is your eye all red and blue and black?"

Naruto crouched down beside Sasuke's sister. "Ah, Sakura-chan wasn't happy to see me this morning. I didn't duck fast enough."

"Mou, do better, Niichan," she said, tossing some dead leaves at him before going back to her grass. "Oniitama never let a girl hit him."

Naruto rolled his eyes at her before getting back up to watch Uchiha-san, who got to her feet and assessed them before fixing Sakura with an unnerving stare.

"Aren't guys coming?" Ryuuka asked, glancing around the clearing as though others would appear.

"Not this time, Imouto," said Sasuke-kun. "They have different teachers now. They won't come most of the time anymore."

Ryuuka pouted as Sakura continued trying not to twitch under Uchiha-san's stare.

"Tree walking," she said, nodding to herself. "Boys, you will be helping Sakura-san learn since you have already mastered the skill. I will watch."

Sakura fidgeted as everyone bid Riko-san farewell as she left to get ready for work. Naruto and Sasuke-kun conferred in hisses, sometimes attempting to hit each other. Sakura wished that they would get on with it.

"All right, the bastard will demonstrate, and I'll explain since he's a sissy and doesn't want to talk— Ouch! Dammit, Sasuke, you bastard!" Naruto rubbed at his ear and glared at his friend, who was smirking at the base of the nearest tree. The idiot took a deep breath and started again. "Okay, tree walking. Kinobori no Waza isn't actually a technique. It's a useful skill though. You remember how I walked on those walls? Well, I can do that because I can do this. This is tough because it's all about focusing your chakra to your feet. I know you can do it a bit because you've already started using chakra to boost your speed."

"Get on with it," Sasuke-kun said.

Naruto stuck out his tongue, and Ryuuka giggled in the background. "Okay, you need to focus your chakra in your feet."

Sasuke formed a one-handed version of the tora seal.

"Then you put your foot on the tree and try to figure out how much you need to stay stuck to the tree. Me, I usually use either too much or too little, or at least I did at first. You get the hang of it pretty quickly once you're up the tree and can't get down any other way. You haven't got any other choice," Naruto muttered and glowered at Uchiha-san, who smiled. Sasuke set his foot against the tree and walked up it. Naruto turned back to Sakura. "Your turn."

She approached the nearest sturdy-looking tree and set her foot against it. She didn't know why Naruto had made such a big deal about this: it was hardly tricky. She moderated the flow of her chakra and took a step, adding a bit more chakra when it was apparent that more was needed to balance out her weight. Six steps more and she was sure she had the hang of it. She sped up, racing up the trunk to the highest bough that would hold her weight. She stepped onto it, crouched down, keeping her hand on the trunk, and stared down at those below.

"And that, boys, is why you should never underestimate kunoichi despite the fact that they aren't quite as strong as you in many cases," Uchiha-san said as the two boys exchanged incredulous glances. "Though females often have smaller chakra reserves, they will compensate for this by having more advanced control in most cases. Improved efficiency will cancel out the need to have gigantic amounts of chakra at their beck and call."

Uchiha-san knelt down and gestured that they gather around her. Sakura had the feeling that they were about to be lectured. She took her place as close as she could get to Sasuke, who seemed to be using Ryuuka as a shield. Naruto looked amused as he perched on a branch above their heads.

"Sometimes, it's not what you know," began Uchiha-san, looking each of them in the eye. "What I mean by that is that sometimes it doesn't matter how many high-ranking, super powerful techniques you know. If a genin is clever enough, the Academy jutsu can defeat any jounin."

All three genin were incredulous. Sasuke's mother shook her head at them, and her face became even harder looking. Sakura suddenly suspected that this lecture was to be taken very seriously and would not be repeated.

"No, it's true. It doesn't matter how many A or S-rank techniques a person knows if they cannot properly apply them to a situation. You are going to be extremely tempted to use powerful jutsu. All genin experience this. Gobbling up technique after technique isn't a good idea though. Finding something you can use and then becoming extremely proficient with it—being able to apply it to any situation—is better. Your reserves aren't going to be up for doing amazing techniques right off the bat. It is a much better idea to find something, like Naruto has recently found Kage Bunshin, that works for you and that you can use in many ways. Take Kawarimi for example. That technique could be used to defeat an S-rank nukenin." She laughed—bitterly—at their disbelief and explained a bit more.

"Kawarimi is a technique that replaces the user with some object nearby. Because you can specify any object, things such as exploding tags, clones, or even teammates or other enemies can be put in your place. Imagine fighting a duo; you can put one in your place while the other is making an all or nothing attack. Your opponent would do your job for you.

"A wise genin will learn to be creative within the bounds of that technique and make what is supposed to be a supplementary technique into his main weapon. Creativity is the key. Ninja are constantly adapting and changing tactics. To stay ahead in the game, a ninja must be more inventive and more adaptable than his opponent is. Quick thinking is a necessity.

"Kunai and shuriken, though often considered crude weapons, are beautiful in their simplicity. Using them doesn't drain away the body's stamina. A kunai to the brain kills just as effectively as an A-rank katon jutsu does with a lot less effort on the part of the user. You must evaluate your available tools and apply them to the situation. Conservation is also the key. Conserve your energy, your time, and your movements to stay ahead in longer battles. Wasting everything on an all or nothing shot is nothing short of suicidal idiocy because if you fail you will die." She glared at the two boys.

"I don't care what moronic things you read about honour and chivalry in your books. Those are books. Life isn't like that. Those that die with honour and those that die without it are still dead. The dead are all food for worms. Ninja don't have time for things like that. It's a kill or be killed business.

"You have to pick and choose your battles because you won't have enough strength or time to fight all of them. Fight when you have to, run when you can't beat your opponent so that you can come back and beat him later when the odds are in your favour, and hide, always hide. Ninja strike from the shadows, around corners, and obscure places whenever they can. Bellowing and charging is for idiots that get killed by the enemy they didn't see in their blind rush." Sakura wasn't surprised that most of those last few comments were directed specifically at Naruto. "Be cautious, be creative, and be conserving. Always hide until there is no other option. Plan, use information to your advantage, and stay alive to fight some other day if possible."

"But I thought we weren't supposed to abort any mission even if it does mean that comrades die," Sakura whispered.

"The rules do say that. Rules are made to be broken as far as I'm concerned. The Academy creates sheep that only know what they are taught and blindly follow the rules. Jounin sensei and experience forge ninja that understand that life isn't clear-cut and that the rules are very often wrong. A dead ninja is no use to her village. If it is a suicide mission though, do as your gut tells you. Sometimes sacrifice is necessary, but it should be avoided if it can be. You can only sacrifice so much before there is nothing left to give. Life is precious and limited; don't squander it needlessly." Sakura wondered why Uchiha-san looked so sad when she said that. The woman pulled Ryuuka into her arms despite her protests about being taken away from her grass destruction.

Sakura mulled over that very telling speech. This sounded like something Iruka-sensei had said, but much harsher. He had always made Sakura excited about graduating and working as a ninja. Uchiha-san's talk didn't do that. Suddenly, being a ninja didn't seem quite as glamorous as it had been. It sounded tough and thankless. Even Sasuke-kun and Naruto looked subdued.

Uchiha-san softened a little. "I tell you this because Hatake Kakashi won't. I remember him. He was never one to explain himself to anyone. He grew up a ninja and hardly ever needed to do so. He only does it for those he considers idiots incapable of understanding otherwise—namely civilians and fools. I am quite certain that this is his first time teaching anyone. He will try to help you understand, but he will consider you ninja. He will think you won't need his descriptions. You have to be patient with him."

She looked amused. "Being a teacher is not easy. You are going to have to help him learn how to teach you. Ask questions if something confuses you. Don't stop asking questions until you understand. Not understanding could kill you." She stared at each of them until they nodded. "Good. I recommend that all of you keep tree walking until it is time to go."

* * *

Sasuke leaned against the railing of the bridge. Naruto straddled it and dropped rocks into the river below as he jabbered on about how weird his newest jutsu was. Naruto had been complaining about Kage Bunshin for days now. Sasuke was convinced that he didn't want to try it. It sounded like a whole bunch of trouble with very little reward. Besides, his mother had warned him that his reserves were not up for it. It had galled him, but she hadn't relented. He wasn't fool enough to defy her. She had been ANBU, and she was a jounin; she would know, and he trusted her. She would watch his back, he would watch Ryuuka's back, and together they would get through until the one that had brought them so low had paid.

Sasuke suppressed an annoyed sigh when the girl on their team started raging at Naruto for some comment he had made. Sasuke wished that Hyuuga girl had been put on their team instead. At least she had been quiet and she had never stalked him. The moron would have to learn to be quieter if he wanted to survive. A black eye and a thick ear had been inflicted upon him and it was only the second day… _Idiot._ Sasuke conveniently forgot that he was responsible for the thick ear.

Kakashi appeared out of nowhere as though nothing was wrong. "Yo!"

Sasuke resisted the urge to twitch. His mother had advised patience. He would hold by that for now.

Naruto and Sakura were not so forgiving. That or they were annoyed that even with their knowledge of their sensei's tardy behaviour they had waited forty extra minutes. It was past eleven. "You're late!" they roared, pointing at their sensei. Sasuke punched Naruto for hurting his ears, and the moron fell off the railing with a splash and a holler. He blinked as Sakura and Kakashi stared at him.

"He was noisy," he said, shrugging. He was almost amused when Sakura bowed her head and bit her lip. Maybe she would be quieter in future. The same could not be said for Naruto. The moron had never listened before.

"Bastard!" Naruto clambered back onto the bridge. He tried to squeeze his shirt all over Sasuke, but he got out of the way before the first drops even contemplated falling.

"All right, boys, calm down."

Naruto mouthed some words that Riko-oneesan would have twisted the idiot's ear for saying if she had been around. Sasuke intended to tell her about this later and watch the moron get punished.

"I guess you don't want to go on your first mission then," their sensei said with mock distress.

That shut them all up. They turned to him eagerly, though Sasuke would never admit to enthusiasm after the fact. Kakashi produced a mission scroll and tossed it to Sakura, who unrolled it, her motions almost reverent until her eyes scanned the description. "Window cleaning?"

Sasuke's mood plummeted. D-rank missions were bound to be hell.

Twenty minutes later, he revised this assessment. D-rank missions were worse than hell. _Weren't janitors supposed to do this?_ Their sensei must have pulled this mission to watch them flounder. The hospital had a hell of a lot of windows to clean. "Now, I'm sure that you can ask the janitors for some harnesses…"

"No need," Sasuke said, grabbing a pail and a squeegee that had been left out for them. He left Naruto to explain as he stuck himself to the wall and headed to the top windows. Drips falling from above would ruin his work if he started at the bottom. He knew this because of the time he and Naruto had practiced throwing kunai in the moron's apartment using pens to avoid putting holes in the walls. Some of the ink had run down the walls when water was applied to it, forcing him to clean a finished section again. He had never repeated the mistake.

"Yeah, we're all good," insisted Naruto, watching Sakura as she began to ascend the wall. Sasuke turned and tensed. She had only learned this morning. If she slipped up here, he and Naruto would have to catch her or she would hurt herself much worse than she could have by falling ten metres out of a tree. The concrete sidewalk around the hospital was not as forgiving at forty metres as the training ground was. "Sakura-chan is a quick learner. Uchiha-san even said so."

Sasuke couldn't resist glancing down and smirking at the slight surprise on their sensei's face. It was good to shock the annoying jounin.

* * *

Naruto called his friends over on Sunday since it was the only time he could be sure that all of them would be free from D-rank missions. He was a bundle of nerves as he waited for their arrival. When Kiba and Sakura rounded off the guest list, Naruto started talking. "I trust all of you guys, so I'm going to tell you why the village hates me. I finally got Old Man to tell me."

Sakura looked a little confused, so he explained ancient history. He wasn't quite sure why he trusted her with this, but it was better to tell her now than have her find out if he lost control. Besides, he had the feeling she sort of pitied him; he could work with that even though it was annoying. Sympathy was a better starting place than hatred. She was horrified by the time she had been brought up speed.

"Anyway, I found out that I have Kyuubi sealed inside of me." After the initial uproar, Naruto explained everything that he could about the law and about what having Kyuubi inside him meant. He then waited for the other shoe to fall, for his friends to reject him. He had been dreading this ever since Riko-nee had told him that he had to tell them. There was no guarantee that they would accept the jailor explanation as Riko-nee and Iruka-sensei had. If they didn't, well, they would be right to hate him.

Kiba was the first to speak. "Man, you have the worst luck ever. Only you could get yourself into a situation like this. I always knew you were creative, but this takes the cake."

"I'm not joking, Mutt Boy," Naruto growled.

"Tch," said Shikamaru, annoyed. "Kiba's just trying to be cool about it. He's not saying you're lying. You couldn't lie about something like this. It's just, what are we supposed to say? It's not as if this really changes anything. You're still Naruto. It's not like we're gonna spread this around." Those words let Naruto breathe again.

"Yeah," Sasuke said slowly, as though not sure he should be expressing empathy in front of a fangirl, "the Hokage says that you're fine. He'd know what he was talking about."

"Yes," said Shino, "besides, my bugs informed me of the tainted chakra around your body four years ago. You haven't done anything, so it is unlikely that you would change now that we all know who you are."

Naruto beamed at them as his body shook from the after-effect of being so nervous, even at Sakura, who looked nervous in this crowd of boys who had been friends for years. "Thanks, guys."

"We know, Moron," Sasuke said, punching Naruto's shoulder "lightly."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Four Stars Obscured

The problem of how to bring Kaka-sensei up to speed ate at Naruto. He knew that the former ANBU agent knew perfectly well who was residing behind his bellybutton (a fact that still creeped him out), but how could he break the news that he had told all of his friends? It was sort of important that Kaka-sensei know that Sasuke and Sakura knew at least. Otherwise, he would continue making subtle references to his "guest," which would have been fine if the other two hadn't been so likely to explode about it in a couple weeks. Sakura couldn't keep a secret to save her life, and if Kakashi found out that she did know, she would be in trouble. Naruto had no doubt that, as a bastard, Sasuke was capable of keeping his mouth shut. No, it was for Sakura-chan's sake that their sensei had to be brought up to speed.

He had considered asking Neechan, but she was busy. There were a lot of reports in Ero-Sennin's handwriting piling up on her desk, and she was scrambling to get a thick book filled up with the information they contained. She was sending off so many letters through the office to various people in stuffy language that even her letters from her family were starting to slide. Naruto had seen them stacking up on the side table, unread and unopened. Neechan loved reading the letters from her family. If she was leaving them until later, it meant that things were really important. No, bugging her about this wouldn't be a good idea.

Thus, he was on his own. Not good. Subtlety had never been his strong point according to Sasuke, Riko, Iruka-sensei, Shikamaru, Mikoto, and… well, according to a lot of people.

Being blunt wouldn't be the best idea. Kaka-sensei seemed to respond better when people came at things sideways. He suspected anyone being blunt. Naruto had been questioned several times just because he had said exactly what he was thinking. Sakura had undergone the same thing. For the first time, the bastard's ability to keep his damn mouth shut and to grunt when pressed for a good answer was useful. Sasuke never got questioned. Naruto _wasn't_ jealous.

A "solution" painfully presented itself a week and a half after spilling the beans to his friends.

Neechan had called it Marco Polo. They had played it in the reeds when he had gotten bored with chasing toads. It hadn't been very fun then—two people made it boring and being blindfolded in a marsh wasn't easy—but Naruto was becoming a master at adapting simple games to work for training.

In any case, after dealing with a bitchy old lady that had complimented everyone else on his team and then insulted him, Naruto hadn't been in the best mood by the time evening rolled around. The boasting of Team 5—the other team that had passed the genin exam—hadn't helped his mood. They claimed that they had gotten assigned their first C-rank mission and that Team 7 was lagging because of him. He knew it wasn't true, but still… Words hurt so much more than punches did. He didn't know why, but they did.

He retreated to a tree to wait for Sensei to get back from logging in their mission so they could start their afternoon training session. They were supposed to be working on fighting in the dark tonight. It would be good to work off some steam. He was grateful when Sasuke-bastard clambered up into the branch near his and leaned against the trunk, not making him talk. Naruto was hardly up for it now. This was why Naruto was the ass' friend: he knew when to shut up and let Naruto think. That and he was a good rival.

Sakura had come with them, but she had trailed a ways behind them, perhaps not sure of her welcome. When they had reached the training ground, she had lingered near the tree stumps she had nearly been tied to, uncertain. Naruto wasn't in the mood to help her.

Sasuke handled things, reluctantly. "Hurry up, Sakura."

Happy to be encouraged by him for the first time, Sakura scurried over and sat down on another nearby branch. They sat in silence for a long time, trying to figure out what to say. "Naruto, you've forgiven the village, right?" Sakura fingered a loose bit of bark.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, cocking his head at her.

"Well, you always go on about how you're going to become Hokage so you can protect everyone. Why would you want to protect people that hurt you unless you've forgiven them?" She had a point. _How to explain?_

He needed conviction and a reason. Conviction he had in spades, but a reason… "I don't really know. I think it's because of what Neechan is always talking about. She always says that if you do good things for others, it'll come back to you." That made sense to him. He had wanted to be Hokage for a long, long time, even before Neechan had come. He had wanted the village to acknowledge him. She had seen it as his desire to protect precious things, and he had embraced that. It was true enough.

"That sounds like karma."

"What's that?" Naruto asked.

"It's a philosophy. It claims that people can accumulate good or bad karma through their actions. Good actions will slowly cancel out bad actions or something like that. I didn't finish the paragraph," she admitted in a whisper. "It was boring."

Naruto snickered and was glad that she only glared at him and grumbled. "I want to protect the village because it's the right thing to do. While I don't like all those people who hurt me, Neechan made sure that I understood why they were afraid of me after I learned about Fox-bastard. I can understand that: I still don't like it, but I guess they can't be perfect. Konoha is a good place for many people, so it deserves protecting."

"That's a good reason I guess. Hey, Sasuke-kun, why do you know all of those katon jutsu? I thought elemental chakra was too difficult for genin to mould. You're amazing, of course, but why do you know?"

"It's part of my clan heritage. I have to know them. Fire alignment runs in my family."

Naruto rolled his eyes when Sakura looked impressed beyond belief. He hoped that she wouldn't faint or something. He shot a poisonous look at his friend, who looked just as freaked out. Poor Bastard, his great-uncle could teach him all that crap about being the perfect Uchiha heir, but he couldn't coach the bastard in something useful, like how to ward off fangirls and how to deal with the opposite sex. Maybe Ryuuka-chan would teach him when she got older. It would be hilarious to watch since she was always learning from Sasuke-bastard. The reverse situation would be awesome.

As awesome as contemplating this was, Naruto figured doing something else to pass the time would be a good idea before Sakura decided to revert to creepy stalker mode. "Hey,"—_why was he always the one that had to save the bastard's ass?_—"let's play that training game!"

"Which one?" At least her obsession with Sasuke had given her drive to improve to impress him. Naruto was grateful for this twist every day.

"The Marco Polo one."

Once everyone agreed, Naruto rifled through a stash of training equipment he had hidden in a hole in a tree and shoved the stuff in Sasuke's hands. The ass grumbled, but Naruto just whistled merrily. Fully equipped now, the trio headed off into the trees. Sakura called being "it," so Sasuke threw her the six small beanbags they used in place of weapons until everyone had warmed up enough to use live steel. He and Naruto spread out as Sakura tied her forehead protector over her eyes.

The point of the game was for the person who was "it" to get an auditory "picture" of her surroundings and to try to hit the other players. The other players were learning how much noise they could make before they were heard. This game had been especially hard for Naruto whenever he wasn't "it." He was loud and clumsy generally, so learning to be careful and quiet had been a painful experience. He had gotten hit with a lot of beanbags and had had to dodge a lot of kunai.

Sakura wasn't bad at this game. It had helped improve her reflexes and calm her nerves because whenever she played it with her teammates, they always tried to gang up on her and tackle her if she didn't catch their positions fast enough to drive them back. This time was no different. Sasuke crept towards her first, but he halted when Sakura pointed straight at him.

"Sasuke, you're about seven metres away." Considering how Naruto stumbled through the bush while Sasuke stalked, identifying them by sound wasn't all that difficult. Sasuke snapped a twig to show she was right and to mask his retreat by way of a chakra-powered leap.

Naruto tried next. He was fond of approaching from the trees. Shikamaru in particular hadn't appreciated that, but the smartass had adapted. Naruto in turn hadn't appreciated that. He walked upside-down along the underside of a branch to avoid the leaves until he was about five metres away. He was just about to drop down on top of her when a beanbag smacked him on the head. He pouted and rubbed his crown; Sakura threw hard.

"Naruto, you're way too predictable," Sakura chastened. "Do you want to be 'it'?"

Sasuke groaned in protest. "Don't do that! Whenever Naruto is 'it,' he always catches us before we're sixteen metres from him." Sakura blindly turned in Sasuke's direction, woebegone because he had disagreed with her. Naruto shook his head, exasperated with her. "Do you think it's because of the fox?"

Naruto shrugged, pretending not to be concerned. "I don't know. Neechan thinks it might be. He does make me heal faster. Sakura, you should stay 'it.' You've got to improve your range the most, and this is good training for me."

Nodding, Sakura clumsily caught the beanbag that Sasuke collected and threw at her so that it impacted with her collarbone before dropping into her waiting hands. Catching things blind was beyond her. It was beyond all of them, actually, but Naruto wasn't quite up for admitting that, nor was Sasuke.

Sasuke was really dependent upon his sight. Naruto had the feeling that being blind would be a fate worse than death for him.

Everything ran smoothly until Kakashi joined them. He didn't usually, but it seemed that he wanted to test them. He did that whenever he felt bored or malicious, so when Naruto caught sight of a silver streak, he became nervous. Nothing good would come of this, Naruto was positive.

Sasuke was in the centre now, and Sakura was moving towards him, using only her fingertips to stick to a bough. Naruto wiggled to suppress his desire to cackle; Sasuke would suspect something then. This was the closest Sakura had ever gotten to her crush in this game, and Naruto was having a field day. He hoped that Kaka-sensei wouldn't ruin this for her. Hand over hand, achingly slowly from Naruto's perspective, Sakura inched closer and closer as Sasuke strained his ears.

Apparently, the ass could feel that something was coming: his breathing sped up, and if Naruto focused, he could hear Sasuke's heart pumping at one and a half times its normal rate. Sakura was similarly affected, but she was suppressing her breathing so as not to draw Sasuke's notice. She had only six more metres to go. Naruto jumped up into a tree to get a better view as the distance decreased to four metres, then three. Naruto held his breath, waiting for either teammate to pounce. Sasuke had done this to him before. He had given him a false sense of hope before nailing him over the head. He hoped for Sakura's sake that this was not the case.

Suddenly, she pounced, flipping herself over in midair so that she took out Sasuke's knees with her arms instead of her feet so she could cushion her fall. A second after Sakura dropped, Sasuke heard the leaves of the tree rustle from the backlash of losing Sakura's weight, and he tossed his beanbag, hitting Sakura's foot just as she got him. Naruto broke out laughing at the look of comical surprise on his best friend's face once he realized that the bane of his existence had gotten him. Sakura started laughing too until Kaka-sensei started clapping.

Now, Naruto knew full well that he was awesome, but it was hard being awesome all the time. Heck, even Hiroji got to have breaks in the books. That was his excuse for falling out of the tree. It was more likely that he panicked because Kakashi had managed to get right behind him without being noticed and then the sadist had clapped right in his ears, which were chockfull of chakra. Either way, Naruto fell with an ear-splitting yelp and cracked his ankle on the tree branch inconveniently placed below his former perch before Kaka-sensei snatched him out of the air before he could crack his neck by impacting badly with the ground.

"Naruto, you baka, you gloat about how awesome your tree walking skills are, and you manage to get frightened off your branch!" Sakura was upset that her moment of triumph had been ruined. Naruto would have hidden behind Kaka-sensei, but his ankle was very angry with him. He whined and let himself plop onto the grass, cradling the injured limb and shaking a fist at the branch that had dared to hurt it.

"Idiot," Sasuke grunted, blocking Sakura's path so that she couldn't belt him with her formidable fist, "the tree is hardly going to care." Naruto snarled obscenities at him, but Sasuke smirked as Kaka-sensei watched them with a sort of bored impatience, waiting for them to quit arguing. "It's not like it will take all that long to heal. Even if you've idiotically managed to break it, the fox won't let it stay injured for long."

Naruto and Kakashi blinked at the bastard, and Sakura giggled at their expressions. Naruto couldn't believe it. He had thought that Sakura would be the one to ruin things, not Sasuke-can't-string-two-words-together-most-of-the-time. This was unprecedented.

Kakashi-sensei did a double take. All three of his genin eyed him nervously. "Naruto, I didn't know that you told your teammates about the demon fox. You do know that this is against the law."

Naruto wished he were up for backing away. As it was, his ankle was bruising and was swelling. Trying to scurry away on it would make it even less happy with him. Naruto decided that the best course of action would be to spill and to blame Riko-nee. This was all her fault.

"Yeah, but Neechan figured it would be a good idea to tell all of my close friends. They had a right to know, and it would show them how much I trusted them. Besides, they're going to find out eventually. Old Man warned me that Kyuubi could do some funny things to me that everybody would be able to see. I thought it would be better to warn them beforehand so that they have some idea what's going on. Besides, Neechan says it's not illegal for _me_ to talk about it."

"Hn," was all Kakashi said. "Sasuke, Sakura, stay here. I'll be back. Naruto here is going to need to get that ankle checked out. We'll train without him. Naruto, you're going home."

"Aw, Sensei!" whined Naruto despite his amorphous fear about Kaka-sensei's lack of real reaction. He pouted when Sasuke snickered at how Kaka-sensei scooped him off the grass and carried him off like a damsel in distress. Naruto had the horrible feeling that he was never going to live this down.

According to the irate doctor that checked him over, he was going to have one hell of a bone bruise and his tendons were going to be unhappy with him for about a week. As far as Naruto was concerned, it meant that he would be fine by the next afternoon, but that he would be stuck sitting around in his room until then. Letting the fox heal him was a pain in the ass because he was always so tired and stiff afterwards. No fun at all. Kaka-sensei watched all of this with a benign smirk on his face, finding Naruto's attempt at brooding amusing. Naruto decided to leave brooding to Sasuke after that. It was too chicken-like for his taste.

"What have we learned today?" Kaka-sensei mocked him as Naruto grumbled about being slung over his teacher's shoulder like a sack of rice as they ascended the stairs to his floor.

"Not to fall out of dumb trees," said Naruto.

"And?"

"Not to let stupid Sensei get behind you."

"And?" _Okay, Kakashi-sensei was a complete bastard, though not quite Sasuke. Why couldn't he just explain things like a normal human being?_

Naruto rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at Ryusaki-san, who had smirked at his disgrace. The bigot scowled at him and continued down the stairs with his stupid hands in his pockets. "I dunno," Naruto grumbled, propping his elbows on his sensei's back and setting his chin in his palms. The ribcage expanded and deflated beneath his elbows as his sensei sighed, and Naruto blinked at how odd that had felt.

"Your jump reflexes," Kaka-sensei hinted. Naruto squinted down at the stairs as he tried to puzzle it out. The silence stretched on until Kakashi evidently lost faith in Naruto's ability to figure it out by himself. Naruto wasn't sure whether to be pleased or disgruntled by this. "You need to tone them down or direct them into non-life-threatening paths."

"Huh?" was Naruto's elegant response.

Sensei sighed again and halted. "Keys, or do I have to pick your lock?" he asked with mocking cheerfulness.

Naruto fished in his pockets and tossed his keys. Kakashi-sensei snatched them out of the air and fiddled with them for a couple seconds before going in. He pounded his sensei on the back to make him stop when he turned around to close the door.

"What?"

"Do it quietly," Naruto warned him, glancing at his sister, who was sprawled across her desk, fast asleep. "She's really grumpy because she doesn't get much sleep anymore. If you wake her up…" The door shut with a quiet snick. Naruto's view of his sister was lost when his sensei turned around and slipped across the living room towards the door to Naruto's room.

"Great gods," mumbled the voice Naruto had dreaded hearing. "You both reek. What on earth were you doing?"

Naruto tried to peer over Sensei's shoulder, but it proved too difficult to contort his body in such a manner.

"Nothing much!" The desk chair scraped against the floor and his sister's footsteps approached. He cringed when he felt her cool fingers touch his calf above the bandages that the doctor had wrapped around his swollen ankle. She wasn't going to be happy.

"How did this happen?" _Yup, definitely not happy._

"He fell out of a tree," Kaka-sensei said, not mentioning his involvement, the bastard.

"It was his fault!" Naruto wished that Kakashi would turn around so that he could handle this.

"Oh?" She walked around his bearer and crouched down to peer into his eyes. He grinned, trying to worm his way out of trouble. Neechan grinned back, out to "out pleasant" him. He did the impossible and grinned even wider, and she toned down her smile and tilted her head at him, conceding the round to him. He gloated over his victory until her smile began to slip.

"See, Kaka-sensei is a bastard— ouch!" He whined as she twisted his ear, a benign smile upon her lips and her eyes far too meek. "Okay, okay! He crept up behind me and scared me out of my tree!"

She chuckled and tweaked his nose cruelly. "Ah." She led the way to the door to his room and opened it for them. "Then I suppose you'll need lots of rest. That and some work on your reflexes."

Naruto grunted as his sensei dropped him on his futon after Riko-nee had spread it out for him. "It would help if you worked with him on it," Kaka-sensei suggested, eye-smiling evilly. Neechan kept on smiling demurely as his teacher outlined possible techniques on the way out of his room, but Naruto knew that Riko was anything but demure considering what she had just done to his ear.

Naruto walloped his head against his pillow and groaned. Two forces of evil were collaborating. He would never come out of this alive and intact. He wished he had stayed on that stupid branch. Sasuke would have to come by and tell him about the training he was going to miss.

Damn Uchiha bastard. He hoped that Sakura managed to glomp the ass.

* * *

As soon as Naruto's door closed behind her, she could sense that this conversation was going to go downhill. Hatake was angry with her; that much was obvious. Why this was puzzled her, but she had no doubt that she would find out soon enough. All she had to do was wait while he continued to outline a simple way to get Naruto to react less violently to surprises so that he would not be startled into falling out of trees or off of buildings in the future.

It was a sudden change. She didn't see it coming until he suddenly fixed her with a serious glance. "Naruto told me that you had him tell his friends about his occupant."

_Ah_.

Well, so much for sibling loyalty. Naruto was going to pay for selling her out.

"I did encourage him to be open with them, yes." She kept her stance open and unthreatening despite the desire to go on the defensive and cross her arms over her chest. She had no doubt he would understand all those unspoken signals. Giving him the advantage in such a way went against the grain for her.

He had passed her brother, had allowed him to continue into a career that went against everything she and her family worked for, and had done so despite all her wishes to the contrary. To say she was not pleased with Hatake would be only too truthful. Sure, it wasn't his fault, per se, but she was frustrated with her inability to prevent Naruto from getting into harm's way. Hatake Kakashi made a good scapegoat.

"Why?" asked Hatake, his visible eye narrowed. "You know that it is against the law—"

"Not so. It is against the law for me to reveal such details to the children that don't already know that live within the confines of the village. Naruto is not confined by this rule. It is his secret to share as he wills."

"It would have been safer if he hadn't told them at all."

"Would it now?" she asked. "How so? Forewarned is forearmed. His friends are likely to fight at his side at one point or another. Someday, his ability to hold the menace in check may fail. When it does, don't you think it would be better for them to have some idea what they're dealing with?"

"The more who know what Naruto carries, the more danger he is in," Hatake claimed.

She shook her head at him, battening down on her growing frustration with his obtuseness. "The entire adult population of the village already knows, and they hate him for it. They have no loyalty to him. If asked, I'm sure that they would sell him out just to be rid of him. Telling his closest friends is hardly going to endanger him all that much more."

"Knowledge is as much a weapon as any kunai."

"But the knowledge is already out there, readily available!"

"You should not have encouraged him," Hatake told her before he left. Nariko had the oddest feeling he wasn't just talking about sharing the knowledge of the Kyuubi's presence. What else he could be referring to baffled her though, unless…

She glared at the door he had closed behind himself.

* * *

Mikoto stared at her friend, who was fiddling with her teacup. Naruto was being lectured by Ryuuka while Sasuke watched with a superior smirk on his face, but even that hilarity couldn't compare with the anxiety rolling off her friend in waves.

"Spit it out," she said, wondering if Riko had done something stupid like gone barhopping and had somehow managed to get pregnant. The ridiculousness of that thought when the woman looked as though she hadn't stared at anything other than paper and ink for days almost made her snort.

"Um," the girl began, eyeing Ryuuka and the boys until they started shouting at each other. "Um, who teaches genin sex-ed?"

Mikoto blinked, wondering where the hell that had come from aloud.

Riko grimaced. "When Hatake-san brought Naruto home after he injured himself, he pulled out a pornography book and read it while explaining a training technique to me…"

Mikoto stared. She had forgotten about that disturbing habit. Of course, it was newer. The Hatake kid hadn't started delving into porn until after he had turned eighteen according to ANBU gossip that had found its way into her ears over the years even after she had left the organization

"Academy touches on it in a very, very minimal sense, at least for boys. Girls get slightly more information, but only slightly. It's usually left to… jounin sensei or wiser heads." Mikoto had to admit she was uncomfortable with that prospect. Explaining this to Sasuke would not be what she called fun; letting Kakashi do it though… She would have to warn Haruno-san. Sakura would be scarred for life.

"Oh gods," Riko whispered, looking appalled. "I've talked about it a bit with him… I mean, he's asked questions and I can't just let him wander around and spout stuff off where everybody will hear him, but letting Hatake-san…" She shuddered. "I'll handle it."

"I'll inform Kakashi that this duty is not required of him," said Mikoto. "Maybe Sasuke could be there when you talk to Naruto…?"

"That's fine. It's not hard for me to explain in a technical sense to children. I've had to do this before for Itsuki, though I did have some help. I'll do it as soon as I'm done with the Hokage's assignment."

Mikoto almost sighed with relief. Hearing it from Riko would be easier upon Sasuke. Talking about such things with his mother would be a little too embarrassing for her son. She really pitied Riko. This would not be easy.

She hunted Hatake down as soon as possible. The first of such lectures were to be given within the first two months according to standard policy. She had time, but it would be best to be quick. _Who knew when the perverted jounin would strike?_

"Hatake-san," she called, approaching the KIA monument. He glanced over his shoulder at her, looking faintly startled. She smirked. Kakashi was a young pup compared to her. It was fitting that she was still capable of sneaking up on him. "A moment if you will." Her tone told him that this wasn't really a request.

"Sure," he said, eyeing her. Ah, this was such an ego boost. He was probably wondering if she was about to make another kafuffle about his eye. There had been an outcry about that, but it was a moot point to her. He had had the eye for years. It had been a parting gift. It was his. "What can I do for you?"

She let herself slide into the normal jounin manner and glanced at him sideways. He responded in kind, becoming null in all respects. He was finally really listening. "There is no need to teach them the finer points of the reproductive process," she informed him in clipped tones, watching his reaction while appearing disinterested.

He almost seemed to smirk. Huh, so he was just as manipulative as it was rumoured. That book wasn't just a shameless "guilty" pleasure. It was a tool and a mask all in one. He had manipulated Riko perfectly. She felt better with this knowledge, though her friend wouldn't appreciate it. Her confidence in his abilities jumped several points. He kept playing the game though. "Oh, is that so?"

"Yes," she explained, though it wasn't required. He knew and she knew. All knowing made conversation pointless. "Riko will see to the boys while Haruno-san handles Sakura."

He was amused at her escape. It was all in the slight twitch of the tongue, detectable on the underside of his jaw even through the mask. There was telltale twitch of the eye as well. It glanced towards the ground, a sure sign that laughter was being suppressed. Many other signals gave him away, all so subtle, but she had learned to read them by the time she had turned seventeen. Her sensei had advocated using body language in order to control confrontations.

"Ah, that's fine then." He began to turn back towards the monument, and she prepared to depart. She wouldn't interfere more than this. He was the sensei, not her. "Covering the diseases is important," he added almost slyly.

"Of course it is." She was glad that she would finally get one up on him for her friend's sake. "Matsuku-san insisted upon that point most vehemently. She figured that you would be too involved with your fantasy books to remember. It is part of the reason she was so willing to take over."

She smirked as she left the clearing, having scored a clean hit on his ego. Hinting that he was using his books as a substitute for real life—thus hinting at virginity on his part—was just the sort of thing Riko had been thinking when she had expressed concerns. Her friend was very easy to read.

Kakashi's indignation was almost as obvious.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Six Coins Cast

Naruto poked his head out of his door at ten a few nights later to watch Riko-nee whoop and clap her hands. Scowling at her noise, he shuffled out of his room. He had been too tired to stay out training late today after working all afternoon with fifty clones, and now she was interrupting his sleep. This wasn't cool.

"What's up?" He yawned, sprawling on the couch and watching her grin at the papers on her desk.

"I'm almost done," she gushed. "I've just got that stack there to do, and then I can be finished with this."

He glanced at the small pile she pointed at. No wonder she was happy. "What does that mean?"

"It means that I'll be able to sleep!" _Now, that was good because then she would stop being grumpy, but did she have to be so loud about it?_ She looked so haggard that he felt sorry for her.

"Yeah, but what's Old Man going to do with all those papers?" he said, rubbing his eyes. Her desk lamp was way too bright. That question ended her celebrating.

"I guess he'll send me out to convince Tsunade-sama." She shrugged, looking a little nervous at the prospect. "I mean, I'll have to explain all of these figures to show her just how much she'll need to listen to Sandaime-sama, and then I guess that will be it. I don't know, really. I've never needed to be this involved in a project before. This though…" She flipped through her thick accounting book that was filled with numbers that she had been working on for years. "This is bigger than anything I've ever done before. It's kind of scary now that I look at it. If she completely blows me off after all this work, I might go ballistic."

Naruto rolled onto his back and laughed. He couldn't imagine Riko-nee going psycho. "Does that mean you're going to leave me here by myself for a while?" She was always here, and if she wasn't in the village where he could track her down, he was always with her. He wasn't looking forward to this now.

"Probably," she said, rubbing at the nape of her neck, probably to ease the sore muscles there from slouching over her books for so long. "You'll be fine though. You should be able to manage for two months without problems, though I doubt very much I'll have to go away for that long."

"Why only two months?"

"Shopping is a big problem for you. You don't make enough money at the moment to cover your needs."

He nodded; she helped him handle his meagre finances. It was a point of pride for him that he could whip through the shinobi tax forms without problems, unlike Sasuke-bastard. According to Riko-nee, he got paid a pittance for doing D-rank missions.

"I'm the one paying all the bills at the moment, which are quite hefty. Our apartment—large as it is—is very expensive. Kasumi-obasan used to live in this area of the nation, and she negotiated our lease, but it is still quite pricy. I can afford it with my wages, but you would be evicted within four months after using all of your savings. The amount of food you eat is disgusting." She grinned, and he stuck his tongue out at her. "Ramen isn't cheap, though instant ramen is. You're a ramen snob though."

He blew a raspberry at her.

"Well, you are." She arched over the back of her chair, several pops informing Naruto that her spine had been forced back into the proper alignment. He wrinkled his nose at the sound.

"I wouldn't leave you without funds for so long in any case." She laced her fingers behind her head, sighing. "If I did have to leave you alone for that long, I'd set up an account for you at the bank that you could draw from to support yourself."

"Why not just give me access to your account?" he wheedled with an evil grin.

"I'm not crazy. You're a brat; an awesome brat to be sure, but still a brat. I trust you with money, but not that much money. Do you have any idea how many tens of thousands of ryou I have saved up over the years despite the drain on my finances?"

He shook his head at her, a little curious.

"Be content that I have enough to see us through for a bit. Having Ii-san threaten to pull my job out from under my feet at least once a week has been very good incentive to stash cash just in case I do suddenly become unemployed. I'd have enough to get both of us out of here if necessary. I'd take us south, back to my home, but I could take us almost anywhere we needed to go. Travelling frugally isn't too expensive. You wouldn't come though, would you?"

He stared at her, uncertain.

"Oh, you call me sister and I call you brother, but what am I compared to Konoha and your dream of Hokage?" There was no bitterness in her words. She sounded as though she had already accepted this. "I promised you that I would help you reach that goal. I cannot take you away from here with me if I need to go."

"Will you go?" he asked, his fear making him feel slightly sick. She couldn't leave him here. She couldn't simply disappear now, not when he was finally on his way to his goal. He needed to be able to turn to her when he got the stupid hat and then put on that I-told-you-so grin so that she would see that he really did keep all of his promises.

"No, it's far too late. I've followed you for too long. I'll see this through until the end. Where you lead, I will follow until you tell me otherwise. I suppose it's silly considering that I've made a twelve-year-old my general, but wisdom was never my thing. I've always been stupidly impulsive. Regretting it is futile."

He stared at her, his mouth dry. This sounded like the way Hiroji gathered followers in his books. Neechan was one of his people now, officially. Unofficially, she had always been on his side, but now she had admitted to it. It was kind of scary. He was responsible for her, he supposed. According to the novels, a good commander was supposed to look out for all of his people. "Hey, Neechan, you don't look like much of a foot soldier. I don't think soldiers are supposed to have long hair and wield pens and evil exponents."

She laughed, acknowledging his attempt to break the sombre mood. "I don't suppose I do. I'd make a pathetic soldier. I can't fight."

"You're good at other stuff," he told her with a big smile, glad that she wasn't grumpy now. "You can help me keep track of money and stuff. Sasuke-bastard will be my right-hand man, Sakura-chan will be the scary lady that keeps all the troops in order, and Kaka-sensei can…" Naruto was a little puzzled about just how his weird sensei would fit into all of this.

"Be in charge of diplomatic relations?"

Naruto shook his head. Kaka-sensei liked pissing people off too much. When he told her this, she snickered.

"Ah, his mother must never have taught him how to get along with others. Maybe you should teach him that knickknack game."

"He could be the deer," Naruto mused, glancing over at the various statues. "Do you have a dog one?"

His sister snorted and shook her head. "Shiro isn't fond of dogs. He's the one that carved all of the figurines. He's always been good at making things with his hands out of stone or wood."

"Maybe you can have him make a dog?" It would be funny. Sasuke was the hawk, Naruto was the awesome fox, Shika was the deer, Ino was the evil boar, and Riko could be the crane that he had broken once. He tried to figure out who the others would be, but his sister glanced at the clock and frowned.

"I'll see if he'll be willing to make one as a birthday present for me. It might be too late. These things take time. It's almost May; he may have started already. In any case, you need to go to bed. You've got another mission tomorrow, haven't you?"

He nodded a little sullenly; it was her fault that he had woken up.

"I promise I'll be quieter, all right?"

Appeased, he disappeared back into his room, leaving her to her numbers.

* * *

Sakura was more certain now about Naruto than she had been initially when he had revealed his secret. She had read countless accounts about the exploits of the demon fox and had a pretty good idea of his power. That this menace was contained within her teammate, restrained only by a seal, made her edgy for a good week, so edgy that even Sasuke-kun, who still liked to pretend she wasn't there when she started talking to him, noticed. She had gotten over it a little since Naruto had yet to sprout reddish fur and tails and now understood the amount of trust that Naruto had placed upon her. Everyone about six years older than them knew, but Naruto's life could be made much more difficult if she had decided to spread what she knew or had decided to hate him. Besides, spreading it was against the law and Naruto was so pathetic and friendly that associating him with Kyuubi was difficult.

The D-rank missions they had been working on were boring, but they helped build teamwork and encouraged goodwill in the community, so Sakura didn't complain too much. Sasuke-kun rarely spoke to anyone except Naruto and the rest of his friends, so the idea of him complaining was ludicrous. Naruto, however, was only too willing to be vocal about his boredom.

"Old Man, these missions are way too easy! Give us something a little harder! Just one mission and I won't complain so much for a while, dattebayo."

The Hokage rubbed his temples, but Sakura could see his smile. She wasn't impressed though. Growling, she swatted Naruto upside the head. Typical idiot.

"Forgive him, Hokage-sama," she pleaded with a sweet smile, jabbing a warning finger in Naruto's back when he made moves to rant.

He had woken her early this morning to go running with him since his sister had slept in again. He had come by at six thirty. She had yet to forgive him for that. Sasuke-kun hadn't even been with him. That was unforgivable. She almost snarled when a calming hand messed up her beautiful hair, but snarling at Kaka-sensei wouldn't be a good idea.

"Hey," he said, glancing almost warningly down at them, "calm down."

Sakura glanced at the Hokage, whose wrinkly face was screwed up either in amusement or disgust. It was difficult to tell with so much pipe smoke hanging around him. Sasuke huffed, and Sakura let Naruto off the hook with great reluctance

"You want a C-rank mission, eh?" The old Hokage groaned as he sat up a bit straighter and waved an aide over. "Hmm. You can have this one." The aide handed over a scroll, and Kakashi-sensei moved forward to take it. "You are dismissed." A strange smile passed over his face when their sensei twitched after cracking open the scroll.

Naruto stuck his tongue out at Team 5, which was just coming in the door to take their place, and Sakura hid a smirk. Fuki, a lackey of Ami's (a girl that had bullied her in the Academy), was on that team. At least Naruto had done something right today. The catty girl made a nasty face in return and stuck her nose in the air as her sensei herded the two boys on her team into the room. Sakura snarled at Fuki's back and stomped after her team. Stupid Team 5 had already gotten a minor C-rank mission. Her team _couldn't_ fail this one.

Once they reached their usual meeting spot at the bridge, Sensei threw her the mission scroll. Sakura caught it and scanned through it before turning to Naruto. "Did you know that your sister had to leave the village?"

He nodded, realization dawning on him. He pumped his fist and bounced around. "Yatta! We get to go with her! Awesome!"

Sasuke-kun smirked at the idiot's antics and shook his head. "Moron, calm down before you break the bridge."

Naruto stuck out his tongue and continued to dance crazily until Sakura swatted him with the scroll.

"Where are we going?" Sasuke asked her, and Sakura beat down the flush that wanted to cover her cheeks at being addressed by him. Even after all this time, he was still so distant with her. She was beginning to wonder if maybe mining Naruto for information would have been a good idea. He wasn't willing now though. He kept dropping unsubtle hints that she should drop the entire thing and just be Sasuke's friend.

"To some shrine," she said after scanning through the contents of the scroll again. "She's supposed to meet someone there. We're just supposed to make sure she gets there on time to meet up with someone called Jiraiya, and then we're supposed to stick with them until they come back to Konoha."

"That's Jiraiya-sama to you, Sakura-san." Sakura spotted their client approaching. She was burdened with a satchel full of papers, and her eyes were deeply shadowed. Sakura had to wonder how much sleep the woman had been getting. "He's a fairly important person, at least in Konoha." Riko-san nodded to them before grinning down at Naruto, who looked ecstatic.

"Did you know that we would get to go with you?" the idiot asked her, but she shook her head.

"No, Sandaime-sama only said he would send a team with me to make sure I didn't get lost before he sent me to meet you here."

Naruto laughed at her. Sakura wasn't quite sure why this was funny, but she didn't question it for the moment.

"What time should we leave tomorrow?" the woman asked them, glancing at their sensei.

He shrugged. "Ten?"

"Twelve thirty then," she agreed while the genin snickered. Kaka-sensei looked a little embarrassed, which was rather novel. He only looked embarrassed when his team did something stupid in front of clients. It was well-deserved shame though. Maybe he would be on time for once. Matsuku-san turned away, nodding over her shoulder at all of them. "I'll see you all tomorrow then. Thanks for taking this on."

* * *

Sakura had the feeling that this would be a _long_ trip when Kakashi-sensei didn't show up at ten. Naruto had called her last night to make sure she understood that Riko-san had been joking about twelve thirty. He had sounded edgy and had whispered that he was going to try to call Kaka-sensei to make sure he knew too so his sister didn't do something rude. Sakura was torn between panic and vindictive pleasure when Riko-san walked out the gate, Naruto trailing in her wake with many glances over his shoulder. Sakura lingered on the threshold even when Sasuke-kun snorted and took off after them.

_What to do? What should she do?_ Waiting for Sensei would be the polite thing to do and leaving would definitely get her in trouble… Staying behind though… Grimacing, she continued to waver, ignoring the amusement of the chuunin guarding the gate. _Damn Riko-san for putting her in this position! Damn Kaka-sensei for being late! Team and client, or sensei and authority?_

_Team_.

She sprinted after them as Naruto turned around and hollered for her to hurry up. He grinned as she huffed and puffed a bit upon reaching him and trotted beside her as they caught up with his sister. Sasuke-kun didn't react in one way or the other, but Riko-san smiled down at her, and Sakura felt a bit better.

"I'm sorry, Sakura-san," the accountant said. "I'm not exceptionally tolerant when it comes to tardiness. Besides, I know he can catch up with us. He never lost us on our hikes. He has a map just like I do, and he knows where we're going. The chuunin saw us leave; they'll tell him when he comes."

Sure enough, an hour later Kakashi-sensei dropped out of the trees right in front of them looking as angry as they had ever seen him. Riko-san waved away his words before they could even begin to come. "It's my fault entirely." She walked right past him. "I left: they had to either wait for you and fall behind on their mission, or stay with me and do their duty. As you can see, they stuck with their duty. You did say we were leaving at ten. How odd that you were the only one not there." Not once did Riko-san's tone sound sarcastic. It was all complete innocence and sincere sounding puzzlement. The woman had just kicked Sensei's ass, had kept them from getting in trouble, and had done it all without stopping once.

Kakashi-sensei didn't seem to agree. He turned to them, looking rather disappointed in them despite Riko-san's defence. "What happened to not leaving teammates behind?"

Naruto laughed. "Nah, Sensei, if you had been on time we would have been okay! You're always late though! You can't be late for missions like that when we know you're just reading your book or standing in front of the memorial."

Naruto's sister obviously didn't understand the last point.

"Hmm," grunted Kaka-sensei, not up for discussing that because he pulled out his book. The way Naruto and Sasuke shuffled away from their teacher warned Sakura that some doom was impending. She quickly scurried towards the edge of the path, hoping to get out of the line of fire. Plugging her ears would have been more effective.

Riko-san skidded to an abrupt halt and _stared_ at Kakashi-sensei, specifically at the book in his hands. He glanced up at her curiously as he walked past her. "Is there a problem?"

Naruto groaned and began speed walking down the path. Sakura headed after him when Sasuke-kun followed.

"Would you mind putting away your book?" Riko-san asked.

"Yes," their sensei replied, turning back to the pages.

"It really isn't something you should be reading in front of twelve-year-olds," she insisted in a sweetly reasonable tone Sakura recognized as similar to her mother's when asking a favour.

Kaka-sensei nodded and turned the page.

"So you'll put it away?"

"No."

Naruto started running, and Sasuke-kun quickly outstripped him. Catching on, Sakura sprinted after them, determined not to find out if the filthy rumours about Naruto's sister were true up close.

Riko-san didn't shout, contrary to what Naruto's flight had seemed to indicate. Instead, she sermonized about adult responsibility and common decency. The gist made Sakura feel guilty even though she wasn't in the wrong in the slightest.

"Whew!" Naruto said when they had five hundred metres on the adults. "Guilt Trip no Jutsu! I'm glad Kaka-sensei was the one that set her off and not me. She hasn't gotten much sleep lately, and she wasn't happy because I refused to leave my orange clothes behind. She kept saying orange isn't something you wear in front of ninja princesses! At least it's not one of _those_ days."

Sakura wondered just what days Naruto was talking about.

"Idiot, only you would risk life and limb to protect the colour orange," Sasuke-kun said.

"Hey! Orange is an awesome colour. Even Kaka-sensei's book is orange, though that might be why she's picking on him."

Sakura had the feeling that this was going to be a long trip even though Riko-san seemed calm when she caught up to them. Kaka-sensei hadn't put his book away and Riko eyed it from time to time with a scowl and would nag their sensei about it once an hour.

Sakura was grateful when they finally set up camp. She was tired and grungy and wanted a bath. Finding out that such things were in short supply was not pleasant. Oh, sure, they had discussed setting up camps on missions in the Academy. Practical experience of the hardships was another thing altogether. She had expected at least Riko-san to share her complaints, but she seemed unperturbed as she set up a pit, gathered some wood for a fire, and praised Sasuke when he lit it expertly while Naruto and Kakashi did a perimeter check. Reluctantly, Sakura dug through the packs and scrounged a day's rations for supper. Rice, rice, and more rice. At least the ration bars added a little variety. When she presented these to Riko, the woman sighed.

"Travel food sucks," she grunted as she pulled open her own pack and produced some carrots. Sakura spotted a couple instant ramen packs in there as well and was not reassured. She nodded her agreement with her client's assessment and glanced at Sasuke-kun, who was inspecting his kunai to pass the time.

"Hey, you two, get over here," called their sensei, and they scrambled over to where he and Naruto were waiting. "What are some important things to remember while on a guard mission?"

"Rotating watches," Sasuke said, folding his arms across his chest.

"And?"

"Perimeter checks and terrain assessment," said Naruto even though they had already covered that.

"Good food," Sakura groused under her breath. She had not meant to be heard, but Kaka-sensei apparently didn't agree with her intentions.

"That's a good point, Sakura," he said. "What do you think of our current offerings?"

She chuckled nervously and glanced at their client, who was doing her best with their slim pickings. Sakura wasn't looking forward to supper at this point. "Well, rice is high in carbohydrates," she quoted, remembering what her mother had told her once when she had asked why they always had to have rice or noodles. "It's energy food, so that's good. The carrots"—she ignored Naruto's longsuffering groan— "have all sorts of nutrients in them, like vitamin C and whatnot, so they're good. We're missing protein though. We don't have any seafood or…"

"Hunting lesson," their sensei announced cheerfully. His team stared at him, a little surprised. "Fish or fowl?"

Sakura glanced at Sasuke-kun and Naruto, who both shrugged. "Is there a stream nearby?"

"Yup, it's about six hundred metres in that direction," Naruto told her, pointing southeast. "It's pretty shallow, so I don't think there's any fish in it."

"Fish or no fish, I need water if I'm going to do anything with this rice." Riko-san shoved a pot into Naruto's hands and went back to paring the carrots.

Naruto glowered down at the pot before brandishing it as though it was a ceremonial sword used to summon troops to war. "Let's go check it out then!" He charged off.

Kakashi watched him go, and Sasuke and Sakura watched him. "Sasuke, stay here."

Slouching, Sasuke headed back towards the fire as Sakura trailed after their strange sensei through the dense brush until he shot up into the trees. Grumbling under her breath, she gathered herself and leapt after him. It was strange and difficult to judge just how much chakra was needed to make it to the next branch. Where he smoothly stepped from branch to branch, she had to hop quite a bit to cover the same distance because her eye for distances wasn't as precise. She felt ungainly. She was so glad that Sasuke-kun wasn't around to witness this.

She stumbled the landing when they arrived at the stream bank. Naruto was right: it was shallow. It wasn't very wide either. The bed was pebbles and sandy dirt for the most part, but the water flowed cleanly at a moderate pace. Sakura glanced upriver and only saw twilight and trees since the stream bent and twisted in its course through the forest. She doubted that there would be any fish in this.

Their sensei moved forward and stopped Naruto from filling up the pot. The idiot glared up at their teacher, but the man stood firm. "Do you know where this water has been?"

Naruto blinked.

Sakura snorted at his obliviousness. "Anything could have left droppings in it, you baka."

He stuck his tongue out in response. "It smells fine. Does it look murky to you?"

Sakura admitted that it didn't.

"The moss doesn't seem to mind it, so I don't think it's likely to burn my skin off or something. Neechan will boil it for five minutes and everything should be fine. We go camping all the time; we've never had problems before. I think you've been reading too much."

Sakura's glare deepened.

"Look, Konoha is pretty isolated and it's not very industrial. The only thing contaminating the water should be whatever rabbits have decided to poop into it. I think you read way too much into Iruka-sensei's lecture. That was for former industrial areas, not way out here in the bush." He spoke as though dredging those terms from memory rather than from the countless lectures that Iruka-sensei had given them on the subject that he had never attended.

Sakura glanced at Kaka-sensei for backup, but he eye-smiled and pulled a strip of paper out of his pocket.

"Let's test Naruto's suggestion that the water isn't acidic or basic," he said, handing the paper to her. She recognized it as a pH-testing strip and immersed it in the stream without hesitation. Checking over the colour revealed that the water was slightly alkaline, below 7.1. She grimaced at this proof that Naruto could retain information. It was galling that the idiot wasn't an idiot all the time. "Naruto is right about his assessment of Konoha." When Naruto preened, Kaka-sensei questioned him. "Who were you quoting?"

Naruto deflated. "Iruka-sensei and Neechan had a discussion about it at Ichiraku's last week because they're weird. Iruka-sensei said that."

Kakashi-sensei looked unsurprised. "It's important to always know about the geography that you'll be travelling through and to be prepared to counter it."

He pulled a couple tablets out of the pocket that the test strip had come from. "These can be used to deal with most parasites in water." He allowed them to handle them. "They're a specialized formula that works against most contaminants. Iodine and bleach can be used as well, but they won't kill everything. Go look up how to use those two properly when we get back to Konoha and see what other ways water can be purified. Tell Sasuke that each of you has to come up with one way and explain how and why it works."

Sakura nodded and made a mental note.

As Naruto filled the pot, Sakura bent down absentmindedly to pluck a flower, but Naruto scowled at her. "Don't you know what that is?"

She glanced down at it and drew a blank. Local flora and fauna had never been a very interesting study topic, and this flower had never been covered in her kunoichi lessons. It looked like she was going to have to remedy that if Naruto kept proving more knowledgeable than she was.

"That's foxglove," he told her as Kaka-sensei eye-smiled at their antics. "It's poisonous. If you eat it, it won't just make you sick. It can kill you." Apparently, Naruto really did know his plants.

"Did you almost eat it once?" Kakashi asked, and Naruto rubbed the back of his head. Sakura immediately felt a bit better. "Take that water back. Sakura gets to go hunting this time." As Naruto pouted and obeyed, Sakura glanced up at her sensei. "Maa, since there aren't likely to be any fish, I guess we'll have to see what fauna we can find."

"Rabbits?" she asked ten minutes later as they perched in the trees above a leveret.

He nodded.

She grimaced. They were too cute to kill. She fiddled with her kunai as she debated with her stomach. Food or cuteness? Wasn't there something else to hunt? She jumped when a kunai appeared in the rabbit's neck.

Kakashi-sensei looked disappointed as he dropped to the ground, retrieved his weapon, and scooped up what had moments before been a grazing creature. "Hesitate too long and you'll be out of a meal. Track another one down and see to bringing it back to camp." With that order lingering in the evening air, he headed back.

Sakura stared down at the bloodstained grass and bit back a whimper. She was stuck out here until she killed something. Despite her strong desire to curl up and sulk, she set to work. She came upon another rabbit almost by accident by the time she reconciled herself to her duty. She hated this, but she would do it because she had to.

Her first kunai missed and the creature froze. Missing again and with her prey on the run, Sakura traced its zigzagging flight towards the brush and sent several other kunai flying. A scream echoed, and Sakura bit her lip to keep herself from crying when the poor thing got her kunai through its lower back. She numbly dealt out a mercy blow.

She collected all of her kunai, cleaned them, and picked up the corpse, laden with guilt. Even Naruto's jealousy when she got back to camp didn't salve the hurt. Kaka-sensei didn't make things any better: he ignored her disgruntlement and gave her a lesson on skinning and gutting her kill.

Never before had the traditional saying of "I receive" held so much meaning for her. Chewing the meat was a constant battle against her gag reflex with hunger on her side. She was very glad that she was assigned first watch. Sleep was hard to find during the hours that Naruto sat watch, but she drifted off some time after Naruto punched Sasuke in the arm to wake him up to take his turn. She would never understand how butchers did it.

* * *

Three days later, they met up with Jiraiya outside a country shrine. They had walked most of the time since they were in no real hurry, though Riko-san had raced them all for a couple kilometres down the path every morning. The innocent looking, orange book had continued to be a constant source of tension since Riko had kept nagging Kakashi about the morality of reading such a thing in front of children that had yet to go through puberty, but Kaka-sensei had developed immunity to her guilt trip techniques.

The shrine was typical: a small roadside arrangement with a simple wooden torii gate framed stone steps, which weathered stone lanterns guarded. The shrine itself was situated on a hill above the road, partially concealed by trees. The carved marker that had once shown the name of the shrine sat in the shade of an old maple that Naruto examined carefully while they waited for their contact to show up. Their client set aside her burdens and trailed fingers over the weatherworn grooves in the marker as Sakura leaned against the sturdier looking of the two pedestals while Sasuke sat on the stairs.

It was only by watching Sasuke-kun that she realized that Naruto and Kaka-sensei had both tensed. Her crush got to his feet and moved a little closer to Riko-san. Sakura let her hand edge towards her kunai pouch, worried that this time they wouldn't be as lucky. They had passed many people along the way, and every time she had been convinced that the traveller was going to attack. Every time, she had been disappointed. She knew that she was being overly nervous because this was her first guard mission, but still… She calmed down considerably when a white-haired man waved jovially at them as he rounded the bend.

"Hey! It's Ero-Sennin!" Naruto began waving like an idiot. Sakura itched to reprimand him for his rudeness, but Riko-san was looking now.

"What?" their contact sputtered, going red in the face. Sakura's wish subsided when Riko-san half-heartedly smacked Naruto's shoulder.

Sasuke snorted and explained a bit when Sakura stared at him curiously. "Just watch." She did as he recommended and soon understood. This Jiraiya-sama put Kaka-sensei to shame.

A long scolding followed Naruto's greeting, but Naruto refused to relent, claiming he refused to lie to Jiraiya and calling him anything else would be a lie. Riko-san snickered at that while Jiraiya-sama pouted and eventually forgot about it in the face of greeting everyone else. Sakura noted that Kaka-sensei seemed to know Jiraiya-sama pretty well because her sensei restricted himself to waving idly and "Yo" while he flipped through his book a safe distance away from their client. Sasuke got a nod, and Sakura blushed when the old man complimented her, going on about how pretty she was while their client rolled her eyes in the background. Ero-Sennin mock leered at Riko when he greeted her. Sakura wasn't surprised when the woman glared at him.

"Must you do that?" she groused as she picked up her pack and resettled it on her back. "It's a horrible habit and using it on everybody is just stupid. What if some poor, virginal woman actually believes you, and she's as ugly as sin? What then? Would you eat your words?"

Jiraiya-sama merely grinned winningly at her. "What can I say? I'm a connoisseur of feminine beauty."

"You could at least come up with some new pickup lines. My grandfather used those and the girl belted him in the nose because she thought he was teasing her about the wart on her chin."

Naruto laughed and pointed at the powerful ninja's back. Sakura swatted him across the back of the head while Riko-san wasn't looking. Restraining herself from getting on his case about his manners had been a trial. It was good to let loose. Naruto had just been asking for it for days now.

"I just like complimenting women. Is that such a crime?" the old pervert whined, sounding like Naruto. Sakura glanced between them nervously before peeking at Kaka-sensei, who was trailing behind them at a safe distance with his book in hand. They were all oddly similar…

Another less scathing comment from Riko-san later, Jiraiya-sama was back to his jovial yet serious self. The change greatly relieved the female member of Team 7, who took the opportunity to ask about what she had read over in the mission scroll. "Why exactly are we out here? The scroll was rather vague…"

"Oh, Sarutobi-sensei didn't tell you?"

Sakura shook her head.

"Riko-san and I are working together under orders from the Hokage to bring his student and my teammate Tsunade back to Konoha."

Sakura, who had read everything she could get her hands on about Tsunade, was delighted to finally have a good source to interrogate. Jiraiya obliged her.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Six Ruined Pillars

_I lost my pebble. I am certain this means my clothes have outlived their usefulness. And so I look for a place to stop running._

_They asked me a lot of questions when I arrived in the south. Where are you from? Where in the North? Did you pass by that ninja village they're building? Why are you bald? Why won't you wear a proper robe? What do you think of my kimono? What are those knives for? He only said, "You look tired. Come in and get some rest." I loved him for it for years. He and his cousin took me inside without question, fed me, and let me sleep for hours and hours in her room. When I woke up and saw the haven they had permitted me entrance into, I wondered if they were insane to share such tranquility with a tool. When I told him this, he asked me how I was a tool. When I told him, he looked at me the way he did on our wedding night: sort of disappointed and very disturbed. I didn't find out until much later how I had come to completely the wrong place._

* * *

"Have you given any thought to how exactly we're going to accomplish this?" Nariko asked Jiraiya-sama as they gathered around the campfire for the last time. According to him, they were less than a day away from where Tsunade-sama was hanging around.

The Toad Hermit shrugged, not reassuring Nariko in the slightest. This was just peachy. She hated winging important things like this. She usually screwed them up.

"I figured that just winging it would be best."

Nariko stirred the pot of instant ramen boiling over the fire, resisting the temptation to clout the pervert over the head with the spoon since Naruto was such a ramen freak. If she ruined his favourite food, he would be insufferable for a good long while.

"I scorn you," Nariko breathed to herself—hatred might have been more appropriate, but hating people for such a petty reason was forbidden—making sure that the pervert couldn't hear her.

Hatake-san could read lips evidently because he did his weird eye-smile over his book. She despised that book. It disappeared for a couple hours on a stretch when she made a huge deal out of it and insulted his masculinity, but otherwise it was a very permanent fixture. She had the feeling he was doing it just to annoy her.

Her fingers twitched around the handle of the wooden spoon with the desire to rip the thing to shreds. Patience, she counselled herself, patience. Lack of sleep was no excuse for temper. He was his own person and she had no authority over him. She could not order him to lose the book. She couldn't, but it was so damn tempting…

She knew that this was her fault. She had left him behind and that had set a precedent, bad karma and all of that. She deserved this, but, hell, it was annoying. This was a silent war; she was losing and they both knew it.

"I don't like that plan," Nariko said. "I don't know Tsunade-sama. Winging it isn't going to work. Improvising has never worked out very well for me. I like planning and then improvising within that plan. The framework keeps things organized."

"Spontaneity is better," the Sannin member argued. "It allows things to be flexible."

"It allows me to get lost." She had no desire to flounder her way through an initial meeting with the village's potential new Hokage. She had done enough other embarrassing things in her lifetime. "How about you head this and I'll just explain what the little figures mean when we get to that?" She sighed when he shook his head: so much for reducing her involvement to the bare minimum.

"I'd rather you just did most of the talking. Tsunade never did respect me all that much."

She was on an impossible mission with two perverts and a bunch of children, none of whom were capable of accomplishing what needed doing. There were times when she questioned whether the Sandaime actually knew what he was doing.

* * *

Riko would later admit that approaching the meeting with a "let's get this over with so I can sleep" attitude wasn't the best plan. It took two days of mortification and a whole bunch of down time to get to create enough humility to accept the fact that she had screwed up. Naruto fully appreciated just how awesome it was to know that Neechan had messed up. She didn't admit to it often even though she did it a lot. Hating orange was a huge mistake on her part, but she would never admit to that. He would take what he could get.

The tourist town was awesome just because it had "good food." It wasn't like Konoha at all. The buildings were weird: they sort of reminded him of the shrines with their weird roofs and wooden embellishments. Neechan told him that it was a themed village that had been built to look historical. It almost looked silly, but no one else seemed to think so.

Sakura thought it was cute or something similar. She spouted useless facts about the "quaint" architecture as they walked through the busy streets, following Ero-Sennin, who walked like he knew where he was going, but Naruto had his doubts.

"Hotel first?" Sakura asked hopefully, but Riko-nee shook her head wearily.

"No," she grunted, looking almost hollow with strain.

Naruto had the feeling Riko-nee was acting entirely off of instinct at this point. She really wasn't very strong. The past month had been hard on her and all she had been doing was walking around and writing numbers in her book. Her vocabulary was rapidly shrinking as her body's physical demands began to nag at her more and more. She had explained it to him once: it had sounded odd.

"Soon, but I want good food first."

Yup, her vocabulary really had shrivelled up. Naruto's stomach agreed. Neechan had tried, but even her cooking quality had dropped significantly over the past few days. Her food had been about the same as Kaka-sensei's, and his seemed to be at its best when made out in the bush.

Naruto had the feeling that his sensei ate out most of the time because his cooking in controlled environments was definitely… interesting. Not especially palatable, but interesting. Naruto swore it had tried to eat him once. It had engulfed his finger and had tried to ingest it. It would have been cool if it hadn't been so scary. Even Sasuke had looked creeped out and Sakura had squealed loudly. Kakashi's campfire food was way better. His rice had actually been rice instead of strangely animated white maggots. Even Sakura hadn't insisted he was exaggerating with that description even though their sensei had pouted and Riko had sniggered at the anecdote.

Ero-Sennin pointed out a restaurant and everyone eagerly entered. Once they were seated, Naruto snickered when his sister folded her arms and rested her head on them. "Oi, Neechan, wake up," he cajoled when her breath settled into the common sleep pattern, but she ignored him. Sakura evidently felt it was safe enough to reprimand him because she glared at him and growled threats. He stuck out his tongue as Sasuke laughed silently. _Stupid bastard._

Kaka-sensei sighed. "All right, settle down."

The arrival of food made his orders easier to follow and Naruto happily engaged himself in gulping down as much good ramen as he could, though it wasn't quite as good as Ichiraku's. Chef Teuchi really was a master. Still, it was _way_ better than the stuff he had eaten for dinner yesterday. He considerately poked at Riko-nee with the butt end of one of his chopsticks to wake her up when her food arrived, but she merely grunted at him and buried her face into her arms.

"Riko-nee, your good food is here," he said, but she ignored him again. Naruto took a deep breath and prepared to rant when Sasuke's elbow jabbed him hard in the ribs. "Bastard!" He wheezed, the air having been forced out of him.

"Shut up." The bastard pushed his rice balls around his plate. "You're going to attract attention." Naruto prepared to punch his best friend and teach him a proper lesson about just how to inform _kindly_ people not to shout when a loud female voice rang out across the restaurant.

"Hey! What does it take to get a refill?"

Naruto stared at Kaka-sensei, who had frozen, his eye almost wide with some sort of dread. Ero-Sennin didn't look very surprised though. He closed his eyes, the strange red lines on his face dim under the travel dust.

"Nariko-san," the pervert said softly, and she raised her head.

"That's her?"

Ero-Sennin nodded, and Riko-nee sighed and began digging into her food with strained relish. Naruto pouted. Why did Riko listen to the pervert and not to him? He grumbled under his breath and went back to inhaling his ramen once a waiter departed with orders to bring another bowl. Riko-nee didn't look especially happy with the size of his order, but she didn't comment as she ate, pushing her food around her plate. Naruto patted his stomach, watching Kaka-sensei out of the corner of his eye. The soba was disappearing from his dish, but his mask never seemed to move. It wasn't fair! Naruto really wanted to see what his sensei was hiding.

"Have mercy." Riko-nee finished her meal and began to dig through her pack. "You'll approach her?" she asked Ero-Sennin, sounding nervous as she brushed flyaway strands of hair out of her travel-stained face.

"As soon as everyone here finishes. She doesn't look like she's going to be leaving any time soon. There's no need to rush this."

"Hmm." Riko looked unconvinced as she produced two small scrolls from her pack and set them in the middle of the table with Konoha's official seal facing upwards.

"What are those?" Ero-Sennin asked warily, gesturing at them with his chopsticks.

Riko frowned at his rudeness before shrugging it off. "Letters apparently; Sandaime-sama gave them to me before I left. He said they would help. He wouldn't say what they were about though, so using them in our arguments is dangerous. They could completely undermine whatever I might say. I doubt they're completely unhelpful though. Hokage-sama wants this to succeed very much."

"More than you know," Jiraiya said so quietly that Naruto only heard him because of the chakra he had shoved into his ears. Riko-nee certainly didn't. He almost blessed the fox's influence at moments like this.

Ero-Sennin grabbed one of the scrolls and touching the seal. The smell of charred flesh made Naruto reel back, and the Sannin member put his pointer finger in his glass of water to ease the burn that had appeared. "Damn Sarutobi-sensei; he sealed them so that only she could open them. It's likely that they contain official apologies and that sort of crap. There might even be orders from Konoha's council and the Daimyo in here. She can be ordered back, but she won't come willingly. The Hokage post is not something that can be forced upon someone."

Naruto was really puzzled by that. What did bringing Tsunade back to Konoha have to do with the Hokage title?

"Finish quickly," Kakashi ordered.

Riko settled the bill, ignoring the attempts of the two jounin to reason with her.

"Konoha provides funds for meals," his sensei explained, but she shrugged.

"It is a gift. Are you refusing it?"

That shut them up. Naruto later wondered if this gift had been given as an advance apology for her future actions. It was almost as if Neechan had known on some deeper level that she was going to do something stupid and was trying to spare herself their criticism by currying favour. It sort of worked.

Naruto trailed a little apprehensively behind Sakura with Sasuke on his heels after the adults, who were homing in on a booth in the back of the restaurant that was partially shielded from view. As they got closer, Naruto could see that there were two women seated at it. He could only see the back of the black-haired woman's head, but the blonde lady facing them looked drunk if the number of shōchū bottles around her was any indication. Naruto's first impression was that this woman was beautiful and that she had the biggest jugs he had ever seen. She made Riko-nee look flat as a boy. This lady's cheeks were slightly flushed and her golden-brown eyes were a little glazed over, but they focused quickly enough once they spotted Ero-Sennin.

"What are you doing here?" she spat unkindly, waving a bottle around as the other woman turned her head and watched them approach nervously. The blonde's eyes flickered over him for a moment and Naruto had the oddest feeling that she recognized him. "Why did you bring Minato-kun?"

Naruto was a little confused when Kaka-sensei flinched along with Jiraiya. _Minato? Was she talking about the Yondaime? Had she known his dad?_ He wanted to ask these questions, but they were talking again.

"Um, Tsunade-sama, you're a little behind times," said the black-haired woman, glancing at the faces of the two men.

Naruto shuffled forwards and peered, but he didn't see anything wrong. He wondered what she had seen there that had made her so nervous.

Tsunade grunted.

Ero-Sennin moved forwards, Riko's finger poking him in the back. "Tsunade, you know why we're here."

She glared at them, comprehension flooding her face at last.

"Matsuku-san has been doing some bookwork for you. That's why she's here."

Riko bowed deeply, her face set in weary, determined lines when Tsunade remained ambivalent.

Ero-Sennin gestured at them. "You remember Kakashi. This is his team."

Sakura put on her best good girl smile and bowed deeply to Naruto's left while Sasuke bowed stiffly to his right. Naruto followed their example when Sakura shot him the evil eye, cursing formality. While bowing, Naruto noticed the pig seated on the black-haired woman's lap. It was wearing a necklace. His eye twitched as he wondered why humans always insisted on dressing their animals up. Tora—the Furball of Doom he had had to retrieve for the Daimyo's wife—had been attired in a stupid looking ribbon and collar.

"I'm not going back." Naruto had to stifle the urge to snigger at how Tsunade's words were slurring together despite her efforts. "I'm not going back to that backwater hellhole. Never again!" Now Naruto wasn't quite as amused. The hag had just insulted his village! "Sarutobi-san must be pretty desperate to send you lot after me. Is his chair beginning to thin his ass?"

"Oi!" Naruto stepped forwards despite Sakura's restraining hand. "Don't insult Old Man like that! Don't insult the village like that!"

Kaka-sensei shot him a quelling look, but his sister's glance stopped him in his tracks. The deep, deep bags under her eyes were sure signs that her mood was fragile at best. That slight, pleasant smile promised nothing but the worst sort of trouble if he didn't stop _right now_. He relaxed the moment she faced Tsunade again. He considered sticking his tongue out at her back, but the seated women were watching him with varying degrees of curiosity.

"Actually, Tsunade-sama, I think it would be best if you allowed us to speak first before making that claim." Riko nodded to the other lady, who quickly made room at the table for them despite Tsunade's scowl. Riko slid along the seats until she reached the bench along the wall; the other woman had shifted over to sit beside Tsunade, taking the pig and all the bags with her.

Naruto scrambled to sit beside her to keep Ero-Sennin away and Sasuke followed him before the Sannin member could even begin to protest. Sakura quickly followed suit, causing the bastard a bit of grief, but it was too late and there was no way Naruto was going to save Sasuke after what he had done at the table. His ribs _hurt_, dammit! Jiraiya finally got to sit down and Kakashi-sensei took the outside seat, leaving him the only person aside from Tsunade capable of getting away quickly. Naruto got the feeling that this was deliberate.

Tense silence reigned while Riko picked through her backpack, pulling out the two scrolls from before and the thick accounting book that had been filled up over the years it had reigned over her desk at home. She glanced nervously at Ero-Sennin, who seemed determined not to meet her eyes. Sighing, Neechan turned to Tsunade, who was glaring petulantly at her shōchū dish. Naruto didn't quite understand why she was making such a big deal out of this. How bad would it be to go back to the village?

"Tsunade-hime—"

"I don't care what sort of information you have. I'm not going back."

Naruto suddenly felt that perhaps sitting next to Neechan wasn't such a good idea when she was so tired and worn out. The slightest things had the habit of making her snap. Naruto could _feel_ her reining in her ire as her knuckles whitened around the scrolls.

"It's actually pretty compelling evidence," his sister continued with forced sounding brightness. "I think you had best cut the theatrics and listen."

Naruto remembered the night Riko-nee had told him that she would follow him. She had said that if Tsunade threw all of her work back in her face, she would explode or something. Naruto really, really hoped that Tsunade didn't do that, not with him sitting right next to the ticking time bomb. Maybe trading seats with Sasuke wouldn't be such a bad thing… Of course, the Tsunade lady didn't look very happy with his sister's suggestion either.

"Now, I have fairly compelling evidence that the 'backwater hellhole' village is your only salvation and that the offered post is your best bet."

_What offered post?_ Naruto glanced at the faces around him, but none of their owners was quite willing to explain what the heck Riko-nee was talking about. Was Old Man offering her a job? Was it a mission or something that would keep those debt collectors off Tsunade's back? Neechan had never been specific what her work would be used to convince this lady to do. He had never asked either. It had never seemed very important, and she had explained about client confidentiality before. Now he wished he had been more obnoxious.

"What exactly are you talking about?" Tsunade hissed.

"Only that I have managed to trace all of your debt solely with the help of some very clever informants"—Naruto wondered who besides the pervert had gone looking since Ero-Sennin had never come off as very clever— "not that those who are owed money by you were at all averse to telling everyone about their grievances with you and your habit of running away from your debts. Unfortunately for you," Riko-nee sounded almost vindictively pleased by this, "debt accumulates over the years and your luck has sped up the process considerably. In fact, the millions of ryou you have acquired and lost over the years are comparable with the southern portion of the country's tax base's worth over a period of seven years."

She sighed when they blinked at her, mostly uncomprehending. "Suffice it to say that hundreds of thousands of ryou does not even begin to describe the amount." When Tsunade still looked unconvinced, Riko rubbed her forehead and muttered some very strange phrases under her breath. "You realize that all of your duped creditors are beginning to compare notes. It is only a matter of time before they start sending ninja out after you. Who knows whose blood will be on your hands then?"

Tsunade casually picked up the scrolls. The seals holding them shut broke at her touch. Naruto wanted to know how to do that; it was fricking cool! "I have something of a reputation," Tsunade said smugly even as the lady beside her cringed, "and Shizune is hardly unskilled. What makes you think they'll come after me?"

Neechan apparently didn't have an answer to that because she kept quiet, staring down at her hands almost sheepishly. The momentum of her argument was lost. Naruto suppressed the desire to laugh at her goof. This was his mission too, so her screw-up screwed him up. As such, the situation needed saving…

"Commissions have been refused by Rock and Grass so far," said Ero-Sennin, "but there are other villages that will be willing to take it. It's been decades, Tsunade. Do you really think our reputation will hold that long?"

She glared at him, and her red fingernails dug into the covering of one of the scrolls. Naruto pitied that scroll. "What are you offering?" the lady grated out through clenched teeth.

His sister shot a grateful look at Ero-Sennin, who puffed up with pride like a toad. The similarity and the fact that he had just saved their asses earned the pervert some points. Naruto wasn't going to stop calling him Ero-Sennin though. It would still be lying, especially given the way that the pervert's gaze was straying decidedly below Tsunade's face whenever she wasn't watching. Naruto resisted the urge to snicker.

"Well, Konoha can cover a percentage of these expenses under the guise of a training mission." Riko-nee nodded a Shizune, who bit her lip. "I've worked out a plan to cover the rest over a period of sixteen years after that. Should you accept the position, your sources of income will be tied into promising investments. The interest will be used to pay off the debts. After fourteen years, you should be able to keep the first bit of your income from your considerable wages. I've looked into it, and the pay isn't half-bad. With your med-nin status, if you managed to put in a few hours at the hospital, even just as an advisor, you would have an income comparable with a moderately successful feudal lord."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed as she considered. "Hokage is a crap job!" She slammed her palm down on the table. Naruto stared. _No way…!_ "Only a complete idiot would want it."

"How dare you!" He stood on his seat even as Neechan tried to tug him back down. "You evil old bitch! How dare you insult the Yondaime and Old Man!" He winced when Riko's fingers latched around his wrist, but Tsunade's reaction convinced him that maybe his outburst hadn't been the best plan. He was too furious to care though. She had called his dad an idiot. There was _no way_ he was going to let that slide.

Tsunade braced her hands on the table and glared right into his face even as the rest of the table's occupants cringed to various degrees. Even Kaka-sensei looked worried. "You call me something, punk?"

With indignation still fuelling his actions, Naruto didn't even consider the wisdom of backing down. "Hell yeah I did, you old hag!" He ignored Sakura's terrified sputtering and Sasuke's nervous huff. If he was going to do something stupid, he might as well do something right as well; Neechan's increasingly painful grip on his wrist was telling him he was satisfying the first requirement. "You can't insult Old Man and Yondaime like that in front of me. Old Man's wicked smart even if he is a wrinkly old prune, and the Yondaime was amazing. People say he invented a whole bunch of completely awesome techniques. I heard that you only punch people! There's no way you deserve to become Hokage if that's all you can do!"

"Is that so?" Tsunade stared at him strangely. He had the oddest feeling that she wasn't seeing him anymore, but someone else. "And just why do you care so much, punk?"

"Because I, Uzumaki Naruto, will someday be Hokage!"

Neechan buried her forehead in her palm and groaned.

He was glad that she knew better than to try to interrupt him when he was making a speech. She had named him her general; it was only right that she keep quiet during his inspirational monologues. "I will protect the village with my amazing techniques, unlike you, old hag. I will lead the village to greatness. I'm glad you don't want to be Hokage! It means that I'll get to wear the hat sooner! I'll do a better job than you ever could."

Neechan shifted beside him, and he had the feeling she was going to try to protect him from himself. He appreciated her thought, especially given the ugly look that had taken over the hag's face.

"Enough," said Riko-nee, yanking him back down into his seat. He scowled at her, but she wasn't looking at him. Yup, she was going to try to save his ass. "I apologize for—"

"Hush, pencil pusher." Tsunade glared straight at him.

_Uh oh…_

Neechan's hands clenched and she rose to her feet slowly. Naruto suddenly had a very bad feeling that she was going to do something very stupid.

"What did you call me?"

When Tsunade didn't even spare her a glance, Naruto cringed. This wasn't going to be good. The accounting book slammed onto the table with a harsh smack and all eyes strayed away from Naruto's glare war to the contained fury that stood beside him.

Riko gestured that they all move, and Kakashi-sensei all but sprang out of his seat to make way. "You'll need this. One of you should probably look through it to check my numbers to see if everything is _valid_. After all, a mere pencil pusher certainly wouldn't know just how much trouble you're in." Riko threw her thick accounting book right into Tsunade's face, bypassing the inebriated woman's lame attempt to block it, and stalked out of the restaurant as shōchū dripped from the table, the bottled having been knocked over by the book when it heeded gravity's call.

A glance from Kaka-sensei sent Sakura and Sasuke skittering out of the restaurant after Riko-nee. Naruto had the feeling that he was supposed to go too, but there was no way he was going to let this mission mess up this badly after what Neechan had done. Tsunade was staring at the accounting book as though she had never seen it before, her nose red from the impact. Shizune looked aghast and the pig was squealing with terror in her grasp.

Naruto decided then and there that Tsunade was going to kill his sister with her evil fists if he didn't save her. He was her commander and her brother: he had to protect her from the mess she had made to save him. With a prayer to the Ramen God for safety, he dove into the fray. "Look what you've done, you stupidhead!" He pointed at her despite the warning looks he was getting from all still present. "There's no way you could be Hokage if you managed to piss someone as nice as her off."

Okay, he was exaggerating how nice Riko-nee was, but hey, it was all for a good cause. "Not only do you not have any good techniques like Yondaime, you can't even be nice to an accountant! I bet my techniques are totally better than yours, dattebayo." He knew he was just asking for it, but if it kept the hag from storming after his sister and beating her into a pile of goo, it was okay.

He later figured the addition of the "dattebayo" set her off. At the time, he was positive that she was possessed by some evil spectre of Shikamaru because she got this look on her face. "You bet?"

"Yeah." He let his anger keep him going because he was sure he was going to start trembling otherwise. He later figured that thinking about what to say first would have saved him. "I bet I could even learn to use Yondaime's super awesome techniques. They can't be harder than Kage Bunshin." He had been aiming to impress her with his knowledge of a forbidden technique, but instead it only made her leer widen. He suddenly had a very bad feeling about this.

"Is that so?" _Why did she sound so horribly smug and why did Kaka-sensei and Ero-Sennin look appalled?_ "Why don't you prove that? I bet that you can't master the Yondaime's prize jutsu by the end of the week. To protect your village, you need to be able to defeat your enemies, so this should only help you along the way. If you succeed, that is." She looked pleased with the possibility that he would fail.

That only pushed him onwards. He wanted to make her eat those words. "I bet I can," he snarled back, right in her face now. Mikoto's warnings about picking up new techniques disappeared from his brain in the face of Tsunade's disbelief in his abilities.

"If you do, I'll consider forgiving the accountant."

He snorted at her and crossed his arms mockingly, bluffing. "You think I'm going to spend all that effort just for that?" He needed to save the mission if he could. Getting the hag to forgive Neechan would be good and he would take that above all else if his bluff failed, but there were other things to consider as well. "Pfft."

The woman cocked an eyebrow at him as Kaka-sensei let loose a weary sigh in the background.

"Is the kid insane?" Ero-Sennin muttered, and Naruto refused to listen to Kakashi's reply.

"Ho, the brat gambles big!" The hag chuckled. "Hmm, maybe this will be worthwhile just to watch you eat your words. How about this: I offer to consider the proposal, forgive the bitch, and I'll throw in this necklace." She lifted the cord and showed him the blue crystal. He shot her a sceptical look, and she smirked. "It belonged to Shodaime." Naruto's interest in the lame looking thing jumped three hundred points.

"If you lose, you must give up your dream of becoming Hokage and you get to help me pay off these debt collectors. Also, you will always know you failed your word. As a man, your word would be very important to you, no?"

"Keeping my promises is my nindo. I'll take your bet." He spat into his hand and held it out. She clasped it, her eyes telling him that she was sure she had just won. "You'd better have enough money to pay for a hotel," he said, pulling his hand out of her painful grip. "You're going to have to stick around if you want to find out how you lost."

"Hah, I'll have to be around to watch you promise to never take on the Hokage title." With that, she nodded to Shizune and stalked out of the bar, weaving only slightly, after slapping enough money to cover her tab down on the table. Shizune grabbed Neechan's book, the scrolls, and the remains of the shōchū bottle and scurried after her.

"_Maa_," his sensei drawled, "I don't think that went very well."


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Shattering Two Swords

"Stupid," Nariko grumbled under her breath as she leaned against the stairwell's wall, ignoring the travel dirt she left on the white surface. The entire mission was ruined. If she had just kept her calm… But Naruto had been getting himself into trouble. The need to protect him had been ingrained in her too deeply to ignore because her opponent was someone that could knock her head off with one finger.

Her initial intentions had gone down the drain the moment Tsunade-sama had called her the derogatory term though. Nariko knew that it hadn't been enough to warrant her reaction, but she was damn tired and irritable and had been putting up with jabs at her profession for far too many years. She just wanted to curl up in a bed and sleep and hide from her humiliation. Sandaime-sama was going to be so disappointed when he heard, and Ii-san would be beyond what she could handle…

She was too tired to be surprised when opening her eyes revealed Sasuke and Sakura standing on the landing above her. She chuckled sadly and slid a stained hand over her face. "I'm sorry." They had come all this way with her, and she had ruined their first C-rank mission. They had every right to be furious with her. Sakura certainly did look resentful. "I promise that I'll do whatever I can to salvage this."

Sasuke nodded, and Sakura's face lost its pinched look.

"Sakura," Sasuke said, and Nariko almost winced at the painfully hopeful look that came over the girl's face. Infatuation was so excruciating to watch. The utter dependence of it still filled her with disgust and sympathetic humiliation, though Sakura never seemed to feel such things for herself. "You should go tell Kakashi where we're staying."

Watching the disappointment flicker over that child's face hurt. Nariko stared at the stairs as Sakura obediently trudged away. She wanted to make Sasuke be nicer, but his reaction was reasonable and she was hardly his mother. Lecturing him on this particular subject would lead to a fight, and she wasn't in the mood. Keeping the problem at a distance was a valid reaction, though not one that would solve anything quickly.

She walked with him down the hall to their rooms. She slid the door open and assessed the common room before evaluating the three bedrooms. All of them contained two carefully folded futons, as promised. "Sakura and I can share."

It was no great sacrifice. She had no doubt that if Team 7 was forced to share close quarters for a week, she would never get any sleep. Sakura seemed to have a penchant for berating her brother, so separating them would hopefully ease that tension. Also, she doubted that Hatake-san had ever dealt with his trio for long enough to be truly aware of just how petty and argumentative they could be if forced into a small space for long periods of time.

"You boys can work things out as you see fit."

He nodded and dropped his backpack off in the centremost room. She shuffled into the one on the right and shrugged her bag onto the floor, fully aware of just how grimy she was compared to the clean bedding. Sleep would have to wait for a bath. Peachy.

Calling a warning to Sasuke about her intentions, she slipped out of the room and headed for the baths before he could do more than grunt in reply.

Half an hour of scrubbing and sluicing the ingrained grime from her hide later, she was finally allowed to soak in the almost too hot pool. She was glad that it was mostly empty; she was hardly up for company. She huddled in a corner and simply let the steam billow around her as she tried very hard not to think about anything, especially not her all too recent blunder. She would worry about fixing it later. Any ideas generated before getting six hours of sleep were sure to be utter crap. For now, she simply needed to _be_.

Her monotone existence was disrupted by the arrival of a person in the water beside her. She cracked an eye open and nearly drowned herself when she saw who it was. She must have pissed off some god or another.

She opened her mouth to offer apologies when a falsely delicate looking hand snapped up and motioned that she stay silent. "You can talk later." Tsunade leaned up against the wall of the pool. "Just shut up for now."

Nariko nodded and went back to staring at the wall as Shizune and Sakura hesitantly joined them. Awkward silence prevailed, and Nariko gave up at last. If she stayed any longer, she would either upset everyone by screaming just to break the heavy silence or fall asleep and drown.

Rivulets of water streamed off her as she dragged her lethargic body out of the tub. Wrapping herself in a towel, she staggered as smoothly as she could towards the exit.

"Hey, stick girl," called the reason for all of this trouble.

Nariko smiled wryly at how worried Sakura looked at being left alone with the two women, ignoring Tsunade's desire for another explosion. Pencil pusher was a much more offensive insult after Kiba's harping.

"You might want to talk to that Naruto. He's got some news for you."

The gleeful overtone almost sent Nariko running for her rooms, yukata be damned.

* * *

The sudden aura of menace warned Kakashi that it was time to become scarce. Familiar footsteps were rapidly approaching. He had no doubt that she would blame him. She wouldn't be wrong, per se, but it was hardly his fault that Naruto was stupidly outspoken, and there was no way he was simply going to grin and bear with her tongue-lashing, not willingly at least. He was guilty enough for far more valid other reasons; he hardly needed her help. Humming with feigned casualness under his breath, he slipped his book out of his pouch as Nariko-san whipped the door open and glared at him.

"What did Naruto do?" she growled as she switched targets and stared balefully at Jiraiya for a bit, obviously frazzled.

Kakashi edged nearer to the window during this break. He didn't know exactly how she had found out, but considering Shizune's presence in the lobby, it was a good guess that Tsunade-sama and Shizune-san were staying in the same hotel. He wondered if this had been deliberate on their part. _How unfortunate._

Lack of answer seemed to frighten Nariko. "What did he do?"

Kakashi had never thought he would be grateful to Naruto, but apparently today was a day that was constantly out to prove him wrong. He had never thought that the accountant/nun would snap because of a simple name. He had never thought Tsunade-sama would let some insignificant civilian score a hit on her. He had never thought a pig could exhibit more common sense than Naruto, though he should have known better. The boy in question poked his head out of the middle room. Nariko switched targets, and Kakashi quickly made good of the opportunity to escape by slipping out the door that she had been blocking with Jiraiya hot on his heels.

"Sake?" the Toad Hermit offered.

Kakashi considered it before shrugging. Knowing today, the sake would prove unexpectedly potent and some strange and unimaginable things would result from its consumption. No, it was a better idea simply to play it safe and stay out of yelling range until Naruto had been raked over the coals.

* * *

"Otouto, you are by far the most impulsive little brother that I've ever had."

It had taken quite a while for Naruto to get Nariko up to speed and for her to calm down so that she wouldn't strangle him. She had been sorely tempted to, but had merely pinched his ear viciously and made him yelp and apologize for spouting his mouth off like an idiot and landing himself in a heap of trouble by not thinking about the words passing through his fool mouth. The idiot had just bet his lifesavings on her forgiveness and a necklace that she vaguely remembered the Sandaime claiming was cursed. She wasn't very superstitious, but… Sure, he was trying to save the mission, but had he had to pick the most impossible and dangerous method of doing so? No wonder Tsunade-sama had sounded so smug.

She was going to kill Hatake-san and Jiraiya-sama for letting her brother get himself into this mess. Hatake-san at least should have stepped in out of habit if for no other reason. Responsibility was obviously something he was not on a first name basis with, which was rather surprising. Maybe he was socially retarded or something…

Sakura continued ignoring them, too lost in the scroll in front of her to mind that Naruto was sprawled beside his sister, his head by her feet.

"I'm the only little brother you've ever had," he reminded her.

She sat up slightly and cocked an eyebrow. What did he think Itsuki was?

The brat shrugged at her. "What did you want me to do? I can't beat her in combat yet."

She snorted at him. If the woman was completely drunk, then maybe he could…

"Even I'm not that stupid. This, I can do."

Obviously, he was wiser than she was in some areas. She lay back down despite the danger that she would fall asleep and smiled slightly at this evidence that he was getting there. Still, she had to play the devil's advocate. Questioning him would better allow him to defend his decisions in future. Besides, there were some serious flaws in his plan. Did he expect the jutsu to merely fall into his lap out of nowhere? Tsunade-sama certainly wasn't going to give him any pointers. "Can you? We don't even know what jutsu she was talking about."

"Actually," Sakura said, "I do." _So she had been listening._

Nariko blinked. Of all the unlikely… Naruto had to have the luck of some super being on his side. This was crazy, though Sakura supposedly did research tactics and jutsu in her spare time according to what Naruto had told her about the girl. Yondaime was very famous too.

"It's an A-rank technique that solely relies on shape manipulation of chakra and doesn't use any handseals to help the process of shaping the chakra along. It's called Rasengan, but I don't know anything else about it. Supposedly, only the Yondaime and his teacher knew how to do it."

"Who was Yondaime's teacher?" Naruto wondered aloud.

Nariko held her breath. The next twenty seconds would prove if Naruto really was the luckiest brat alive.

"I was," said a voice from the doorway.

All three occupants of the room jumped. Jiraiya-sama had fled that afternoon with Hatake upon her return. She was beyond shocked that he had returned just in time to hear this conversation even if he was as amazing a ninja as he claimed. Nariko screamed mentally and shot a startled glance at her brother. No way…! He really was the luckiest brat alive, or the unluckiest if the bet went badly. The only thing that would top this was if Naruto turned out to be a child of prophecy. Nariko snorted mentally. _As if. _He was far too much of a brat to give some seer a vision of the future. Nightmares, sure, but a vision…?

"You taught the Yondaime?" Naruto asked.

Now Nariko understood why Jiraiya-sama had always looked a little lost on memory lane when Naruto had shown his face in his presence. Poor man.

"Yeah, he was my genius student. Kids like him only come along once in every lifetime. Listen, Tsunade made that wager knowing that I don't teach this jutsu to anyone. She wants you to fail. However, seeing how she was willing to wager her grandfather's legacy on this, I think I'm going to help you. For a kid of your skill level it will be downright impossible, but if you work really hard at it you might actually get far enough that you'll have a sporting chance."

"Really? Thanks a lot, Ero-Sennin! When do we start?"

Jiraiya's brow twitched at the name, but he held his peace. "Tomorrow morning just after dawn; tonight, I want to do some research. This town seems to be the perfect place to gather information for my book."

Nariko was confused. This was a holiday destination with no research facilities at all, just lots public baths along with various tourist destinations and gambling houses. What research was Jiraiya doing?

"Get some sleep, brat; you're going to need it."

Now that didn't sound promising.

* * *

Tsunade spent that evening curled in a corner with a bottle of sake in hand and the two scrolls on the table in front of her.

No one had said anything. No one had needed to. Tsunade had been there years and years ago. She knew the signs. The bitchy accountant and the Kyuubi container, they were siblings. Oh, they looked nothing alike, but it was there. Tsunade could see it since she had lived it.

Jiraiya had just sat there and smirked internally, using them to twist her in knots with memories she hadn't been able to bury, damn him. He had become so manipulative over the years. He was sly, but they had been genuine. That Kakashi had seen that there was something going on under the surface, but Hatake had never had a brother or a sister. He would never understand.

The accountant and the container… how strange. Yet, they worked. She had watched it happen. She had threatened the boy, and the woman had reacted with all the fierceness bottled up so deeply inside her. Oh, she had tried to downplay it, but it had been there. Those eyes had screamed at her, had told her to back off or there would be hell to pay. Those eyes had belonged to an older sister desperate to protect a beloved younger sibling. To throw that book as she had, she must have hoped to draw all that anger upon herself and spare the brat completely.

Then the brat had gone and completed the picture. She had pushed the accountant over the edge deliberately. The boy had obviously known about her reputation for short-temperedness and violence. Jiraiya must have exaggerated. The brat had reacted perfectly, almost the model brother. He had tried to save his sister from her. She and Nawaki would have done exactly the same thing. Siblings bickered all the time and loved to blame each other and watch each other get into trouble, but they always united against outside forces. Always. The external threat always brought out the bonds that so much time in each other's presence buried. The memories overlapped and rubbed her raw until only the sake kept the ache at bay.

That brat, he was his father's son in looks if nothing else. The same smile split their faces. She had been so wasted she had forgotten Minato was dead. The whisker marks had faded in her eyes, and she had only seen that apprentice of Jiraiya's in all of his genius. This boy wasn't one. Too unrefined, too random, yet there was potential: not genius potential, but potential all the same. He talked like Nawaki and smiled like the Yondaime. He dreamed of being Hokage. Her hand sought the crystal. He was just a fool. He couldn't actually do it; Rasengan was too difficult, but something inside her wondered. Could he do everything else?

That bitchy woman would protect him and would definitely try to see him get there. Tsunade knew that feeling. It was that same desire that had prompted her to give her necklace to Nawaki. She had wanted him to succeed, had made his dream hers, and had promised herself to see it through. Nawaki was dead though, taken by a useless war that had taken so many from her.

"Dan," she whispered to the otherwise empty room. Stupid fools, beloved fools, all promises and no staying power, all of them had wanted to protect something; all of them had promised their lives. They had all lost them. Konoha couldn't be worth that.

The scrolls beckoned, but she ignored them and took another gulp of the liquid forgetfulness.

* * *

Sleep was such a beautiful thing and so underappreciated.

Sakura's futon was folded up neatly against wall, and the angle of the sunlight coming through the window convinced Nariko that it was rapidly approaching noon, but there was no way she was going to get out of bed. Sleep… Unfortunately, dozing just didn't seem to cut it. Too many things weighed on her mind for sleep to truly come. To distract herself, she crawled out from underneath the beautifully warm covers and rifled through her backpack for the thick bundle of letters she had brought along to peruse whenever she had time. She was months behind on all of her correspondence.

Sliding back under the covers, she flipped through the pile to the oldest letters and pulled one from Shiro out of the stack. His mail was always so amusing even if it did always sound concerned, annoyingly so sometimes. She read through the contents quickly and snorted. Same old self-absorbed Shiro, she hoped that he never changed. He was so refreshingly vain that it made her laugh. His concern for those that he did permit inside his bubble of self-interest was so genuine and deep that it saved him from being a complete narcissist.

She spent hours writing replies to everyone that had bothered to contact her. She hoped that they would be long enough to warrant forgiveness. Shiro and Itsuki had sent several queries about her overdue replies, each more irate and nervous sounding than the last. Her mother's tone had become sterner with every ignored bit of mail. The latest one actually contained a blatant threat: "If you don't dust off your ungrateful, lazy hide and write us back to assure us that you actually are alive, I swear that I shall hire a cart and come north to dig you up." It had made her laugh nervously. Her mother had never traveled far from Kaijin. That she would claim to come hundreds of kilometres north just to pummel her into replying was amusing and heartening, if frightening. Nariko really hoped that she hadn't left the village yet.

Of all of the latest letters, only Okano's sounded calm, but the girl had always been incredibly level-headed for her age. She got it from her father. Minoru-ojisan's family had some interesting folk in it and even-temperedness was just part of the package Okano had inherited. It was a good thing considering that Itsuki was her guardian. He was always too caught up with his poetry and his tunes to focus on earthly things for very long. Okano's practicality and quiet determination kept him going in a straight line more often than not. It had been amusing to watch them argue since Okano-chan had usually ended up winning except when debating philosophy or some other abstract concept.

"_I have good news and bad news for you, unfortunately, as well as a friendly warning or two. Your long silence has many worried, but, knowing you, it is simply because some project has caught your complete attention._

"_We have lost another member of the clan to the mystery that is death. Irezumi-kun mourns for Susumu-ojiisan. He was a good man in life, though the loss of his daughter hit him hard—it hit all of us hard, but I am preaching to the converted. Take comfort in the fact that his passing was mostly peaceful and that he claimed to have few regrets other than the ones we carry for him._"

Nariko shut off thoughts of what those regrets were and kept reading. Apparently, Irezumi-kun, Okano's ward, was taking the loss of his grandfather badly. Poor kid had lost so much already and now this.

"_One of the scions of the other lines was also lost only a couple weeks ago. Oda from the farming village to the southwest died from some spring fever that his healer could not cure in time to save him. He leaves behind a widow and a son, but our relatives are caring for them. We in Kaijin are sending what aid we can without being viewed as overly generous._" That sounded like them, though she was as worried as Okano sounded about how Emi-obasan had been sent with the aid. Emi tried, but her austerity didn't aid her attempts at sensitivity.

Okano's training under Irezumi's uncle Keji in the ways of the forest warden seemed to be going well. Keji bragged when out of Okano's hearing according to her ward.

"_Do you miss our trees? Shiro-oniisan showed me the first letter you sent him after you made me spill his wrongdoings to Junko-san, who still has quite a hold on your guardian if the rumours are true. I must ask, has he mentioned proposing to her to you? He would tell you first since you were his ward and constantly meddled in his doings before taking your leave, though it seems that you have a long reach through me._ _His mother worries about him, as you know, I'm sure._"

Poor Kasumi-basan. Her daughter Kiku wasn't interested in settling down, so poor Shiro was getting badgered about grandchildren. "_If he is hemming and hawing, perhaps you can reassure him and end his stalling? Junko-san is a good woman that would do him a world of good if they would only make things a little more permanent. He is thirty-four and still the most outrageous flirt you ever saw._

"_Seven long years have passed, Oneesan. Itsu-nii wonders if you have learned enough to come home. I have the terrible feeling that your meddling will take you into dangerous territory, areas far too dangerous to traverse unscathed. Come home while you still can. Your last (brief) note claimed that Naruto has graduated and that he is now considered an adult by the village. Though I disagree with this strange custom, if it is true, perhaps you can cut ties and return now._

"_Set aside stubborn pride and think. These are ninja, Oneesan. Nothing good can come of trifling with their affairs. You are on the fringe, or at least I dearly hope you are, though, knowing you, this is a futile hope. Go no further if you have any wisdom in you. Retreat will be difficult if you tarry much more, I can feel this in my bones. Don't laugh, please. I really do feel this despite my few years. Ninja have brought us nothing but sorrow. Don't stubbornly attempt to prove me wrong. Ninja are dangerous killers trained from young ages by your own admission. Think of Irezumi's mother. Remember how a relation to them that could not be helped brought so much sorrow. Retreat intact. There is no shame in this._

"_The clan is proud of your efforts to pass along our philosophy in the most resistant of places to the most barricaded of minds and hearts. You have done well according to the council, but they begin to wonder if you have strayed. You know that is dangerous, though nowhere near as dangerous as interacting with hired assassins on a daily basis. Foolhardy elder, do you really wish to lose your standing in the clan? Twenty years of waiting and a seat on the council is guaranteed to you at Itsu-nii and Shiro-oniisan's sides if only you would see sense. You claimed that this move would not be permanent. Don't make that into a lie. Every step you take into the world of ninja brings more danger to us. You bear our name and, though you have gone far, it is not nearly far enough to spare us if someone decides to take offence. I will admit that those are more Itsu-nii's concerns than mine speaking, but someone must say them._

"_As Emi-obasan and your father would say, every action has consequences. Rein in your impulsiveness and consider fully._"

Nariko bit her lip. This wasn't new, but it had never been laid so fully before her before. It was too late though. She was foresworn, damn her meddling.

"Please don't make me choose between family and family because I was never wise enough to know the difference," she muttered, penning the lines as the opening of her reply before losing what little steam she had left and simply letting the letter hang. She didn't know what else to say.

* * *

Sakura hissed complaints under her breath as she tailed Riko. Naruto's sister was scrubbing at her face with her hands and muttering under her breath like a crazy, heading in no particular direction. The layabout had stayed in her room until one in the afternoon and then randomly decided to go outside. Sakura wished she had just stayed put. Sasuke had gone to find out where Naruto and Jiraiya-sama had gone, Kaka-sensei was missing, and she was stuck with the client. _Great._

"Now you're allowed to talk."

Sakura froze and glanced over her shoulder. Riko-san didn't even twitch. Something bigger must have been occupying her mind.

"I find myself at a loss," the accountant said, shaking her head. "Would you care to come with me if you're not gambling? I must offer prayers. I've had some bad news today. The death of family always makes me ache."

Sakura watched the strangest thing she had ever seen: Tsunade-sama, one of the legendary Sannin, softened slightly. It wasn't a visible thing so much as a feeling in her gut that the kunoichi had some sort of sympathy.

"You look as though you could use some faith at the moment as well. I promise to offer words once my prayers are done. I cannot guarantee I will be able to find you today if you leave now."

Tsunade-sama snorted at Riko's back. "Face me and speak."

Sakura was nonplussed to see that Riko-san's eyes were all blotchy. She hadn't even known that the woman had been crying.

"To do work for you, I've put aside letters from my family in southern Fire. Konoha needs you. I thought that the letters could wait a bit. My cousin wrote to tell me that my… my uncle of a sort is dead. He's been dead for almost a month now. I… I missed it completely. I need to offer prayers, belated though they are. He was so important and yet he is gone. Another of my more distant cousins is also dead, almost two months now. Fever felled him with a little boy and a loving wife that still needed him. I have so many prayers to offer… I'm sorry; I can't talk now." Riko laughed a little self-deprecatingly. "Can you please tell me where I can find some incense and the nearest temple?"

Sakura stared at Tsunade, who looked much more sober than she had yesterday. The woman's face was blank and more youthful looking than Riko-san's in this moment. It was so odd. The Sannin member nodded shortly and turned down a side street. When Riko rushed to follow, Sakura fell in behind her.

The incense shop was a tiny hole in the wall store packed with shelves, its air heavy with so many different scents. The light was coming through the dirty, single pane windows and didn't penetrate far. The predominant colours were red and brown, which made the light even less effective. The shelves were divided into little compartments and bundles of sticks and a couple loose ones lay in the slots, marked with prices in fading ink characters. The slightest spark could have lit this place up like a tinderbox.

Sakura shuffled in Riko's wake as she browsed the shelves, inspecting the sticks and sniffing them on occasion. Tsunade stood near the door, glancing sadly over the various shelves nearby. Though Riko had only mentioned two recently dead, she grabbed many more sticks. When Sakura asked, she got a disconcerting answer.

"Do you think they are the only ones I will mourn for?" The woman took another stick that smelled heavily of sage. "The larger your family, the more people you lose over the years. Mine isn't blessed with long life for the most part. To reach sixty is an accomplishment. My paternal grandfather has been dead for twenty years, my great uncles and aunts for almost as long, and my grandmother passed away five years ago. Some cousins were lost as babies, and others died of various illnesses that the smaller villages can't always magically cure. Measles took one of my more distant cousins only two years ago. Death stalks us without relenting, but there are worse things."

Sakura couldn't say she agreed. How could anything be worse than death?

"Tsunade-sama," Riko-san called hesitantly. "What scents do you think are best for mourning?"

"Kashi and patchouli," she said after a long pause.

Riko disappeared back into the shelves and returned with a paper bag. Tsunade exited the shop without a word and Sakura and Riko followed her.

The temple turned out to be a little ways west. It was a long walk, but Tsunade set a brisk pace. Sakura found herself trotting along behind them more often than not. She tried so hard to stay alert for any threats, but the day was warm and only a little cloudy. Flowers were beginning to realize that it was spring and were going into full bloom. Sakura simply wanted to enjoy spring, but Riko and Tsunade were getting farther and farther ahead of her, so she ran a bit to catch up. Sakura followed them through the torii gate nervously, staring curiously at the pair of monks that wandered through the yard.

When they got to the shrine at last, Riko whispered thanks to Tsunade and began to set out stick after stick of incense, murmuring names of the departed under her breath as she lit them. Sakura found a tree nearby to sit under, but Tsunade-sama just stood there, staring into space as though looking at things from long ago. She looked as startled as Sakura felt when Riko held out two sticks of incense to her.

"Kashi and patchouli," Riko-san murmured. She held out a fresh match as Tsunade-sama stared, frozen. "It helps to remember. It keeps the memories of their joy and sorrow closer. Their graves must have gone unvisited for years." When Tsunade-sama glared at her, the accountant shrugged. "Sandaime-sama told me about them once. He did it on purpose; I see it now, though I didn't then. Still, will you honour them?"

Tsunade hesitated for several more moments before stiffly kneeling, taking the offerings from Riko without a word. Naruto's sister retreated to remembering her dead while Tsunade-sama fumbled with the match for a moment and then lit it, the scent of sulphur strong in the air. The spark took root and flame reached out hungrily to the incense sticks when brought within range. The two women knelt for a long time, their heads bowed and their minds preoccupied with memories of those long gone.

Sakura's severe indignation with Riko-san eased slightly. She had promised to make their mission work. At least she was trying.

"I apologize for my actions yesterday," the client whispered at last. Tsunade-sama gave no indication that she had heard or was willing to forgive. "I was out of line and nothing can excuse it. I humbly beg for forgiveness."

"You're going to have to wait. Your forgiveness is being wagered. That Naruto told you."

Riko-san nodded and stayed silent for a long time. "Why did you make that bet?"

Tsunade-sama didn't answer.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Stone Triad

Jiraiya watched twenty blondes argue, some shaking their fists, others howling at the top of their lungs, and all of them ridiculous looking. Naruto was obviously a very conflicted brat. It made Jiraiya want to chuckle, but this shenanigan was counterproductive. The kid needed to get back on task. This bet was important.

"Hey," he called and twenty pairs of blue eyes fastened on him. "Shouldn't you be working? This is a super difficult technique. You're not going to master it by screaming at yourself."

"He's got a point, Boss."

The original scowled and crossed his arms. "You come up with a way to pop the damn balloon then!" He tossed said polka-dotted water balloon from one hand to the other as the lippy clone pouted at its green balloon.

Jiraiya had to wonder if in Naruto's case that many heads were not better than one. The kid had been bickering and tossing around half-assed ideas all morning with relatively little progress.

"This was what Mikoto-obachan warned us about," shouted another clone, waving its patchy red and white balloon around like a maniac. "She said not to learn any difficult—!"

The balloon hit the ground, rocked, and deformed violently as the smoke cleared.

"Has anyone else got something negative and unhelpful to say?" The original glared around.

Headshakes were prevalent motions around the clearing for the next few seconds.

Shaking his own head in disbelief, Jiraiya rolled his eyes at how all of the Narutos had missed the clear clue that the dispersed clone's fallen balloon had provided. This kid had to be more oblivious than a blinkered carthorse. Sighing away his exasperation, Jiraiya got off his tree stump.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"To get a drink," Jiraiya grumbled. "Have fun. Come find me when you get this."

No amount of protesting on the Narutos' parts changed his mind. He needed to find Tsunade and keep harping at her to keep her focused. If he was extremely lucky, he might even be able to find out what those two letters were about. Getting her drunk would probably do the trick. Satisfied with his plans for the day, he grinned and headed back to town.

* * *

"Ero-Sennin wasn't joking when he said this would be tough," said Naruto on the second day.

Nariko forced herself to pay heed despite a very real desire to go back to catching up on sleep. She couldn't rush him though; he needed to vent to someone. Since this was her fault, she owed him the courtesy of listening. Still, it was difficult for her to jerk herself back into wakefulness every few moments as he ranted on about things she couldn't comprehend. She had no idea how to manipulate chakra. She had never formed chakra in her life. Still, physics might be applicable here if only she could pay attention. It didn't sound like it right now though. Naruto was more interested in complaining about Jiraiya-sama.

"It's mostly his fault though. He hardly explains anything and just expects me to understand him! It's really frustrating. Even using Kage Bunshin isn't really speeding up the training process all that much, though it did help me get the spin down."

"You know," she said, applying salve to the burns he had acquired from forcing so much chakra through his hand, "if you just talked to your teammates, Hatake-san, and me more, I'm sure we'd be able to help you, especially your teammates. Sasuke and Sakura are capable and they'd be more than willing to help you if you asked them politely."

"They're mad at me right now."

She sighed, unable to disagree with him. He and Sasuke had spats all the time, so she wasn't too worried about them, but Sakura and Naruto had never really tested their frail bond with a real fight before. She wasn't quite sure the fragile connection would survive.

"That's because you've been ignoring them." She screwed the lid back on the jar. Tourist towns always overcharged for things, but it was worth it if it did keep the flesh on Naruto's palm from becoming even more painful. Just looking at those welts made her cringe in sympathetic pain. "They feel left out and a little jealous. You are getting special instruction from one of the Sannin, after all. Sasuke hates being left behind, and Sakura just feels even more left out than usual. You do know that those two don't get along very well."

"Yeah, I know. But it's because Sakura is one of Sasuke's worst fangirls. He really hates his groupies. It doesn't help that Sakura still tries to chase after him sometimes and always agrees with him. She's like his toady or psycho—"

"Sycophant?"

"Yeah, that's the word. He can't stand it. I don't think they'll get along until they get into an argument for the first time. Sasuke respects people that will argue with him." Nariko was just wondering why Naruto was being so candid when he called, "You can come in and listen, Sakura-chan. It's not polite to eavesdrop. You won't always like what you hear either."

Sakura guiltily scrambled in the door and settled onto her bed under Nariko's stare. The woman always found it a little intimidating that being an adult made those younger than her so wary. It was so strange to be viewed as a true authority figure by a girl she only had fifteen years on. Still, given Naruto's open criticism of Sakura, perhaps the child felt a little exposed.

"Is that why Sasuke won't talk to me?" Hurt was evident in her voice and bright green eyes. There was anger building there, but it had yet to be expressed. Naruto was a very lucky brat as far as Nariko could see. Criticising appearance was fine and dandy as far as she was concerned (what was there to care about?), but criticising a person's mannerisms? That was getting a little too personal.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. You never really talk to him, you know. When he talks to you, it's like talking to a mirror. You never disagree with him, and you always compliment him even if he's made a mistake. Sasuke doesn't want to make friends with a mirror."

Nariko grimaced at how blunt Naruto was being, but subtle hints weren't working with Sakura, so she supposed this was the only way. If she didn't pick a side, she could see that this was going to escalate into a full-blown shouting match. Sakura's anger was bubbling to the surface, and Naruto wasn't going to budge on this point, not after complaining about fangirls for so many years. This opportunity to rectify a major one's problem must have had him rubbing his hands together with glee on the inside. Shoving that disturbing image aside, Nariko took her stance with a grimace. Why was she always covering his ass?

"While Naruto may be being a little cruel in how blunt he is being, he is right, Sakura-san." Oh, this really wasn't a good topic. Still, she had watched this happen before, and it really hadn't ended well at all. If she could nip this in the bud, maybe she could make up for watching obliviously last time. Infatuation had to be just as dangerous as suicidal tendencies. It was unlikely that anything she said would break Sakura out of her crush, but maybe she could plant seeds of doubt, which would hopefully lead to contemplation and caution. "I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be yourself. When Sasuke isn't around, you're a wonderful person. You shouldn't need to change for Sasuke. If he doesn't like you the way you are, then what is the point of liking him? You would have to lie to yourself all the time to be with him and that would be a terrible thing to do to yourself."

"What would you know?" Sakura snarled. "You're not married and you don't have someone like that."

Nariko couldn't decide if that stung or not. "True, but that doesn't mean I haven't been bombarded with stories from my various relations. What you are trying to do was common to all of them. They were all very unhappy in the end about what they had done to themselves. I'm sorry if our words have cut you. We have been trying to tell you this in a kinder way for the past two weeks. You didn't hear us, so we tried something else." She elbowed Naruto to prod him into backing her up.

"I'm sorry too, Sakura-chan, and not just for this. I'm sorry for ignoring you and Sasuke for the past two days."

Sakura didn't soften in the slightest.

Naruto began attempting to generate pathos, something that reassured Nariko that _some_ of her lessons had gotten through to him. "This jutsu is just so hard. Ero-Sennin isn't much help as a teacher yet. At least you know how to explain things. You'd make a great teacher someday, Sakura-chan."

Sakura blushed at the compliment and calmed down. Nariko hid a chuckle at just how well chosen those points had been. Naruto had apparently made Sakura very curious about what he was learning because she settled into a businesslike stance.

"What's causing you so much trouble?"

Nariko hid a grin as Naruto explained about how he was using his chakra to manipulate water in a water balloon that he was supposed to pop. All he was actually doing was swirling the water around.

Sakura sat, deep in thought, for a couple minutes before she brightened. "I saw this once! My cousin left a water balloon out and a dog got to it. The dog grabbed it in its mouth and shook it so hard, changing the direction of the water so rapidly, that it exploded all over him! The dog was so mad that he got all wet!"

Naruto got excited after he thought about Sakura's anecdote for a couple seconds. "So all I have to do is have the water spinning randomly in a lot of directions?"

"Yeah, that should do the trick."

Naruto raced off to his room and returned with a water balloon. "Come on, Sakura-chan, let's go try in outside. Neechan will kill me if I get water all over the place."

Laughing, the two kids ran out the door. Relieved that that immediate hitch had been smoothed out, Nariko settled into sleep.

* * *

Sasuke grimaced as he wandered past the same building for the fifth time that day. _Who would have known that being a ninja would be so utterly boring?_ Ninety-nine percent of his time was spent hanging around, waiting, or training alone. He certainly didn't want to loiter with Sakura, and the loser was being an idiot, as usual. Sasuke had only seen him when they bunked down for the night. Naruto was always gone in the morning before he woke up. While Sasuke didn't mind having time to himself, this obvious avoidance was grating on his nerves.

He had seen him arguing with himself for the past three days, making little progress as far as Sasuke could tell. _What good was popping a water balloon or a rubber ball? _This technique looked useless, or it had until he had spotted the tree that must have been used as a target for the demo Jiraiya had done. It looked as though it had been bored into with a huge, round drill.

That had interested him, but his mother's warnings about jutsu had nagged at him. She had said that Kage Bunshin wasn't worth his time because of the chakra draw. Considering how exhausted Naruto was at the end of each day, it was likely that this Rasengan thing was the same way. That hadn't stopped him from snitching a water balloon and attempting to pop it. The burns from the chakra being forced through his skin had hurt, and he had been exhausted within an hour. He had considered continuing, but one thing held him back. _Did he want to prove his mother right in the most idiotic way possible? No, not really, or not unless there was no way that Ryuuka would ever find out. _That cowardice had disgusted him more than the loser's actions had and he had taken to avoiding his friend to forget about the stupid technique that the Tsunade woman wanted him to fail to learn.

Instead, he had taken to shadowing his sensei whenever he could foist the duty of guarding the suddenly boring Riko onto Sakura. Naruto's sister only seemed to be interested in sleeping or showing that Shizune woman how to read her stupid accounting book, as if those idiotic numbers mattered anyway… Still, that book had been good for something. The Tsunade woman's expression after it had nailed her in the face had been priceless.

That drunk had been giving ninja a bad name with her habits. He had no idea what had been slipped into the Sandaime's tobacco. Why on earth did the Hokage want her as his successor? Why not pick someone capable, like his mother or even his sensei, though he wasn't quite sure that the lazy, perverted man was a good choice. At least Kakashi was generally sober and didn't have apparent money problems.

Kakashi was a very strange man. He didn't walk; he ambled, strutted, or shuffled. If he had a specific purpose in mind and a goal in sight, he strode with quick, long strides. His sensei's prematurely grey hair was horrible, and Sasuke knew terrible hair when he saw it. Did the man not know what a comb was for or did he simply not care? Sasuke was banking on the latter. Kakashi always smelled faintly like dog. This had puzzled Sasuke for a long time, but he had discovered the reason in the last three days. Kakashi was a dog summoner.

Summoning seemed simple: a blood sacrifice, a series of handseals, and a seal pattern drew itself on whatever surface was under the blood. It was rather odd, Sasuke decided, that these dogs never complained about having been dragged so abruptly to Kakashi's location. _What if they had been reading _(this thought inspired by how the pug summon had read a newspaper over his sensei's shoulder and had commented on the oddness of a couple reports about how the construction of an ambitious bridge project had been halted because a creditor had backed out)_, training, bathing, or something?_

Kakashi, though he had probably been a jounin for at least five years, spent a surprising amount of time training in rather simple ways. Sasuke's mother trained, but it had never seemed like she spent all that much time on it. Maybe Kakashi needed to or perhaps it was because he was an active jounin while his mother was retired. Either way, Kakashi threw shuriken and kunai the same way they did every day and practiced handseals for several jutsu Sasuke had seen before and countless others that he hadn't. He would even spar with his eight mutts.

Sasuke knew perfectly well that his sensei knew he was spying on him. They had a silent agreement to pretend ignorance of this though, or they had had one yesterday. Today, Kakashi's eyes were straying to his location in an almost thoughtful manner, which was why he was studiously pretending to wander around the tourist village and only "happen" by the restaurant where his sensei was reading the newspaper, eating lunch, and feigning obliviousness to the stares the restaurant's other occupants were sending his way.

It was on this fifth time past the windows that Kakashi looked right at him and beckoned him inside. Almost startled by the sudden change in the game, Sasuke hunched slightly and did as he was bid, wondering if he was in trouble. His sensei gestured that he take a seat across from him when Sasuke arrived in front of the table in the corner of the room with the best view of all the windows and exits. He sat cautiously and waited. When the waitress happened by, Kakashi sent him a look that indicated he was to order himself lunch. Once the waitress left with promises that his meal would be there shortly, Sasuke waited for Kakashi to explain himself. His sensei ignored him in favour of his newspaper.

"Why did you call me in here?" Sasuke asked when he couldn't take the silence anymore.

The aggravating man across the table turned the page, and, having hit the classifieds, folded the paper before setting it aside only to pull out his usual literature. Sasuke began to understand why that orange target had so irritated Riko; it was damnably distracting to have it masking his sensei's face just as well as that bit of cloth did. He seemed to hide behind the cover deliberately.

"You looked hungry."

Sasuke didn't bother shooting his teacher a sceptical look. That flimsy reason was only partly valid at best. No, there was something else. Sasuke had the feeling he was finally going to learn something worthwhile from his teacher. Since Kakashi was being taciturn—something Sasuke had experience with—the way to draw bits of wisdom out was to ask the right questions. Naruto had a similar tactic when he wanted to get Sasuke to talk, but Naruto just jabbered on until he accidentally hit upon the right topic. Sasuke intended to be a little more delicate in his probing. His mother had been attempting to teach him how to read people as she had taught Riko to. Now that a possible application of the lessons was before him, he unearthed those memories and attempted to figure out what to look for.

"What is the Rasengan?"

"Hmm?"

Sasuke levelled a dark look at his sensei, daring him not to answer.

"It's a ninjutsu that the Yondaime invented. It's an A-rank technique."

"Why did that Tsunade lady request it?"

Kakashi shrugged.

Sasuke scowled. "Why doesn't it use handseals?"

"The Yondaime never had the need to come up with any."

Sasuke waited for him to elaborate on that, but he was disappointed.

"What is Naruto doing right now?"

"Trying to pop a ball," Sasuke said after his food was set before him. He let his questions slide since he actually was hungry.

Kakashi nodded sagely and went back to his literature.

"He's not doing very well. He's been stuck on this step for almost two days."

"Only three days left," Kakashi said with almost vindictive sounding cheerfulness.

Sasuke shot him a glare. It wasn't just Naruto's money and his idiotic dream of being Hokage that was resting on this. Their _mission_ was in jeopardy, and the man was almost cackling like a child on too much sugar with fiendish glee. Uchiha didn't screw up their first C-rank missions. He would never be allowed to live down a failure on a simple mission like this, and Kakashi was just sitting there and giggling inanely at their imminent peril.

"He'd better hurry up and _focus_," Kakashi chirped as he stood up and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Out," his teacher said, waving vaguely over his shoulder with his nose firmly stuck in his book again.

Sasuke glared at the jounin as he disappeared down the street. He was only mildly annoyed with his teacher's abandonment until the waitress returned with the bill. _That bastard…! _Sasuke was going to see that the lopsided fool paid!

* * *

"This step is even harder," Naruto said, yet again in the girls' room with Sakura and Riko-nee.

He was nearly ready to bash his head into the wall. His hand ached, the welts had opened up and were bleeding, his arms trembled with strain, and he was so tired and low on chakra he was seeing funny colours. On top of this, Sasuke had snored lightly the night before for a bit, and Ero-Sennin had put his friend to shame by snoring like a foghorn. Sleep had been hard to come by.

He would have pitied Kaka-sensei for having to share a room with the pervert, but Naruto had found him asleep in the common room when he had headed out early that morning. There had been this ugly little dog curled up near him too; it had been wearing this silly little coat and a forehead protector, so Naruto figured it was a ninja dog. It had stared at him sleepily as he had slipped out the door. Maybe that explained the doggy smell…

He would have envied Sakura and Neechan for being as far away from Ero-Sennin as possible, but Naruto knew for a fact that Sakura was a violent sleeper and that Riko-nee hummed sometimes. Both of them would have ended up waking the other occasionally, so he was partially appeased. Besides, Neechan still looked like crap, though at least the shadows under her eyes were getting better.

"Without the water to gauge the movement of chakra, I can't tell if I'm doing it properly anymore. The rubber ball is a lot tougher than the balloon too. I've managed to deflate the stupid thing though. I think it's all about power and focus, but it's hard. Sasuke's the person that would never have any problems with this. He's not talking to me though."

"Baka," Sakura said, "it's because you're ignoring him. He's your best friend; of course he's going to be furious when you take to disappearing for days without talking to him."

That was rich: Naruto knew for a fact that she and Ino were in the middle of another of their horribly damaging spats. He had deemed them such because whenever he tried to step in a stop them from getting violent he ended up being the one that was "horribly damaged."

"He's really lonely," Riko said. "As far as I know, he's taken to tailing Hatake whenever he's not trailing after me. He's not used to being totally ignored. You should try to make amends."

"Yeah, I know, I know, dattebayo! Geez, give me a break!" _Why were they pinning this on him? _He was trying to save their mission and they were pestering him about the bastard, who hadn't even bothered to come and see him for the past four days. It wasn't his fault that Sasuke was a prissy ass. A change of subject was in order. "Hey, how's Shizune making out with your papers? Is she anywhere near done?"

"Not really. For all she is a good medic, she's not an accountant. I've been helping her go through a few pages every day to help her understand."

Hah, he bet that that made Neechan feel better. Everyone always picked on her for not being a ninja, "everyone" being Kiba mostly. His sister didn't say anything most of the time, but those slight glares and clenched fists whenever Hana-neechan had been brought into the conversation as a comparison point had been dead giveaways. Naruto had tried to beat Kiba up for undermining his sister so much, but the mutt simply refused to let the stupid thing go. Maybe it was because Kiba was terrible at math…

"What's Tsunade-baba been doing?" He cringed and attempted to get out of the line of fire the moment the derogative term crossed his lips, but Neechan had had sleep in the past twelve hours. She snagged his ear and twisted it viciously. "Uncle! Uncle!" He craned his head in a futile attempt to ease the pain. The menacing light in her eyes didn't dim, so he rephrased his question. "What's Tsunade-_baachan_ been up to?"

_Stupid, ungrateful, older sister!_ She released him, and he rubbed his throbbing ear as Sakura snickered. _Stupid, evil teammate, how dare she laugh at his pain!_ See if he would step in to save her from herself the next time she did something stupid!

"She's been getting drunk." Riko-nee pulled out that jar of wonderfully cool salve and beckoned him back onto her futon. He approached her warily, a dark scowl pasted on his face. She smiled almost apologetically and inspected the horrible welts. She hissed in sympathy and shot him a truly apologetic look as she gingerly forced him to open his hand all the way instead of cradling it in a partially closed fist.

He hissed when her motions caused the wounds to crack open further and bleed anew. She scooped up a bunch of guck on her finger and carefully applied it. He sighed when the stinging stopped and the pain subsided to a manageable degree.

"I think something about our presence really upsets her. It seems to have triggered memories she would rather forget; that's why she's drinking."

He could tell that Riko-nee knew more about this than she was willing to say, but something else worried him more. "But she's really strong! What if she hurts somebody when she's drunk?" The evil hag was staying in the same hotel. What if she got really drunk and decided to topple the place around their ears? He was suddenly distracted by a faint noise (the door of the common room shutting) and by familiar light footsteps. He almost didn't hear Riko-nee's next words.

"Jiraiya-sama has been following her around. That's part of the reason he abandons you to train by yourself every day." She noticed Naruto's distraction. "What is it?"

"Sasuke's just outside the door."

"Sasuke, please come in," Sakura called, dropping the honorific she usually used.

Naruto stared at her, beyond surprised. Had she actually listened to him? Well, them… but he had been the one that had been brave enough to withstand Sakura's wrath and say what they were all thinking first. Neechan had scolded him about it afterwards, claiming that it was horribly rude to attack Sakura's mannerisms like that, but what did she know? She had never been assaulted by fangirls. He couldn't wait for the day when she would finally understand his pain. She had always laughed, but he doubted that she would be laughing when she finally clued in.

"It's rude to eavesdrop. Besides, if you come in, you can tell Naruto what he's been doing wrong." Sakura sure knew how to say it.

Sheepish and defensive, Sasuke settled himself on Sakura's bed since Riko's was a little cramped. Hmm, it had been a long time since Naruto had seen Sasuke this put out. Maybe it would be a good idea to say something before the bastard decided to appease himself by roasting him that stupid fireball jutsu he was so fond of.

"Hey, Sasuke, I'm sorry," muttered Naruto, hanging his head. He saw Riko-nee hide a smile behind her hand: she knew that he hated apologizing and was enjoying this. _Evil older sister…_

Sasuke was silent for a long time, being a bastard about accepting this humiliating apology. Why was he best friends with this guy again?

"Loser, show me what you're doing."

Ah, that was why. Riko and Sakura exchanged exasperated looks as Naruto grinned and pulled out a new rubber ball and showed them how he was pumping chakra into it.

"Where are you focusing the flow?" Sasuke asked, something in his eyes telling Naruto that something in the bastard's head had just clicked. Maybe hanging around Dog-san was making the bastard more intelligent.

"Huh?" was Naruto's elegant response. As far as he was concerned, Sasuke was speaking a foreign language. Why couldn't he have just drawn some pictures or something? At least they would have made sense, but Sasuke's drawing skills were severely lacking, so maybe not. Even Naruto and Chouji were better at approximating maps than Sasuke was and they had lauded this achievement over him in class. Sasuke hadn't been too pleased, but he had apparently considered their threat to his superiority so minor that he hadn't really bothered to improve. As far as Naruto could tell, the bastard didn't think too much of maps.

"Focusing the flow, Loser! Where are you forcing the chakra out of your hand and where is its centre when you mould it?"

Naruto blinked and turned what Sasuke had said over in his mind. You could specify where chakra came out of the body? Really? Sasuke had to be pulling his leg or something… "I don't… know?"

Sasuke huffed and rolled his eyes dramatically. "Trying to push all that chakra through your entire hand screws you up. Don't you remember when it was Kiba's turn to take notes and he screwed up because he couldn't focus and you were away, so you didn't get that lesson very well?"

Naruto finally nodded.

"Well, Yutaka-sensei was going over chakra focus when Iruka took over and started lecturing us all on concentration in general."

"Oh, I remember this," Sakura said. "We had that leaf exercise! Iruka-sensei made us stick a leaf to our foreheads with chakra because lots of the kids in the class were ignoring him."

Naruto waited for their little sharing spree to end so that they could get to the point. It was good that Sasuke wasn't ignoring Sakura for once, but couldn't they have compared notes on the classes that Naruto had skipped some other time?

"Yeah, that one. Now, Loser, I'm going to paint a dot on your hand so you can see what I mean."

He took a pen from Riko-nee and drew a little black dot on the centre of Naruto's hand. At Naruto's insistence, he added to the design to make it look like a leaf. That was more like it! Grinning at the simple artistry of the design and at how cool it was that it looked like his forehead protector's design, Naruto settled back down to listen to Sasuke attempt to explain things in a language they could all understand.

"Now, you're going to focus your chakra through that point and you are going to form the centre of your moulded chakra right above it."

So Naruto did. Riko-nee shifted onto Sakura's bed as soon as the ball began to deform ominously. He didn't blame her. Holding this weird thing as it started to look like two thirty-legged creatures were brawling inside of it was not his idea of fun. Naruto had pretty good chakra control by now, so he figured that none of them had any doubt he would figure it out soon enough now that Sasuke had pointed him in the right direction. Sure enough, thirty minutes later the ball exploded with a loud bang. Poor Riko-nee jumped while Sasuke and Sakura tensed, their hands going to their kunai pouches on instinct. Naruto grinned as the shreds of rubber fell all around him despite the horrible pain in his hand and the throb of exhaustion behind his eyes. It sucked that the tiredness was back again; it had dimmed quite a bit while they had been talking.

"Moron," Sasuke said after a minute, "I'd clean that up if I were you." Naruto stuck his tongue out and collected the shreds of rubber as Sasuke turned to his sister. "Do you know how to requisition funds for food from Konoha?"

"Not just at this moment, but I'm sure I could figure it out for you when we get back. Why?"

"Kakashi made me pay for lunch."

Naruto couldn't stop snickering after that. Poor Bastard! That would teach him to follow their evil sensei around! Kaka-sensei was probably going to get an earful in the near future though because Riko-nee looked pretty pissed off. Well, at least there was no chance that she would twist his sensei's ear, though it would have been hilarious to watch.

* * *

Naruto came to them for help again about three hours after the two Sannin had cleared off. Getting tips seemed to be a better method than experimenting all day without luck. He was holding a balloon again, but this time it was full of air. "Stupid Ero-Sennin," he grumbled again as his three advisors sat on the two futons around him. "He wants me to make the same shape inside this balloon without popping it." All three of his helpers shot him incredulous looks. "Don't look at me; I don't understand it either."

"What does it do when you use it now?" asked Sakura, her analytical mind going into overdrive.

"It just eats into the surface of the object in a spiral pattern. The damage is lame," admitted Naruto. "It sucks unless I keep pumping lots of chakra into it."

"How can you tell what it's supposed to look like?" Riko asked, cocking an eyebrow at the balloon in his hand. "I mean, did you ever see a demo?"

"Yeah, he showed me. It drilled right through a tree this big," he explained, indicating the girth of the tree with his hands.

Sasuke nodded, backing him up. "I saw the ruined tree. The damage was impressive. If it is doing what he says, then he's missing some element, probably something crucial."

"Probably," Naruto agreed reluctantly, "I feel like I'm really close. If I can finish this, it'll be my first major offensive technique. This will be a big step in becoming Hokage. With help, I'm sure I can master this. Obachan's chakra control training won't go to waste."

Sakura ignored his blathering in favour of mulling over his previous comments about the purpose of the latest exercise. _Why use a balloon? Why air? Why not pop the balloon when all he had been doing before was causing the stupid balloon or ball to explode all over the place? Chaos and then containment…_

"Maybe you are supposed to learn how to make the technique self-sustaining? Or perhaps it is to emphasize containment." At the blank looks Sakura received, she tried to explain. "Look, Naruto's trying to mould an immense amount of chakra here. Normally, moulding a lot of chakra would take place within a large space. However, Jiraiya-sama is insisting that Naruto not pop this balloon. This means that he is supposed to contain his technique within the sphere."

"Oh," said Naruto, "I see. I need to make the Rasengan smaller than the balloon so it doesn't pop it."

Finally, the baka was learning! Sakura pushed aside smug thoughts that even though it was Naruto learning and using the technique, she was the one picking apart the reasons for each of the training exercises.

"Yeah, you might even need to counterbalance the rotation of the air in the balloon by creating an outer layer of chakra that cancels out the rotation caused by the inner layer. It's more likely that you just need to contain it within a layer of empty space between the Rasengan and the balloon. By compressing the technique, the effect will become more concentrated and a lot deadlier."

"This is a lot harder than any of the other steps, dattebayo…"

"Yeah," muttered Sasuke-kun as Sakura wondered if he would have been willing to endure the burns that Naruto was still nursing just to learn this ridiculously difficult technique. "You've only got two days left."

"I know."

"You'd best get practicing then," Riko-san insisted brightly. "Why don't all three of you go? I should be fine here. Your sensei is reading in the other room, so you've got nothing to worry about. Go beat the technique to death, huh?"

Sakura glanced at her suspiciously. Why did she want them gone so badly?

"More sleep, eh, Neechan?" Naruto snickered.

She rolled her eyes at him and shrugged. "I'm tired, okay? Just get ye gone already and leave me to my letter writing and my sleep."

* * *

As soon as they were gone, Nariko slipped out of her room and knocked on Hatake's door. "Hatake-san?"

"Hmm?"

Since there was no offer for her to come in to speak with him and she didn't really feel like asking, she leaned against the shut door and carefully phrased her question. She had no doubt that he was buried in his porn, so she didn't really mind that he kept her out.

"You were there when Naruto spouted his mouth off." She paused, waiting for him to confirm it. He grunted idly, not really listening to her or perhaps trying to create that illusion since disinterest was a standard shinobi tactic if what Naruto's books said was correct. "What were the exact terms of the bet?"

"Tsunade wagered her grandfather's necklace, your forgiveness, and her consideration of Sandaime-sama's proposal if Naruto managed to successfully complete the Rasengan technique. Naruto wagered his chance at becoming Hokage, his honour in his word, and the promise of his help in getting Tsunade out of debt."

Nariko mulled over the terms. "And those were the exact words used to describe the terms?"

"I believe her exact words were 'you can help me pay off those debt collectors.'"

She winced at how well he had read her intentions. "You were listening in on our strategy session." His silence only confirmed her guess. "Do you think he has a chance of actually winning this bet?"

There was a long pause. "Not really. Naruto has determination and help, but the clock isn't on his side. He doesn't have enough experience under his belt to do this just yet. His tutoring under Uchiha-san has put him in a good position, but his control still isn't quite good enough to do this and handle the amount of power he will need to for Tsunade to declare the technique complete."

"You sound like you know exactly what the jutsu is like. I thought that the Yondaime only taught it to his sensei."

He knew far more than he was letting on. That Minato comment Tsunade-sama had made had upset him and Jiraiya-sama. Hatake must have known Namikaze-sama. That in itself wasn't surprising: the man had been the Hokage; everyone must have known him. The problem was that Shizune had looked particularly nervous when the event had occurred. The woman had been nervous about both of their reactions. Hatake must have been a person with a connection to the Yondaime such that the mention of him would cause particular pain. Long, tense silence greeted her not so subtle prodding. Just when she was sure he had gone back to his reading to avoid her queries, a soft reply reached her ears.

"I've been taught Rasengan." Apparently, that was all he was going to say on the subject.

She pushed away from the door after murmuring her thanks and went back to her room. Sleep was hard to find since her mind was rife with speculation, but it claimed her eventually.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Putting Ten Coins on the Line

Kakashi was pulled out of his book by Sasuke and Sakura's return. The latter was grumbling under her breath about unappreciative blonde idiots that didn't know how to stop arguing with themselves even for one second to listen to someone who knew what she was talking about. Apparently, Naruto had steamrolled right over some of Sakura's well-meant advice. From the way Sasuke's door shut firmly behind him, it seemed that his prickliest student had returned to get some sleep. Matsuku-san was denied the same right when Sakura stalked into their shared room.

"What did he do this time?" he heard her ask.

"The usual," Sakura spat back as the door slammed shut behind her.

No further comments were made by either female, so it seemed that both of them had retreated into silence out of mutual agreement to stay out of each other's way. Sakura's noises soon ceased. Matsuku-san, on the other hand, stayed awake. He could hear her shifting papers every once in a while and the almost ceaseless scratch of her pen against paper. He retreated to his book, immersing himself back in Jiraiya's fantasy world where protagonists gained skills overnight, villains were truly evil and not simply pitted against the protagonists by circumstance, and women were easy in every sense.

Apparently, Jiraiya's understanding of reality was flawed because a couple hours after sunset Matsuku-san decided to be difficult. This place wasn't really a danger to her wellbeing in the strictest sense, but unfortunately, she was a woman in a strange village with no idea how to defend herself against the men spilling out of bars at this hour. If she got hurt, not only would he be in trouble with the Hokage, Naruto would roast him the moment he figured out how, and then Uchiha-san would get on his case about incompetence. He hated missions where he was assigned to people in his social circle: screwing up simply wasn't a viable option. When he heard her slip out of her room and head for the common room door, he grumbled expletives under his breath and stashed his book in his kunai pouch as he headed after her.

She spared him a single glance as she made to shut the door. He held his palm over the leading edge, preventing her motion. She stopped trying to slam the door in his face, leaving him behind to close the door. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he trailed after her. She paused in the street for a moment as he came to a halt to her left. Her eyes were narrowed with concentration.

"Left?" he asked her when she mimed pointing both directions in an unconscious illustration of her thoughts.

She glanced at him, almost startled seeming, before she shrugged and headed right. Her choice of direction confirmed his suspicions about her purpose. The right turn brought them to the edges of the tourist village in good time without coming across more than four minor bar fights. He hurried her past those.

She was noisier than he was in the forest, but that was to be expected. According to what he did know of her, she had no reason to be skilled at stealthy pursuits other than stalking birds. Stealth in the forest was different than stealth in the marshes.

When Naruto's chosen clearing appeared in front of them at last, he felt the return of her hostility towards him. He still didn't quite understand the cause of it, but since he could usually only feel it when Naruto was around to remind her of it, he figured it had something to do with his most rambunctious student. The only time she let it loose was when she was berating him about his literature and even then, it only flared into annoyance. Still, it was a little unnerving to be able to pick it up all the time from a person that was supposed to be accepting and good-natured.

He glanced around, noting the damage to the trees. One spot in particular intrigued him, so he stepped closer to run his fingertips over the gored trunk. The damage was deep, but it looked like it was the result of multiple hits rather that one super strike. Still, Naruto did seem to be getting the hang of things. Maybe another three weeks would have done it, but Naruto didn't have that sort of time. Maybe he would stick around tomorrow to watch and give Naruto pointers. Their mission would be infinitely easier if Naruto won the bet.

She closed the distance to Naruto when the sallow moonlight revealed that he was passed out on the grass. Kakashi wasn't worried; he could hear the kid breathing in his usual sleeping rhythm. Once she discovered this as well, she scooped up her brother with some difficulty.

He followed her, not sparing a glance at the presence lurking in the trees. He wondered what the female Sannin member saw that made her so pensive.

"Neechan?" Naruto said sleepily as they exited the woods.

"Hmm?"

"'M hungry."

Kakashi stifled a longsuffering sigh. Whiney kids were so irritating. Naruto had perfected the art over the years that Kakashi had dropped out of ANBU. The man fully regretted that he hadn't been around to put an end to this aggravating development.

"Can we get ramen?"

"No, not ramen. It's not Saturday."

"But, Neechan!"

"No. We're getting something else. I'm sick of ramen right now. How about teriyaki?"

"Want ramen!"

"No. Teriyaki it is."

"Stupid older sister with sadistic food habits…"

"Little brother with no common sense that had to be picked up and carried home like a baby by big sister…"

"You're mean."

"You're absentminded. You're going to eat teriyaki and you're going to like it if you don't want to pay for it."

Kakashi stifled an amused snort at this absurd display of sibling bickering. He had the feeling that this was going to take a while.

* * *

The next morning, Sasuke woke to find that Naruto's futon was folded up in a different way than it had been before. Grumbling obscenities under his breath, Sasuke clambered out of bed and bungled his way through his morning routine to find out just how Naruto had gotten back. The baka had insisted he would stay out all night to get the stupid power aspect down.

He found Riko-oneesan reading another one of her many letters in the common room and scribbling another paragraph on a lengthy reply. _How could she stand writing so much? Why didn't she just reassure them that she was alive and whatnot?_ He supposed it was because she never saw them in person. Still, this letter-writing thing was dangerous according to his mother. Kaasan had told him to be brief and as obscure as possible in any writings in order to avoid giving away information if the notes were intercepted.

"Naruto's already gone back to training," Riko said. "Sakura went after him a couple hours ago. I made her leave you alone. You looked tired. Your sensei went with her, so I guess you're stuck here with me until one of them comes back."

It took a lot of self-control not to hiss complaints at her.

She shot him a reproving look. "You've been foisting your guard duty off on Sakura for the past four days. While I don't mind always being left with her, I'm sure she doesn't like this unfair delegation of duty very much. It wasn't as if you were doing anything beneficial or interesting anyway. What would Ryuuka-chan think if she heard that her brother was too lazy and impatient to bother looking after the client on the mission?"

Now he glared at her. How dare she criticise him!

She didn't back down this time though. "You, to quote Naruto, were being an ass."

"What do you know?" He was irritated that she actually dared to attempt to put him in his place when she didn't know shit about how missions worked.

"I know what I see. You're abusing Sakura's affection. While I agree that infatuation is annoying and terrible to be on the receiving end of, it's hardly a good enough reason to be an ass. What would your mother think if she saw how you were acting?"

He resisted the urge to shift nervously. His mother would definitely be quite upset with him if she learned about how he had shirked his turn at guard duty. "You've survived in Konoha by yourself."

She grimaced at him and sighed. "Sasuke, right now I'm not the person you know in Konoha. I'm your client. I'm not the person that helped you through your math homework or those awful lecture notes. I'm not that Nariko. I'm the all-knowing yet oblivious client that has to be protected. You can't assume anything about me. You just have to do your job, just like I do when I help Naruto do his taxes or manage his money.

"When I do that, Naruto's not my brother; he's my client. I don't know him, and I can't assume anything about him. I can't fill out his tax forms in a certain way just because I feel that they should be that way because I'm his sister. As a client, he has goals of his own, and I have to help him achieve them as his accountant, not as his sister. It's the same thing."

He glowered down at his hands as he twisted a shuriken around and around. _Why did she always have to be right? _He hated how she managed to relate aspects of being a shinobi to her own life experiences. They should have been completely separate! She just worked with numbers while ninja did all sorts of important things, from saving countries to protecting caravans. "Who are you writing to?"

She blinked at his change of subject, but let it go. "My father. He was worried about how I didn't answer his six messages. Leaving him hanging any longer will upset his stomach."

"Is this all you're going to do all day?"

"No, I need to try to find Tsunade-sama. I need to talk to her."

"What about?"

She shook her head at him, indicating that she wouldn't say.

"When?"

"In a couple minutes. I'm almost done here. We'll leave as soon as I finish. Do you have any idea where she'd be?"

"No," he said, "I wasn't stalking her. I was following Kakashi."

"Well, I suppose that looking around won't hurt. Maybe Shizune-san will know." She went back to scrawling.

He didn't know why her characters didn't simply fall over with the first gust of breath over the page. They certainly looked rickety enough to succumb, yet another point of frailty about her. He couldn't understand how she had survived this long being as weak and spindly as she was. "Are you done yet?" he asked her five minutes later.

She shook her head. "Patience, spry hawk; I'm not a person that has need of being quick when writing to her family. No one wants to kill me yet."

"If you keep hanging out with us, that will change," he said, inspecting the edge of his shuriken, and pretended not to notice the way she froze and stared at him.

_Hadn't she known?_ Hanging around with ninja was dangerous; he had found that out the hard way. Did she think that just because she was an accountant that anyone intent on getting back at the moron would leave her alone? She was an obvious weakness in the idiot's defences. She was going to have to fix that if she didn't want to end up getting his friend in trouble.

Sometimes, her severe antiviolence stance aggravated the hell out of him simply because she acted all high and mighty about it, or she had. She had stopped that lately and had merely resorted to being mean to Kakashi, which he didn't mind all that much given how annoying the man was. She was adjusting her attitude, but she was going to have to hurry. If the moron kept getting C-rank missions, he was going to start making enemies that he would have to kill. Where would she be then? Of course, he had only thought about this so completely because his mother had grumbled about it a couple times. Riko's attitude must have really pissed his mother off because she usually didn't complain out loud.

"I guess," she said.

Huh, so Kaasan must have talked to her about it. Good. Riko-oneesan needed a kick in the ass every now and then. Of course, Sasuke completely disregarded the fact that she had returned the favour only a few minutes ago. Such a petty thing as vindictiveness didn't factor into the smug feeling haloing him, not at all.

"Yet?" He huffed after fifteen minutes of almost pleasant silence.

"Okay, okay!" She folded up her letter and walked away to stash it in her bag. "Now we can go."

"Finally!"

She slipped on her sandals and followed him out the door. He let her take the lead when he realized that he had no idea what room Tsunade and that Shizune woman were staying in. Smirking, she guided him down a couple corridors to a door that was the same as the ones around it save that it had the characters for twenty-three on the panel by the lock.

"Shizune-san?" she called as she knocked.

Sasuke detected muffled footsteps approaching, and the door slid open.

The Shizune woman looked quite relieved to see them. "I was just about to come and find you. I need help with this one set of numbers… I don't understand this interest described in your notes."

Riko shot him an apologetic look and slipped her shoes off to follow the woman over to the desk. Sasuke followed her, his eyes taking in every bit of the room. It was a similar setup to their own, save that it was smaller and only had two adjoining rooms.

The sight of the letters, now unsealed and partly open, grabbed his attention. The contents of those scrolls tugged at him. _What on earth would the Sandaime have said to convince a bitter old hag?_ Even Jiraiya hadn't been able to open them, though the man had never struck Sasuke as competent, perhaps because Naruto had successfully given the man away so many times while the pervert had been spying on the bathhouse during his infrequent visits to Konoha. The last time had been particularly funny because one of Mother's old ANBU friends had been there. The pervert had tossed his cookies at the sight of her.

Sasuke had only found out the cause after the fact. At the time, he, Naruto, and Kiba had been rather baffled by the man's violent reaction. According to Mother, Snake-san had not been amused. In retaliation, she had set up a swamp in Jiraiya's quarters and had fouled his notes for his next book with scummy water. Jiraiya had left town shortly afterwards. His mother had informed him that this was a good thing. If Jiraiya had stuck around, Snake-san would have probably have given Jiraiya a set of grotesque scars to match her own.

Those scrolls though… He glanced at Shizune and Riko, who were debating whether biweekly meant every two weeks or twice a week according to the terms of the loan. They were preoccupied enough that he should have been unnoticed.

This wasn't exactly the case.

No one had taken the time to inform him about the rank of Tsunade's apprentice. Sure, she was about Kakashi's age, but age didn't indicate skill. His mother had told him that there were forty-two-year-old genin still running around Konoha. He hadn't thought Shizune was one, but he hadn't thought about it in general.

He would _not_ be making that mistake again.

The senbon thudded into the table a hairsbreadth from his hand and quivered with thwarted momentum. Ninja reactions forced him into a wary crouch and made him turn to face his attacker. Shizune glared at him, her attack having gone undetected by Riko, who was still lecturing. The warning was clear in those dark eyes: hands off. Sasuke tested his mettle against what was visible in her eyes and was disturbed when he discovered that he was lacking. He saw an edge almost like that of his instructor's in her eyes.

He huffed and took a deliberate step away from the table and the scrolls, leaving her senbon untouched. He could see the gleam of some coating on the metallic surface—almost definitely a poison of some sort. Shizune nodded at his retreat and turned back to Riko's explanation as Sasuke fumed. Oh, he wasn't done, not by a long shot, but he knew better than to attempt to press on now when he didn't have any advantage. He was a ninja, not a blockhead.

The irony was not lost on him when Riko-oneesan also noticed the opened letters on her way to put her shoes back on. "Has Tsunade-sama read those?"

Sasuke was peeved when Shizune shook her head and shrugged.

"No, she hasn't. She's been putting it off every evening by drinking herself into a stupor. She goes out every day to avoid seeing them lying there, waiting for her." Shizune sighed. "While I am loyal to my master, I do hope that you succeed to convince her to return to Konoha at least. It's been a long time since I was last home."

"You could visit," Riko suggested as she tore her eyes away from the scrolls. Sasuke smirked at the curiosity that mirrored his own.

"I don't like leaving her on her own for so long," said Shizune, her dark eyes full of worry. "She puts too much of herself in the hands of chance and whims. I need to be here—"

"To keep her in check," Sasuke muttered, but the other two heard him anyway. Shizune looked offended at first, but her shoulders slumped and she nodded.

"We're looking for her, actually," Riko said. "I need to talk to her about the bet. There are certain rules and laws I think she forgot about before she made Naruto shake on it."

Though Sasuke remained confused, Shizune's face revealed comprehension and surprise. "You would do that?" She shook her head. "What am I saying? Of course, you would. Tsunade-sama says that you are his sister."

"And Sandaime-sama said that you might have been her niece if things had gone better."

Shizune froze and thinned her lips before nodding. "You might find her near where Naruto is training. She is feeling threatened and perhaps a bit tugged on by memories inspired by similarities."

Though Sasuke was left in the dark, Riko obviously understood, damn her superior information. "Thank you."

"What was that about?" Sasuke asked as they walked along the streets to the clearing where Naruto was being an idiot twenty times over.

"If you hadn't made Sakura watch over me so much, you might have picked it up already."

He glared at her, telling her to drop it.

She smiled apologetically, falling back into her good-hearted mien. "Tsunade-sama had a brother who was apparently a lot like Naruto. He died shortly after making genin. It's why we were sent; we make her remember and regret. Her brother wanted to be Hokage. We're being used as a method of persuasion."

Sasuke scowled. He had been sent out here to be flaunted in front of a drunkard. What a mission. "What about those laws you mentioned?"

"Minors are not allowed to gamble. The rest of Fire doesn't acknowledge the validity of the genin test being used as a rite of passage into adulthood, which only occurs legally at eighteen. Technically, the bet is illegal."

"What are you going to do?" he asked her, not liking the determined set of her face. It was a similar look to the one Naruto wore when about to do something stupid, honourable, and just. Riko-oneesan had been spending _way_ too much time around her brother.

"Something."

He didn't have a good feeling about this.

The clearing was as busy as he had ever seen it. Twenty clones of the idiot were all wandering about with balloons in their hands, wearing the most ridiculous expressions known to man: most looked constipated. Sakura was giggling like a loon, and Kakashi was ignoring the entire spectacle by burying his nose in his book. Sasuke suspected that appearances were deceiving in this case. His sensei was probably not reading, but instead using the book to further hide his laughter. The balloons weren't popping as often, so progress had been made since Sasuke and Sakura had abandoned him last night. Maybe this mission wasn't going to be a disgrace after all.

"Oi, Bastard!" shouted thirteen throats as the other seven spun to snicker at him. "What took you so long?"

"Shut up, Loser." He leaned against a tree near Kakashi while Riko started prowling the fringes of the clearing, looking for Tsunade. Sasuke spotted her at last and sidled up to Riko-oneesan. When she glanced down at him in response to his touch on her wrist, he glanced at her and then in the direction the kunoichi was hiding in. She wasn't hiding very well, but she didn't really need to, he supposed. "She's over there," he said when Riko wasn't quick enough to catch his meaning. Sometimes her lack of shinobi training really irritated him. She was so blind and slow compared to his mother.

"Thanks." She set a hand on his shoulder before slipping away. Sasuke watched his teacher note her departure before turning back to Naruto's antics.

"Disperse your clones and think it over," Kakashi suggested from behind his book. The Naruto that turned out to be the original stopped attempting to break his teeth and released Taijuu Kage Bunshin. He landed on his butt with a soft plop, looking rather woozy. Sasuke blinked at this reaction and glanced at his sensei. _Was this supposed to happen? _"Maa, nineteen clones seems to be a good number for you right now," the man said cheerfully. "Stick with that. What have you learned?"

"Not much," Naruto said as he wobbled to his feet. "I can't seem to get the rotation, power, and containment all at once!"

Fed up at how there was only a day and a couple hours of daylight left, Sasuke strode forward and punched the idiot in the shoulder. "Form what you did with the ball."

He was determined to make this work. When the chakra manifested in Naruto's palm in high enough concentrations to be visible to Sasuke's eyes, Sasuke extended his hands and attempted to catch the rhythm of the rotation so that he could force it into a smaller space. The moron had such a short attention span that it was no wonder he couldn't fit three things in his head at once. Naruto was frustrated and beginning to wonder if mastering this was even possible. Sasuke couldn't allow that, not if the mission was to succeed. The things he did for his reputation…

Unfortunately, while his idea was good, achieving it was not so easy. Rasengan was a ball of chaos, and Sasuke didn't know how to counter his little sister's temper tantrums, never mind chaos. His attempts to use his chakra to contain Naruto's unruly sphere of doom ended painfully. He couldn't sync up with Naruto's shape manipulation on the right level. The changes were too rapid and varied to wrap his mind around quickly enough to react. Naruto relied on him a bit too much and the whole thing spiralled out of control in a rather destructive manner. Both he and Naruto were sent flying back ten feet. Naruto landed in a heap, and Sasuke just managed to keep his feet as a vicious cyclone tugged at their clothes and whipped leaves around.

"Well, that worked well." Naruto got to his feet for the second time in three minutes.

"Learn to land on your feet before you mouth off to Sasuke." Sakura crabbily fixed her hair, which had suffered at the hands of the cyclone. He paid her back by mashing a handful of leaves and twigs into her hair. While Sakura reamed Naruto out, Sasuke tried to figure out why that hadn't worked.

"It was a good try," Kakashi said, "but it wasn't likely to work. Sasuke, you can't predict the movement of the chakra well enough without _being_ Naruto to be able to help him form the jutsu. Naruto needs to figure this out by himself. Sasuke, this technique isn't quite the sort of thing you'd like. It relies upon chaos and turbulence too much for it to be your kind of ninjutsu."

Sasuke huffed and crossed his arms, more irate than ever. Kakashi put away his book and set a hand on his head and Naruto's. Sasuke resisted the urge to bat the hand away for messing with his hair.

"You are different people and will use different techniques. Naruto, you will favour power and obvious techniques because that's your style. Sasuke, you like precision. Stick with that. Rasengan isn't precise in its most basic form."

Both of them huffed at their sensei's assessment and scowled.

"There's no point, Hatake-san," Riko said as she moved back into the clearing. "They know this. Telling them will only make them deny it."

"It will not!" Naruto pointed an accusing finger at his sister.

"Sasuke," she continued, doing a remarkable job of not bursting out laughing, "I'm done here. I'm going back to town. There are a couple things I need to do."

Sasuke resisted the urge to snarl at her for taking him away from all the action just when it was getting interesting. Instead, he huffed again and muttered a farewell to his team before setting off in her wake.

* * *

"Well, Shizune?" Tsunade asked as they sat around a table at yet another restaurant for lunch on the seventh day.

Nariko strove to conceal her nervousness. Naruto hadn't come back last night and when she had gone looking for him with Hatake-san again, he had still been at work and had refused to come back to the hotel. Trees had been in various stages of disaster from what she had managed to make out in the pale moonlight. What if one of those precarious accidents waiting to happen had fallen on her brother? The only thing keeping her from scrambling away from the table and going out there to check was the knowledge that if she left now, some horrible blunder might come of it. Her luck and her instincts hadn't been great lately. Tempting karma to throw her a curve ball for some prank she had pulled on Itsuki as a child was not a wise thing to do.

"Everything is in order, Tsunade-sama. All of the figures that Nariko-san has used are accurate." Nariko met Shizune's dark eyes and saw the tiniest glimmer of hope there. She nodded in response to the question. Shizune looked quite reassured. Hatake's suspicious glance at their actions caught her eye, but she kept her mouth shut. This wasn't any of his business.

"Hmm." Tsunade huffed before taking a swig from her dish of sake.

Jiraiya sighed before shoving another serving of soba into his mouth and resting his head on his hand.

Tsunade-sama ignored him and continued to delay. "Where's that brat? Today's the day we decide our bet. Did he run away?"

"He left to practice yesterday morning and didn't come back last night," Sasuke said as he pushed rice around his bowl. Nariko resisted the urge to laugh at how he was playing with his food in exactly the same manner Ryuuka-chan did and he scolded her something terrible about it. He was such a hypocrite. "He's still working."

Nariko's worst nightmare started with screams in the streets, screams that came closer and closer. Windows at the front of the restaurant shattered as kunai were lobbed through them. Those dining at tables near the windows were cut up by the flying glass and wailed about their injuries as they attempted to scramble to a safer position deeper in the restaurant. Screaming patrons ran from the smoke bombs and tried to escape the ninja with the strange musical note on their forehead protectors as they burst into the dining room from all directions: though the broken windows, through the door, from the ceiling, and from the kitchen where cooks were pleading for mercy. It happened so quickly that Nariko barely had time to freeze with fear.

All six ninja were on their feet, and Sakura and Sasuke pushed Nariko under the table. "Stay there," hissed Sasuke out of the corner of his mouth.

Four ninja assembled in front of them, leering. Some of them looked similar to the ones covering the exits… Clones maybe? "Look, boys," said one, "it looks like Konoha is trying to steal our target." He casually reached out and slammed the butt of his kunai into a patron trying to scramble away, leaving the man lying on the floor, bleeding from a split in his scalp.

Tsunade froze at the sight and then began trembling.

The Sound-nin laughed. "Look! Our target doesn't seem too fond of blood! Shall we give her some as a present?" His fellow ninja laughed with him. "Perhaps we'll let the boys waiting outside have a little fun with the civilians?"

Jiraiya and Kakashi started to move at the same instant, but Shizune beat them to it. A senbon struck the man's jugular, and he went down within seconds. One of his companions snarled and made a signal, which was followed by a huge explosion outside. The man repeated the handseal and another detonation rocked the town.

"Hand Tsunade over to us and we won't blow this place to bits," said another ninja easily. "We've got the entire place tagged and another group waiting for us. If we don't return with her in fifteen minutes, they'll blow this entire place to hell."


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Ten Wands to Stagger Under

Naruto was meditating (okay, maybe he wasn't meditating, but he would deny that he was catching up on sleep with his last breath) at the base of a tree quite a ways further into the forest than his training clearing was when he heard the ninja in the woods.

"_Hide, always hide. Ninja strike from the shadows, around corners, and obscure places whenever they can. Bellowing and charging is for idiots that get killed by the enemy they didn't see in their blind rush,"_ Mikoto had said and she had looked straight at him with creepily cold eyes that had forced him to remember.

He stilled and tried to suppress his chakra the way Kaka-sensei had taught them. He enhanced his senses with as little chakra as possible until he could hear what the ninja were discussing. It turned out they were waiting for their companions to return with some target that Naruto figured was Tsunade. The whole description of "blonde drunk with huge boobs" kind of gave it away. Evidently, these ninja had been hired by impatient creditors. Again, they weren't very subtle about it, talking about how the people that had commissioned them were gleefully calculating the interest owed to them.

Naruto became worried as they muttered among themselves about how long it had taken to place all those explosive tags around the village. Naruto, now skilled at putting two and two together and getting four almost every time, figured that they were holding the town hostage until Tsunade came with them. Not quite sure what to do, Naruto crept a little closer and hid in a tree where he could watch and wait. Attacking these guys might make them blow all of his people into goo.

He didn't have to wait long. Within ten minutes, a four-ninja squad came with Tsunade in tow and with a drugged looking Jiraiya, Sakura, Sasuke, Shizune, and a bleeding Kakashi slung over their shoulders. Riko was nowhere in sight. Terror froze Naruto for a moment. _What if the squad had killed her and left her behind?_

Convinced he had to do something, Naruto snuck closer. If they had killed his sister and hurt his team, he was going to blast them into a pulp! Kaka-sensei couldn't be bleeding! Ero-Sennin couldn't be drugged! Shizune couldn't be passed out like that, not when she had been so vehement last night when she had checked on him and considerately healed the welts on his palm. Sasuke was too much of a bastard to be downed by a simple dose of drugs, and Sakura was too much of a rabid fangirl to let that happen to her crush, never mind herself. No, this couldn't be right. The weird ninja didn't agree though because the muttering in the camp gained a victorious lilt.

"We've got her!" called the ninja carrying the limp Sasuke and Sakura. "She had some friends with her, so we had to take them out before we got her to come along without a fuss."

"That's all well and good so long as you can tell us the password."

The returning ninja laughed and continued walking forward without a care in the world until they were fifty feet away. "Fine, fine," grumbled the one carrying Kaka-sensei as he lowered his burden to the ground. "It's endgame."

"What? No, it's not! It's—"

The guard never got the chance to finish that sentence because the ninja shot forward and gave him a "nap tap," a hard knock to the chin that rendered the victim unconscious when properly done. Startled cries rang through the camp as the three other returning ninja dropped their burdens as well, and the henge on them dropped. "Kaka-sensei" exploded into smoke. A clone then. The impostors sprang forward to clash with the ninja in the camp at terrible speeds, showing no mercy.

Ah, that was so that they couldn't set off the explosives! Well, that made things a lot harder. They would have to be fast, and they were, but Naruto figured that numbers to keep people occupied was what was needed here. Fifty clones swarmed the camp and attempted to squish any free Sound ninja under a flood of bodies. The clones went for the hands first, preventing the use of seals as the impostors rushed through the camp, dealing out hard knocks to render their victims unconscious whenever possible instead of deathblows. Tsunade-baachan waded through the melee, knocking poor saps flying whenever they attempted to get close to her, shouting about teaching lessons and fools that didn't listen in class about the legends of their betters.

Naruto hopped into a tree to survey the pandemonium and froze. _Oh hell…_

One ninja had managed to evade getting caught up in the struggle around Tsunade and the third impostor, who turned out to be a Kakashi clone. He was struggling to evade the rapid hail of a Kakashi's kunai, who was keeping two other opponents occupied. Naruto's remaining intact clones had caught his horror and the closest ones were attempting to bog down the potential escapee's progress, but some of them got caught in the kunai crossfire. Swearing furiously, Naruto did the stupidest thing he had ever done in his life.

He jumped and howled like a maniac, trying to draw the man's attention so somebody could get a hit in.

The enemy ninja glanced up at him.

Hazel eyes met bright blue as Naruto strove to form the elusive completed form of Rasengan in his hand as he fell. Hazel eyes widened at the sight of the visible chakra gathering into a vortex in his palm, and the enemy ninja made moves to run and his fingers formed just what Naruto had been trying to prevent. Two clones managed to get through now that Kaka-sensei had noticed that killing Naruto's clones wasn't good for team spirit. Those clones nabbed the guy's arms before he could skedaddle, latching on in the same way that Naruto had latched onto Iruka-sensei's leg when he had been smaller. Naruto was very glad that shadow clones had mass. The combined weight of two Narutos tipped the man over onto his back just as gravity finished altering Naruto's path.

The blind terror in that man's eyes stopped Naruto's move to pummel the guy with Rasengan cold. Naruto had seen what Rasengan could do. What it would do to a human made him hesitate. Neechan hated it when he hurt people. Neechan always said that killing people was a horrible thing to do. But there wasn't any more time to think. Distances were closed, chakra was gathered, and an arm was in position. It was too late to regret.

Excessive force didn't even begin to describe what Naruto unleashed in his eagerness to apply his new knowledge.

The ninja screamed when the technique impacted with his chest and the nearby clones poofed out of existence. Naruto wasn't rocked by their deaths but was instead completely taken aback by how the enemy ninja continued to scream and bleed. This wasn't like taking Mizuki down at all. Mizuki had been royally pummelled with the taijutsu that he had taught Naruto in a faulty fashion. Taijutsu, Naruto had just discovered, wasn't quite like ninjutsu. If he had just punched the guy in the chest, the ninja would have been winded and perhaps would have had a couple broken ribs. Rasengan wasn't like a punch; it was like being hit with a drill/cannonball. It had torn through clothes, skin, and muscle and had shattered bone into cornmeal. This guy was going to die if left untreated.

Faced with this horrible prospect, Naruto did the only thing he could think of: he screamed for help. His yells mingled with the keening cries of the wounded man, but even their combined volume wasn't enough to drown out the sounds of battle around them. What was even more horrifying was that the injured man's cries trailed off and then cut off as he fell into unconsciousness. Naruto panicked. Every ninja rule about not showing emotion and about how it wasn't wise to show some enemies mercy fell right out of his head.

The noises around him petered out and only his wails were left. Ero-Sennin made the first move forward. "Gaki, get off him. Squishing him under your weight isn't going to help him live longer. Tsunade," Jiraiya called as he crouched down to inspect the wound, "it would be a good thing if this guy lived to tell the tale. Oto hasn't decided alliances yet."

They all glanced at the woman, who was staring at the blood as though she had never seen anything more terrible. She was almost wringing her hands and trembling and there was this very distant look in her eyes that made Naruto sure she wasn't looking at them at all, but at something very different.

"Tsunade!"

"She can heal him, right?" Naruto asked.

"She can heal him." Jiraiya tried to make Tsunade meet his eyes with the force of his stare. "She's the best medic-nin in the world. She just has to get over it and do it." Naruto could tell that the last phrases weren't for him, but were instead directed at the frozen Tsunade. They all stared at her, waiting for her to speak, to move, to do anything other than tremble.

Naruto was the first to crack with impatience and guilt. "Well, get to it, you old hag! Get in there and heal him!" When she didn't even glance his way, transfixed by the terrible wound, Naruto's patience snapped. Snarling, he marched up to her and repeated himself right in her face with his hands on his hips. When even this didn't get through her shell-shocked exterior, he prepared to slap sense into her. Kaka-sensei's hand prevented him. "Why isn't she doing anything? She can do it, so why doesn't she?"

His sensei didn't answer. _Very well. Shinobi Rule Seventeen then: a good shinobi must always exploit his enemy's weakness._

"Oi, baba!" His disrespect broke her out of her funk enough that she glared weakly down at him. "I _bet_ that you can't heal this guy! I bet you that necklace since I got Rasengan!" Naruto spat in his hand and held it out mockingly, daring her to seal the deal.

"You didn't get Rasengan. If you had, we wouldn't be making this bet. You would have drilled right through him. You have a long way to go before you're shinobi enough to even think about being Hokage. A real ninja wouldn't have hesitated. You're soft."

"You hypocrite!" He pointed an accusing finger at her and squinted menacingly. "You can't even look at blood without trembling!"

"Says the baby genin that screamed for help so his victim wouldn't die!" She sent him flying backwards by flicking her finger against his brow.

Hissing obscenities about the huge bruise forming on his forehead, Naruto scrambled to his feet to get right back in her face. "Do you want him to die then? Are you going to just stand there, hag, and let him die when you can do something?"

"You're the one who hurt him. You fix him."

"I don't know how to!" He slipped by Kakashi's attempt to hold him back so he could get back in front of her. "These guys were here to get you! This is _your_ fault! They were going to blow up the town. That guy formed the handseal the moment he was clear because you don't know how to count ryou. They were sent to get _you_."

"Shut up!"

"No! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here! If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have learned Rasengan and I wouldn't have hurt this guy. I don't know how to make him better, but _you_ do. I'm doing the best I can by trying to make you help him. I try to fix my mistakes, not like you! You're supposed to be old enough to know better."

"You're supposed to be a genin. You're a ninja now. If he's your first victim, you should be proud. You protected Fire Country's citizens by nearly killing him as you did. You did this _and_ came through unscathed, unlike many of your betters."

"I'm supposed to protect _people_, not just Fire Country people."

She stared at him, taken aback.

"I promised to protect people. I always keep my word." He formed the seal for Kage Bunshin. Three clones ran towards town. "If you won't do it, I'll get Shizune. She'd make a way better Hokage than you would. She actually _does_ things."

He matched her glare for glare, ignoring her grief and pain because they were old and looked like they were being used as an excuse for being the way she was. He had never made excuses when people had hated him and abandoned him to his solitude. He had kept going. If this old hag couldn't even do that when she was supposed to be a legendary ninja, then she wasn't worth it. Breaking away from her gaze deliberately, he ran past her and attempted to help Ero-Sennin slow the bleeding by cautiously applying pressure despite the squishy feeling ribs. Blood continued to dribble out between his fingers and run over the man's sides.

Behind him, he could hear Kaka-sensei working his way around the clearing, hogtying the enemy ninja. Jiraiya retrieved bandages from the small pile of supplies that Kakashi had pulled from his various pockets and pouches while Naruto had been arguing with Tsunade. Even Naruto knew that these bandages wouldn't do any good though. This guy was done for unless one of his clones got back with Shizune soon.

He was rocked when one dispersed itself and shoved images of buildings made rubble and the panicking crowds into his head. Apparently, some tags had done their job despite their best efforts. This guy had detonated some before his clones had grabbed his arms then. Guilt for being too late made Naruto grit his teeth and pound one fist into the ground. He was now torn between wanting this bastard to die for hurting so many people and wanting him to live so that Naruto wouldn't have to live with knowing he had screwed up and had only accomplished overkill.

"Move," a terse and quavering voice ordered him before he was shoved aside.

Spitting out dirt, Naruto spun and gaped at the green glow that surrounded Tsunade's shaky hand. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was pale, but she was doing something. He couldn't believe it.

"'To stand by the side of the way/ I, of the world, am yet not part of it/ For, wordily, some worldly say/ That World, yet living the now, wants not spit/ but the step,'" she muttered under her breath.

"He sent you _poetry_ of all things?" Ero-Sennin asked.

"Among other things," she grunted, screwing up her eyes as the exposed skin smoothed into an undamaged whole.

* * *

Nariko sat miserably, watching gouts of flame through the billowing smoke and trying to steel her nerves to the sounds of screams. Crouching beside her in the tree, Sakura was stiff with horror. Sasuke was equally distraught, but he was bottling it up, as usual. None of them knew if this meant that Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Hatake had failed.

"I hope Shizune-san wasn't in there," Sakura whispered as shouts clamoured and the flames died under the assault of emergency crews, though the black smoke grew thicker. "And I hope…"

Sasuke shot to his feet, his face pale. "Sakura, stay here. I'll go scout. Keep Riko out until we're sure the tags aren't going to be set off, like Kakashi said." He was out of the tree and disappearing into the woods before Sakura could begin to scold him for abandoning them.

If there was ever something Nariko truly _hated_, it was waiting. Impatient, impulsive people weren't good at it as a rule. Apparently, Sakura felt the same way: she began fiddling with her hem, first idly and then with more and more anxiety.

"I bet Shizune-san is busy tending the injured." Sakura's envy for Tsunade-sama's apprentice was clear. "She doesn't have to sit around being useless."

Nariko kept her mouth shut since she supposed that guarding her in the middle of this crisis was useless despite how that stung. However little she liked it, the jounin doing violence upon the aggressors were much more useful in the scheme of things since the entire village had yet to blow up.

When Sasuke finally reappeared, he didn't look as carefree as they had hoped he would. "They got them with only one slip-up."

"Did you see any sign of Naruto?" She wasn't reassured by how he avoided meeting her eyes.

"Yes, he's fine. Kakashi has him assisting crews searching out and destroying the exploding tags with clones."

"And what about Kaka-sensei and the rest? What did he say we're supposed to do?" asked Sakura.

"He's also helping. His orders won't change until the crews finish in the village. We're to keep Riko out of the way of danger despite any inclination on her part to help. Shizune is busy treating the wounded. Jiraiya and Tsunade are getting sake."

"Sake now?" Nariko sputtered, furious that Hatake understood her well enough to prevent her from acting according to clan policy and that those who were free to help didn't.

"Apparently she doesn't like blood." Sasuke didn't elaborate on that statement. He didn't need to. "Also… Naruto lost the bet."

Nariko stared at him. Oh, she had been told that this was the likely end, but such was her faith in Naruto that she hadn't really believed it.

"He managed to do it once before his time ran out. It wasn't quite good enough."

"Oh," she breathed.

* * *

Naruto formed the slightly faulty Rasengan and slammed it into the tree again.

His failure despite all of his efforts and all of the help he had received was a bitter pill to swallow. He couldn't accept it. He would make Rasengan work despite his new reservations about it. He had to conquer Rasengan, just like he had to conquer the guilt from what he had done this afternoon.

A ninja was supposed to protect people. He had hurt people both times by hesitating. If he hadn't hesitated, that Oto ninja wouldn't have been able to make those tags explode. If he hadn't hesitated and tried to use Rasengan, he could have just knocked the guy out like everyone else had been doing.

"Maa, Naruto, I don't think the tree deserves that."

Naruto spun and stared at his porn reading teacher, who had somehow managed to sneak up behind him _again_. That was the last straw. Snarling, Naruto created a clone and formed the vortex in his hand again with the clone's help, Sasuke's earlier attempt having inspired him, pouring his all into it and slamming it right through the tree as easily as a knife cut through water. With a creaking groan, the tree toppled over, branches snapping as it collapsed on the ground.

"Why does it hurt, Sensei?" he asked, clenching his chakra-burnt hand to his chest as his clone stared at the damage they had done, looking lost as well. "Fuu-sensei says it's not supposed to hurt if you think about it the right way."

"It's because you care too much." His sensei was explaining things. For some reason, instead of being ticked off by the implied insult to his intelligence, Naruto was grateful. "Your sister trained you to care about people too much, about _everyone_, not just the people you want to matter. She can't hurt people because she cares and feels it too. You can't do that though, not as a ninja. You can't be like her."

Naruto blinked at him, not quite sure he understood. _Wasn't everyone supposed to care about other people? Did Kakashi mean that he wasn't supposed to care about his enemies at all?_

When he voiced that question, Kakashi nodded. "It's in the rules."

"Neechan never said anything like that though," he said, trying to make his sister's policy less incriminating in the eyes of the ninja code. "She says that other people's opinions don't matter all the time!"

"She doesn't let you hurt them though, does she? Even those pranks were kept harmless because of her."

Kaka-sensei did have a point… _Whom was he supposed to listen to though?_ Neechan was the one that had always been there, but Kakashi was his sensei. Torn between the two voices of reason, he and the clone formed another Rasengan and slammed it through the tree again.

"I think you've got that down. Look at the underside of the trunk."

Naruto stared at the radiating spiral ruts in the ground beneath the downed tree. Splinters were mixed in with the grass. He got down on his knees and peered at the underside of the propped up trunk, and his eyes widened at the huge blast that had been carved out of the wood. While the damage looked puny when he had connected Rasengan to the surface, it steadily radiated into a greater and greater spread as it penetrated and had exploded outwards on the other side.

"That's what Rasengan is supposed to look like."

"I don't want to promise that I won't become Hokage," he managed to get past the lump in his throat. That had been his dream for longer than he could remember. To have that taken away…

"You don't have to," Tsunade said, appearing out of the twilight at the edge of his new clearing. "It's been seen to already. Your sister already swore."

"What do you mean Neechan swore?"

Tsunade looked a little aggrieved. "Our bet was illegal. Matsuku-san agreed not to invalidate the entire thing by taking your place. She can never become Hokage now."

Naruto stared at her, dumbstruck, for several moments before he burst out laughing. Tsunade scowled as mirth overcame his balance and he rolled on the grass, clutching his poor stomach. The thought of Neechan in Old Man's place just made it harder to stop. Suddenly, something very horrible occurred to him. "Now you'll never forgive her though!"

"Forgiveness has to be _earned_, _not_ won with a bet! The Hokage title also is something to be earned."

He blinked at her, wondering what the heck she was talking about when suddenly something was hung around his neck. He grabbed at it and was shocked when his fingers encountered the waxed cord of the Shodaime's necklace and when the cold metal and chilly crystal touched his skin.

"Only ice is completely uncaring. Don't freeze." With that, she walked back towards the town.

"Wait a sec!" he hollered, chasing after her once he had managed to get to his feet. "What about my mission? Are you coming with us tomorrow?"

She merely cackled and disappeared.

* * *

Two shadows evaluated the lay of the land from the roof of a building near the road to the northwest, the road that eventually joined up with the trade road to Konoha. Fog hovered over the dewy ground, still thick in the absence of the sun. The light of the coming dawn was too weak to make it through the heavy clouds masking the sky and the fading stars.

"It'll be overcast for the next two days if the horizon is any indication."

"Hmm."

"I'll leave you guys at the shrine. I've got to get back to work."

"How's that going?"

"Not so good. There's something big coming, but I haven't been able to get many details yet. I'm close though. I've got to make sure that I'm on time to a meeting with a contact that might have something good for me. I'll tell you if something you should know about comes up."

"So it's about him?"

"Maybe or maybe the other one. Just who is involved and how isn't clear yet. It doesn't look good though. Keep an eye out."

"Hmm." That phrase sounded almost indignant this time. The other speaker chuckled before they both disappeared back into the heart of town.

* * *

The journey home was much like any other journey she had made in the four decades she had been a ninja and yet very different. For one thing, the travelling companions left much to be desired. The conniving pervert left her to the mercies of the younger generations only a day out of town. She was torn between resentment at his hasty abandonment after he had pushed and prodded at her to make this journey and glee at finally getting away from his lewd gaze. Sure, she had gotten past how uncomfortable his glazed eyes made her shortly after her breasts had finally come in, but it was nice to no longer have to restrain herself from meting out a proper beating.

The bitch was the least annoying of the party. The woman minded her own business and focused on keeping her bratty brother in line whenever she wasn't talking with Shizune or taking in the roadside. The Kakashi kid she remembered had sprouted into a beanpole of a man with an unhealthy interest in adult literature. He talked more than she remembered, was more sarcastic, and was obviously not enjoying the steep learning curve he was being forced through on how to deal with three bratty ninja wannabes. His hidden aggravation with his students always made her laugh. She hoped that he never had children if training preteens was taking so much out of him.

Said students were the most aggravating part of the journey by far. The Sakura girl was usually well-mannered, but the fox brat seemed to bring out the worst in her. After Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke ranked least annoying simply because he didn't say much unless he was arguing with the brat. His arrogance was stifling though. Uchiha pride had to be a genetic trait as essential as the Sharingan to clan members. Naruto was just aggravating in general.

One thing that struck Tsunade was how much happier her apprentice became. By the morning of the third day, Shizune was almost skipping. She commented excitedly to whoever she was talking with (usually Nariko) about how the foliage around Konoha was so distinctive, how the average color tone of the earth gave away how close they were, and how the taste of the surface water was so familiar. It was amusing at first and quickly got a little annoying, but Tsunade let it pass.

Shizune had only been a girl when Tsunade had abruptly taken on the role of Dan's niece's guardian and had hauled her on a long journey far away from all she had ever known. Her apprentice was lucky she had been able to advance in the exams and evaluations to jounin as she had. Managing to attend the tests had been a hectic whirlwind of arrangements and travelling. Still, the look on Shizune's face upon reaching chuunin and then jounin had been well worth the trouble. Shizune's joy was understandable and somehow it made Tsunade's more painful memories ache a little less when the gates did appear before them at last.

Despite the brat's insistence that the first thing they had to do was go show off the success of their mission to the Hokage, Tsunade did no such thing. The Sakura girl scolded the brat about his rudeness the moment Nariko disappeared to unpack, and Tsunade took the opportunity to vanish. Shizune's presence would be proof enough that she had returned for the time being. Instead, she walked through the familiar yet unfamiliar streets towards the plot of land that had been set aside long ago by her grandfather as the cemetery for Konoha's fallen.

Row upon row, the stone markers interrupted the carpet of spring grass. She walked unerringly to the first plot that she had overseen and crouched down beside the cold granite, tracing the engravings with a finger.

"Hey, Otouto, it's been a long time…"


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: the Trials of the Queen of Pentacles

Going back to chasing cats and cleaning up garbage and ruined training grounds was worse than anything Naruto had thought possible. He had achieved an A-rank technique (something that Mikoto-obachan had yet to forgive him for), and yet he was still stuck with D-rank missions. It sucked that his super cool new technique wasn't very useful in his current missions. What good was being able to drill holes in the ground when you were picking up garbage or weeding gardens? Even water walking, which Kaka-sensei had promised to show them this afternoon, sounded more useful. At least it had the potential for helping when cleaning the garbage out of the ponds in Konoha's parks.

What also sucked was the way that Neechan always watched him now as if he was going to drop dead at any minute. After receiving the necklace from Tsunade-baachan, he had gotten in the habit of wearing it everywhere. He saw it as a symbol of good luck and of how his dream of Hokage was feasible. Neechan didn't see it quite the same way. She always stared at it as though it was an exploding tag showing signs of going off. He had taken to tucking it under his shirt.

He shook off his thoughts as he chased after Sakura and Sasuke, who had outstripped him when he had unconsciously stopped to stare at the monument.

His best friend rolled his eyes at him and huffed when he caught up. "Head in the clouds again, Loser?"

Naruto scowled, but his attempt to trip Sasuke as payback ended with him on his hands and knees.

"There's no need to bow quite that low. That much borders on grovelling in the face of my superiority."

Naruto snarled as he got to his feet. "You wish, Bastard! Someday I'm going to grind that stick up your ass into splinters with Rasengan!"

"That's only if you don't trip on the approach, Loser."

Naruto ignored Sakura's unconcealed giggles and took a swing at the bastard. Sasuke ducked under the punch easily and swung around to attempt to land a kick on Naruto's gut. Only extreme twisting and back-stepping kept that from connecting, but Naruto had no luck.

_Splash!_

"And that would be why we're learning water walking today," Kaka-sensei announced from the other side of the river. "Naruto, it would pay to be aware of your surroundings in future. You missed the bridge by four metres."

Sakura's giggles morphed into full-blown laughter as Sasuke snorted down at Naruto, who was frog-kicking and dogpaddling his way to shore, red with embarrassment and his hair plastered to his head. Upon reaching the riverbank, he shook like a dog, sending his forehead protector flying into the handrail of the bridge and back into the stream. Naruto stared after it with horror written all over his face. Sakura collapsed into giggles again, the rail keeping her upright; Kaka-sensei looked supremely unimpressed and rather disinterested, as usual.

Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes. "You'd better be good at diving, idiot."

"But…!"

Before Naruto could finish his protests, there was a smaller splash. All three genin turned towards Kaka-sensei, who was standing on the railing with one hand holding his book in front of his face and the other tugging on a steel wire. With a flick of Sensei's wrist, Naruto's kunai-pierced forehead protector reappeared from the depths of the river and caught by their teacher.

"Maa, we don't really have time for fishing." He regretfully tucked his book away and set kunai and wire to rights as Naruto raced forwards to receive his forehead protector, but Kakashi held it out of reach.

"Hey! Give it back! Iruka-sensei gave me that! It was his before it was mine. It's special."

"Special, hmm? Well, we'll see just how special in a moment."

Before Naruto could lunge at his teacher, the man lightly dropped off the bridge and stood effortlessly on the slow moving river. Sakura stopped laughing abruptly and Sasuke lost his bored look. Even Naruto put a hold on protesting to eagerly take in the spectacle.

"Water surface walking is rather like the leaf exercise taught in the Academy and the tree climbing technique Uchiha-san taught you. It is another test of chakra control. Instead of creating an attraction between you and the leaf or the tree in order to stick to the surface, water requires something different." They watched him with hungry expressions on their faces, waiting for more instruction, but he eye-smiled. "Get going."

"But—" Naruto gobbled.

"What about—" Sakura whined.

Sasuke huffed, too used to their sensei's evasion to bother protesting.

"Not tough enough?" Their sensei ran right over their protests. "Well, I suppose I could make it more of a challenge. If you can't walk out to me from the bridge before I finish this chapter, you'll all have to go fishing for Naruto's forehead protector since teams share punishment. For you to succeed, you _all_ have to make it to me. Is that hard enough to be worth your while?"

Naruto and Sakura started sputtering, but the bastard took it the wrong way. "All right, harder still. Hmm, I'll be over there then," he said, pointing downriver as he ambled away, increasing the distance from the bridge by forty metres before he stopped. "You all can start from there just to make it more challenging. No need to walk on the shore to a nearer point or use trees to close the distance."

This time, Naruto and Sakura kept their horror silent. Tension mounted as Kaka-sensei pulled his book out of his kunai pouch and flipped it open. He flipped through from his bookmark and put his finger between the pages to mark the end of the chapter. The number of pages resting over his finger was depressingly small.

Naruto scrambled back to Sasuke and Sakura's end of the bridge and tripped down the bank to the river. Sasuke appeared at his side, his expression wary and his motions full of caution while Naruto barrelled his way into the shallows near the bank.

"Wait, idiot!" Sakura said as Naruto plunged his foot through the surface of the river. She hauled him back onto the bank. "Do you want to dunk yourself again?"

He shook his dripping head.

"Do you even know what to do?" she asked as she let him go.

"No," he said, "but I wasn't going to lose by standing around here!"

"Swimming doesn't earn you points, Moron."

"Shut up, Bastard!"

"Quiet!" Both Naruto and Sasuke crossed their arms and huffed at their female teammate's presumption. "Now, Kaka-sensei said it wasn't quite like tree walking or the leaf exercise."

"It's obvious." Even Sakura looked a little miffed at Sasuke's knowing tone. He held them in suspense for several precious seconds, the equivalent of a couple columns of text by Naruto's reckoning. "For those exercises, you're sticking to the tree or sticking the leaf to your forehead. Water won't stick. A ninja must repel the surface."

Understanding blossomed on Sakura's face. "Oh, I see. We need to push ourselves off the surface of the water, increasing surface tension until the water is able to bear our weight. So instead of creating chakra that acts as glue, we have to mould chakra in a steady stream that stiffens the water under our feet."

Naruto stared at her, his vague understanding of her explanation making him nervous. Chakra control of this type really wasn't his thing…

"It's like ice, Naruto," Sakura said, spotting the worry all over his face. "You need to make the water stiff like ice under your feet, so you can push yourself off the surface to walk."

Setting her jaw, Sakura cautiously extended one sandaled foot to the river's surface. Naruto watched, fascinated, as her sandal bobbed just above and just below the delicate surface, ripples radiating out from the disturbance only to collide with the wavelets created by the light breeze and the various other disturbances the river water encountered on its way.

To his left, Sasuke also extended his foot as his right hand assumed the one-handed version of the tora seal to aid his concentration. Naruto watched carefully at the water formed a hollow under Sasuke's sandal, only to flatten back out when his friend opened his eyes and scowled at his imperfect technique. When Naruto glanced back at Sakura, she was already setting more and more weight on her foot, her eyes narrowed with strain. Her sandal was still bobbing, but she was nearly balancing all of her weight on it.

Confidence flooding him at the sight of his teammates' success, Naruto extended his foot as well, focused on _repelling_ himself off the surface of the water and stiffening it at the same time. It was strange and difficult, but he didn't dare to put too much weight on his foot until he felt the water reject his sandal.

When he squished and squelched his way into the living room three hours later, clutching his forehead protector, he could honestly say that he had improved.

* * *

"The longer she keeps me in this limbo, the smaller my bank account gets," Naruto overheard his sister hiss at the eggs she was frying in the pan.

He rolled her eyes at her back and went back to buttering toast. As far as he was concerned, Neechan could keep waiting for Tsunade-baachan to make up her mind about how she was going to get out of debt without becoming Hokage. The longer this went on, the more money his sister had to divert from her own bank account to keep within the terms of payment for the bet. Once Tsunade picked a path, Neechan would be free to divert a lot of the flow back to her own resources. He was happy about the delay because the less money Neechan had, the less likely it was that she would be able to simply pack up and leave.

Unfortunately, his sister also realized this and it made her nervous, which of course made her crabby whenever it was brought to attention again. Her imminent meeting with the Hokage and Tsunade in regards to her connection to the project and the possible termination of her contract had shoved the situation back in her face.

"You'd better get a mission today," she said as she set an egg before him.

"Yeah, I hope so too." He forked the slightly runny yolk into his mouth alongside a huge bite of toast, ignoring her grossed out look. "It's been pretty boring lately. D-rank is okay, but they're so…"

"Swallow." She went back to cutting her own egg up with the side of her fork and stealing one of his pieces of toast. "You need to get a mission not just because you're bored. We're gonna need cash for groceries next month if my contract is cut. Five of my regular clients were handed over to one of my coworkers while I was finishing with Tsunade's papers. Until I get them back"—he heard the unspoken "if I get them back"—"I don't have much to do and my paycheque is going to be almost halved. I'll have enough to cover rent and utilities and some food, but not all of it. Money's going to be tight until Tsunade stops leeching away our funds. That means no ramen."

"What?"

"No ramen, Naruto. No extra meals for me either. Things are tight right now. That means no luxuries and severe budgeting."

"But—!"

"No," she growled, turning away from the economics section of the newspaper to stare him in the eye. "You gambled. I got you out of it, but we're still going to have to live with the effects. Tsunade was only willing to make the trade because she knew that I had more money. You want to be Hokage. I made sacrifices to make sure that that was still allowed to happen. This is the least you can do for me right now, okay?"

He stared back at her, wide-eyed. He hadn't thought of this when he had lost. Money had never been something he had really had to worry about. Neechan had always been more than willing to pay for things within reason.

"We were comfortable before. We're teetering now until Tsunade releases her stranglehold on me. We're lucky she's allowing me to keep just barely enough to live on. I'm going to keep your savings intact for as long as possible, but any new money you make is fair game in keeping us out of the hole, unfortunately. All of mine is hers and what is hers actually belongs to many angry creditors. My family can't send me money to keep us out of danger either…" He blinked when a strange look crossed her face. It almost looked like defiant shame and maybe… guilt? "I don't want them to know anyway."

"Why?" he asked, worry tying knots of his guts. She never hid things from her family as far as he knew. Her letters were so long that there was no way she ever forgot anything.

"We're having a bit of a fight right now. They're worried that I've broken some clan law."

"Did you?"

She shrugged, turning back to her newspaper.

He narrowed his eyes. "Hey, did you or didn't you?"

"I don't know."

"Are you going to go to jail or something?"

"No, it's a clan law, not a Fire Country law. I won't go to jail."

"Then what will happen if you did break the law?"

"I don't know," she told him again, looking rather lost. "Don't worry about it. What you need to worry about is getting ready for meeting with the Hokage. The last time you were late you came home with a goose egg on your skull. Do you want Sakura to belt you again?" That got his mind off all of his other problems very quickly. Tsunade-baachan had inspired Sakura to become much more powerful. "Why do you put up with her?"

"What do you mean?"

"You never fight back against her like you did against everyone else. Are you waiting for things to meet some critical mass so you can hit her with everything you've got, or is there something I don't know about?"

"Sakura's my teammate…"

"That doesn't give her the right to beat you into her image. By letting her carry on, you're giving her the impression that it's okay. It's _not_ okay. Not with me. If she keeps up, I am going to yell at her instead of just glare. Sure, she hits you when you're being stupid, but using words—"

"Shinobi speak with action." Neechan's scowl told him to stay away from that topic. It had been stupid to bring it up anyway. Neechan didn't accept ninja rules as applicable to interaction in society, even if she didn't say so openly. Naruto had the feeling that even Old Man wouldn't have been able to stop Kaka-sensei from giving her a dressing down if she had been that openly opposed to the code he held dear. "You don't mind that Sasuke beats on me." He didn't press that point; they both knew that Sasuke's punches were his way of showing affection. "I don't hit girls…"

"I'm not asking you to. Just don't let her walk all over you, no matter how pretty she is. The pretty kunoichi is the one that gets near enough to her targets to kill them according to Mikoto. She's a ninja too."

Naruto left fifteen minutes after his sister and headed to the mission office. The Sandaime was there for a bit before his meeting, bracing himself for a fierce session by meeting with compliant ninja. He had forgotten to reckon Naruto into his equation. "Come on, Old Man!" he whined with all his might. Neechan was counting on him. Hell, _ramen_ was counting on him. "The last C-rank mission didn't go too badly! Give us another one; I'm sure we can handle it."

"You're sure, hmm?" the old man creaked with a menacing look on his face. Naruto couldn't say he was surprised when Sakura "discretely" stepped on his foot.

"Forgive him, Hokage-sama." She reverted to her usual spiel about how sorry she was for his actions and about how it wouldn't happen again, but Old Man interrupted her by holding up a hand while Iruka-sensei hid his face in his palms. Naruto couldn't decide if his favourite teacher was laughing or trying not to cry. Either way, it sure looked like Iruka-sensei would be glad to go back to his classroom full of screaming kids tomorrow and let Yutaka-sensei assist the Hokage assign missions.

"Hey!" A soused looking old man appeared from the next room with a bottle in hand. "Are you just going to keep us in here or are you actually going to take our money and let us get on our way?"

"Yeah!" slurred the browned, reedy man that followed the bespectacled man out. "Let's be on our way already! That bas… I mean, that bridge won't wait forever!" He looked down his long nose at Team 7, who studied him in turn with about an equal amount of distaste, some more obviously than others. "You got a problem, Blondie? And you, Darkie, you constipated or something?"

"Or something," Kakashi interjected smoothly, looking as half-asleep as ever as he pulled attention away from Naruto and Sasuke's seething. "I am sure that Hokage-sama is merely waiting for the right team to come along before speeding you on your way. He'd hardly want to delay you more than necessary."

Naruto was astonished by how … smooth that had sounded. Kaka-sensei had just pulled off a move worthy of Hiroji! _Wasn't Kaka-sensei supposed to be snarky and lazy and not worried about pissing people off?_

"Just so," the Hokage agreed.

His favourite sensei's warning look kept Naruto from reaming out these pigs. Iruka-sensei was pretty dang scary when he got really angry, and Naruto really needed a good mission. Since Iruka was helping today, it wasn't the best time to piss him off.

The Hokage sent a calculating glance their way. "You are in luck, Tazuna-san, Keji-san. This is just the team I had in mind for your commission. Uzumaki-kun was just telling me how much he was hoping for a mission just like yours."

Only Sakura's very ready fist near his kidneys kept Naruto from complaining at a decibel only known to howler monkeys. Instead, he blurred all of his protests into one longwinded hiss that would have made the kettle at home proud. No ramen, angry relatives, and now this!

"Them? You want those brats to accompany us?" Tazuna-san said with excessive volume, pointing at them with a wobbly finger.

Incensed as he was, Naruto didn't bother to hide the fact that he was covering his poor nose. _Ugh, could anyone smell more of piss and bad alcohol? He was poisoning the air! How could Old Man stand it?_

"You've got to be kidding! Those brats don't look old enough to know what a toilet is for, never mind taking on highway bandits. I'm not changing diapers on the road!"

"Let me assure you that Team 7 is perfectly qualified to handle this C-rank mission. They've already seen combat and handled it very well. Hatake Kakashi is a very accomplished jounin and well able to direct his team. You and Keji-san will be in good hands on your journey." The Hokage smiled benignly as he crossed an item off the scroll marked C-rank in from of him despite loud protests from Tazuna and Keji. "I'm sure Team 7 will make this mission a success. After all, Team 5 just completed their third C-rank mission and departed on their forth yesterday."

That got Team 7's attention right away.

"We leave tomorrow, right?" Kakashi-sensei asked, sounding almost choked up for some reason Naruto didn't want to think about. There was an equally amused look on the Hokage's face as he handed over the mission scroll with a slow nod. Iruka-sensei had the gall to snicker into his hand, but Naruto had far too much dignity to call him on it. No, he had his eyes on the prize: beating Team 5's record.

Sakura obviously had a similar goal in mind because she headed off only moments after their sensei departed with a lazy wave over his shoulder and promises to meet their clients at the gate at nine the next morning. She muttered something about the library and bridges as she went, but he and Sasuke didn't pay her much heed: Naruto because he was bemoaning his new poverty and Sasuke because he was making a valiant attempt to block out his friend's ranting.

They worked out their nervous energy by beating the pulp out of each other with taijutsu at their usual training ground. When they ached all over and nursed various injuries, they headed for Sasuke's place. Mikoto was unlikely to freak out the way his sister would if she saw them in this state. Besides, Mikoto-obachan always had bandages on hand. The problem was that the house was deserted when they got there. Their irate calls echoed through the dim rooms as they tripped over the toys that Ryuuka had left lying around.

Left without adult guidance, they patched themselves up as best as they knew how with the supplies in the medicine cabinet, staunching the flow of blood from cuts with gauze, applying salves, and bandaging up said cuts before grimacing over their bruises, which would have to erase themselves from what Mikoto had told them over the years. Sasuke muttered veiled threats about teaching his sister a lesson about proper cleanliness as they navigated their way back to the front door to continue the search outside.

"Where to?" asked Naruto, rubbing at the bruise forming on his upper arm.

Sasuke glared into the distance before heading deeper into the Uchiha compound. Naruto grumbled obscenities at the bastard's back for his very enlightening answer. When they arrived before the door that Sasuke had chosen to search behind next, Naruto grimaced. He liked Akio the least of the old survivors, or the old wrinkly bastards as he liked to call them to annoy Sasuke.

Akio was a pickle and twice as sour when Mikoto-obachan wasn't around. He knew his stuff though: Sasuke had let slip a little about the lessons that he had imparted to him over the years. Naruto suspected that Uchiha secrets weren't the only things that Akio had passed on though: sarcasm and acidic wit seemed to be something else he had bequeathed upon his protégé. Naruto wasn't about to thank Akio for that either. Sasuke had always used Naruto as a target of his growing "witty" talents.

"Ah, Sasuke-kun and Blonde-kun," Akio grinned when he opened the door in response to their knocking, "you've come for Ryuuka-chan then? I'll just go grab her. She's playing in the garden with Isao."

Sasuke and Naruto loitered in the foyer until Akio got back with the dragon girl. She waved when she spotted them, screaming something about niichan and oniitama before her comprehensibility dropped to nil. Sasuke grabbed her from the elder Uchiha with a pained grimace as Naruto quickly pulled all the chakra away from his ears.

"Your mother told me to tell you that she's waiting for you at Matsuku-san's residence."

Farewells were hurried since Ryuuka was in a rush to see her mother again. Naruto had always known that the dragon girl had a good head on her shoulders. The less time spent under Akio's accusing eyes, the better.

The journey through the streets was long because Ryuuka kept complaining about how they had to take the back roads. At least, that was what Naruto thought she was saying. She could have been complaining about a blue sign for all he knew. Ryuuka's language skills were pretty advanced for her age—this was mostly due to how Sasuke corrected her all the time and wouldn't tolerate baby talk—but when she got tired, everything went down the tubes. Oh, they could have jumped from roof to roof, but Sasuke was a little overprotective when it came to keeping Ryuuka safe. Wrapped in wool was putting it mildly.

When they finally managed to climb to the fourth landing, Naruto stifled a sigh of relief and leaned against the door to see if Mikoto was actually in there with his sister or if she had just let herself in while his sister was out. Sneaking up on Mikoto would be a futile exercise if she were alone even with Ryuuka finally slumbering against her brother's shoulder. Raised voices behind the door confirmed one option, and Sasuke pressed his ear against the door as well at Naruto's insistence. He wanted the bastard's opinion on this.

"You had it in the palm of your hand," Mikoto-obachan jeered. "You held it there and then you agreed to this. You only have yourself to blame."

"We needed the bet," his sister argued. "Even I knew that. She lives through her gambling. It was the perfect blunder, and it obviously helped twist her along. Besides, you try to make a move that will deny someone his lifelong dream. You try holding it above his head and telling him no when he's been working towards it for years. I'm not brave enough to do that."

"Then _you_ have to stop fighting it. Blaming everyone else who helps him along when you're just as guilty is just petty, oh moralizer."

"So sue me," Neechan hissed. "Don't think I don't know what you're talking about."

"It's pretty obvious. You try operating with that hanging over your head."

"I do. Let me be the bitch for once."

"Fine, but don't come crying to me when you come to regret it."

As far as Naruto was concerned, the angry silence stretched on for eternity. Neechan was fighting with her best friend. This was just weird. What made things worse was that he had no idea what they were talking about. They spoke in half sentences and veiled references that he couldn't quite decipher. He thought that they might have mentioned Tsunade-baachan at one point, but he wasn't sure.

"You're not very good at it anyway despite what they say," Mikoto said at last.

Naruto decided then and there that women were all insane when his sister and Sasuke's mom started laughing their asses off, all animosity forgotten. He shared a disturbed look with Sasuke.

"What was that about?" Naruto asked unwillingly. Admitting that Sasuke's comprehension ability was beyond his own was something that Naruto hated doing, but curiosity was gnawing at his pride. Naruto felt a hundred times better when Sasuke hesitated and shrugged petulantly.

"Sounds like your sister's being stupid to me."

Naruto shot him a menacing glare, but refrained from beating the pulp out of the bastard because of Ryuuka's presence. Her screams were bad for his general health because Mikoto did _not_ tolerate roughhousing if it involved the dragon girl. Naruto had found this out the hard way and had developed a cautious attitude toward moving around small children. Mikoto-obachan was _scary_ when she was upset, much scarier than Old Man, Kaka-sensei, or Neechan. Perhaps it was the way she was so contained about it. When she was furious, she was very still and stern looking. Any wrong move could set her off into rage that put earthquakes and tsunamis to shame. It was better simply to disappear from her view until she calmed down.

Both of them froze when the door whipped open only to reveal the devil herself. "How long have you three been out here?" she asked suspiciously as his sister shoved some papers into folders in her desk drawers, slung her bag over her shoulder, and swiped her wallet off one of the shelves to stuff into the pocket of her jeans.

"Where are you going?" Naruto called past Mikoto as she frowned at him for ignoring her question.

"To work," Riko replied as she twisted her hair into a messy bun. "To bring home bacon scraps, I'm going to have to put in some extra hours. One of my coworkers was sick on Friday, so I'm filling in."

"But today's Saturday," he protested loudly enough that Ryuuka shifted ominously. Mikoto's frown morphed into an uncomfortable expression, which seemed to border on embarrassed. "You never work on Saturdays!"

"Well, I do now," said Riko as the crowd at the door made way so she could slip on her shoes. "I'll hear about your mission when I get home at seven, okay? Until then, I'm sure that Mikoto will be glad to listen to all the details." She was just about to start down the steps when she pivoted and pulled her wallet out. "Here's some cash. Can you please go to the market or something and pick up some tea, a jug of milk, and some peppers? I'll see you tonight!" With a strained grin and a harassed look at her watch, she spun and dashed down the steps. Naruto watched her go, feeling rather abandoned, something he had thought having less money would prevent.

"Since you are both still about, I imagine that this mission isn't the usual fare," Mikoto said, breaking the awkward silence as she pulled Ryuuka out of Sasuke's arms and settled on the couch. "D-rank missions don't usual come with a day to prepare unless they're pretty far away and require a couple nights away from the village. C-rank this time?"

"Yeah." Naruto trudged into the kitchen to grab himself a glass of juice. He returned with a package of instant ramen and proceeded to pound it with his fist a couple times before ripping it open and wolfing down a handful of the crunchy noodles. Mikoto raised a brow at him, knowing full well that Riko hated it when he snacked on what was supposed to be a meal, but he kept at it. Instant ramen only tasted good raw; eating it the usual way always left him disappointed.

He and Sasuke ran all over each other's narration through the telling and Mikoto listened with a strange look on her face, one that he couldn't place at all. It wasn't quite directed at him though, so he wasn't too worried. Whoever was victim to it though, now Naruto really felt sorry for him.

"So where is the last member of your team while the two of you are weaving tales here?" Mikoto asked them as she arranged Ryuuka more comfortably on the couch beside her and ran a hand through the brown curls.

"At the library," Naruto replied, missing her remonstration.

"Hmm, maybe an example you should follow," she told them with a stern look. "Studying isn't just for the Academy, you know. Both of you have let your study habits slide completely. This is foolish."

"What's to study when we have to learn how to perform jutsu?" Naruto said, scowling at her. She stared back at him with an annoyingly smug look on her face and refused to answer. "How are books going to help us now?"

"How indeed?" She scooped Ryuuka up again and gestured with her chin at Sasuke that it was time to get going. "Well, Naruto, I would get to the market and buy those things for your sister if I were you. You only have an hour and a half left before the day market shuts down. Since the convenience stores won't take your money, you'd better hurry. Good luck on your mission tomorrow."

She slipped out the door and the bastard closed it behind them with a smirk as Naruto searched under the cushions on the chair, trying to find the money his sister had given him. Whining with frustration when his search turned up nothing, he stomped into the kitchen to chuck the instant ramen package only to find the bills on the counter. After he nimbly jumped on the balcony rail, flailing his arms with feigned panic for the benefit of a couple kids that were watching from an apartment window across the street, he shot them a wide grin before launching himself onto the roof of their building. Being able to do amazing things like that made every minute of rubbish D-rank missions worth it.

All of his protectors had taught him something. It was from Iruka-sensei and Chouza-san that he had learned the most useful skill though: bargaining. Neechan, for all that she could whip through tax forms, couldn't get any vendor to budge on a price. Mikoto-obachan didn't need to stoop to bargaining: people gave her breaks because of her status. Jaguar had bought him apples on bad days, but ANBU agents didn't really need to bargain. Jaguar's mask was pretty dang scary; the vendor had obviously agreed because he hadn't charged much. Iruka-sensei wasn't very scary outside of the classroom though.

People _liked_ his sensei. He wasn't hero-worshipped/feared the way ANBU were, people didn't grovel before his feet the way they did when Mikoto came around, and they didn't spit on him the way they degraded Naruto and his sister. Iruka-sensei was… normal, average, not extraordinary. People related to him and respected him. It had baffled Naruto.

What had always baffled him more was how a person's attitude changed the moment an item was put on the bargaining table. The light-hearted sensei became almost sly and calculating when haggling. Chouji's dad was the same way. Watching the two men had taught Naruto a great deal about how to lower prices from exorbitant to almost reasonable. However, being able to use his skills required a different physique.

Moments later, a lithe brunette with ringlets and dimples skipped into the market, her bright blue robes just loose enough to be considered decent. It took a lot of self-control not to burst into evil cackles at how heads turned to follow his… ahem, _her_ progress. Instead, she giggled. Eiichi-san all but fell over himself to help her pick out good yellow and orange peppers. Neechan hadn't specified which colour she wanted, so Naruto used this opportunity to continue to wage his war on her discrimination against his favourite colour. Besides, the orange peppers tasted way better than the green ones.

If his sister ever saw his method of shopping, he was sure she would actually throw up in her mouth the way she had threatened to every time he had used the feminine form. Eiichi-san was obviously of a different mould than his sister because he ate all the attention and little gestures up without question. The moment the money was in the guy's hand, Naruto firmly grabbed the bag of peppers and skedaddled with a wave and a toss of his "curls." That had worked even better than he had though it would: he had paid forty percent less than he should have and the man hadn't even batted an eye. _Score, dattebayo!_

He had quite a bit of money remaining. The temptation to pay Teuchi and Ayame a visit was very strong, especially with the prospect of a long mission away from the village and ramen in the near future, but Neechan's lecture that morning bashed him over the head again. She was working on a Saturday—the day they were supposed to share ramen at Ichiraku's on—because he hadn't won a bet. Grimacing, he tucked the packet of his sister's favourite type of tea in with the peppers and firmly grasped the bottle of milk before heading home to an empty apartment.

With a free moment at last, he pulled out the latest volume of _The Adventures of Hiroji_ and immersed himself in the world of the brilliant swordsman. Hiroji was rallying the people of a poor nation to rebel against a demonic army that held them a constant state of misery as expendable slaves. Even the sound of Neechan coming home and beginning to cook supper didn't manage to break him out of his book. Only her insistent knock on his door and her call about homemade ramen brought him out of his room.

He did stoop to complaining to his sister over supper in retaliation for the loss of Ichiraku ramen. "He's so mean and rude and he really stank!" he groused about Tazuna-san, missing her anger until she slammed her chopsticks on the table and glared.

Maybe work hadn't gone well today… She had probably had a run-in with Ii-bastard. Naruto would have loved to have the chance to give that prick a piece of his mind, but Neechan had forbidden that. She thought it would be bad for her job or something silly like that.

"Tact, Otouto, is your next big project. You can master Rasengan, but you can't master tact. Between the two, I think that tact is irreplaceable, especially given how you want to go into politics. Insulting people constantly will only get you into more trouble than you can talk your way out of, and sarcasm isn't your thing and a little too dangerous for the infested waters you want to tread. Find some way to cultivate tact while you're away. How long will you be gone?" She passively watched him pout and scowl, his irritation bouncing off of her wall of acceptance as usual.

"About three weeks." He had never been away from home and Neechan for this long before.

She must have picked up on his nervousness because she sighed and ruffled his hair. "You'll be fine. Think of all the places you'll get to see while you're gone."

"Yeah, sure." He pushed his food around his plate. "I might even have time to finish reading the new _Adventures of Hiroji_ book."

"Well, wash the dishes and get packed before you go to bed. You've got an early start tomorrow. I'll have breakfast ready for you."

"Thanks," he called as she made her way to bed, not just talking about breakfast. She smiled before she disappeared down the hall.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Three Canes for a Gnarled Hand

Kakashi glanced up when he felt someone approach him from behind in the jounin archives. He couldn't really say he was surprised when Uchiha-san smiled politely at him, her calm exterior belying her probable reason for being here.

"Hatake-san." She nodded her head the exact amount required of her as the Uchiha matriarch.

"Uchiha-san." He bowed low, as was required of him. Being the last living member of his line did not make him much of a clan head, and Clan Hatake had never been as prominent or large as Clan Uchiha. "Is there something you wanted?"

"Hmm." She pulled out a file with carefully constructed casualness. He wasn't surprised when it turned out to be on Wave Country. "For a man that claims to be building a simple bridge, is it not fascinating how he began building it on Fire County's side of the divide? One must wonder why he has not chosen to support his own nation and build it from that side."

"You suggest that the mission is mislabelled."

"Perhaps not mislabelled in this case as much as underestimated by the clients; it is entirely probable though. It is all too common, but it is too late to go back, isn't it?"

He nodded, wondering when she was going to get to her point. He tensed when her eyes activated.

She fixed him with a long stare, the three tomoe circling her pupils restlessly. "Naruto and Sasuke had better come through this alive. There are those that want them dead here, and there are those that will want them dead out there. I'm counting on you to handle those out there. I'll deal with those here."

Kakashi had to wonder why Naruto was among the ones she wanted protected no matter what. Sure, she seemed to care for his most rambunctious student and had certainly been almost as much in charge of raising Naruto as Matsuku-san, but fretting to the extent where she would risk threatening him seemed a little farfetched. There was something going on here, and Kakashi wasn't sure he wanted to know. It was entirely too likely that it was clan business.

"I would have done so without your intervention." He was a more than a little offended.

"Of course, but it never hurts to be sure. My gut tells me that this mission isn't going to go well, but I am not up-to-date on the latest intelligence about Wave Country and all that might be going on there. I leave that to better heads than mine since Wave is relatively insignificant despite the fact it is a close neighbour."

He sighed at her not so subtle hint that he had some reading to do before he dared to set foot outside the village. He had the feeling that browsing through _Icha Icha Paradise_ for the hundredth time wouldn't cut it. This was why he hadn't tried to become a jounin sensei earlier: dealing with overprotective parents and siblings was hell. Uchiha-san was the devil because he had no doubt that she could fulfill the promise in her red eyes that if her son did die on this mission, he would be strung up by his balls from some tall building for all the world to see as punishment.

Her eyes switched back to their normal dark grey, and she smiled pleasantly at him as though she had been commenting on the weather rather than calmly informing him that she would be causing bodily harm if two boys didn't live for at least another ten years. No, messing with Uchiha-san was not a good idea. He had no intention of finding out just how cracked she had become over the years. He almost—"almost" being the keyword—pitied Itachi.

She handed him the file and left. He suppressed a groan when he saw just how much catching up he had to do: Wave Country had become quite interesting in the past ten years as far as Intel was concerned.

Damn.

* * *

Well, at least they were sober today. That was the best thing that could be said for the grumpy pair that Sasuke had been assigned to herd around Fire Country until some insignificant bridge was completed. However, it was the first positive thing he had noted about Tazuna and Keji.

Today seemed to be a day of firsts. For the first time, he had been late. Ryuuka had not been interested in letting him go away for another week or two. She had wrapped her arms and legs around his left leg and had refused point blank to let him get anywhere near the door if he wouldn't take her with him. Kaasan had been amused. Ryuuka hadn't been a happy camper while he had been trying to bring Tsunade back.

Another first was that Sakura actually looked almost confident about the whole situation. As a rule, she always looked nervous and uncertain at the start of missions. Sasuke wasn't sure if this was a bad omen or not, but since he wasn't superstitious, he disregarded the entire thing and the presence of a raven on the gate's lintel. Throwing rocks at the bird would attract undue attention. Killing it with kunai would give rise to uncomfortable questions and motherly ire he was rather predisposed to avoiding.

One thing hadn't changed one whit: Kakashi was late, almost an hour late. Tazuna and Keji were not like Riko-oneesan: they were not confident that the jounin would catch up with them if they left in protest. Sasuke regretted this deficiency. It had been amusing as hell to watch the dog get reamed out by a woman that couldn't even hold a kunai correctly, much less throw it. A bridge builder and his buddy weren't up for that though. No, they just grumbled, snarled, and picked on the ninja present, the moron being their favourite target.

For some reason, Naruto seemed to have a penchant for attracting negative attention from any sort of bully, as if he had been born on a day when the stars were misaligned for godly favour and good fortune.

First, there had been the fox and the Yondaime. Now, Sasuke didn't know all that much about the much-vaunted Yondaime, but he did know that shoving a powerful demon inside a baby wasn't very nice. If someone had done that to Ryuuka, Sasuke would have roasted the ass without a second thought. Sasuke didn't have a clue why the moron didn't resent the Fourth Hokage more. The man's actions fell well within the definition of bullying: singling out a victim, punishing him, and foisting problems onto that victim. Naruto didn't seem interested in Sasuke's opinion, so Sasuke kept it to himself.

The next bully Naruto had managed to get on his case was that orphanage director. Sasuke had never met her, but Naruto used her as a synonym to "bitch" or "evil witch" in all of his stories. Alongside the mythical figure, there were various other half-remembered bullies from his time before getting out of the orphanage. Some of them were fellow orphans that Naruto sometimes recalled clearly enough to point out on the street and play pranks on, and others were formless adults that his friend could never quite place. All of them had been pissed off with the loser for one reason or another and had either put him at the mercy of the orphanage director or inflicted punishment themselves. Naruto had never indicated aloud which was worse.

After these fairy-tale terrors, the ones Sasuke knew came along. The biggest bully still in Naruto's life had to be Riko. Oh sure, it was all for the idiot's good, but she still bossed him around, punished him whenever she deemed him deserving, and generally made a nuisance of herself. Sasuke acknowledged that she really did seem to care about the idiot, but Sasuke still deemed her a bully of a sort all the same. It seemed to a prerequisite for being an older family member. His mother certainly fit the bill… Sasuke resolved to trash that thought so it never ever came out of his mouth. Kaasan would _not_ be amused.

Various other bullies had come and gone, Mizuki and various storeowners among them. All in all, the loser had to have "victim" written all over him in some ink that Sasuke couldn't quite see. Tazuna and Keji could make out the characters though.

Their clients were unfortunately becoming very adept at pushing all of Naruto's buttons. He could feel Naruto's fury from six metres away and he could feel Sakura's killing intent (on Naruto's behalf, oddly enough) starting boil over beside him. Instead of picking sides this early in the morning, Sasuke adjusted the length of the straps of his backpack for the sixth time in twenty minutes, making certain that they were exactly even, and glared up the main road, looking for any sign of their tardy sensei.

"You don't look like a ninja that could become Hokage," Tazuna said nastily in response to Naruto's usual claim. "I mean, for one, you're way too short, both in stature and in temper. Besides, look at you. What sort of ninja is a loudmouth like you? The very set of your face screams idiot and attention seeker. I mean, who paints whiskers on their face?"

Sasuke suppressed the urge to jump when, wonder of wonders, Kakashi's hand shot out to stop Naruto from lunging at Tazuna and flattening him with Rasengan. Maybe Kakashi's internal clock that timed his appearances to when his arrival would prevent bloodshed.

Rubbing the back of his head, Kakashi raised his voice to be heard over the insults Naruto began screaming at Tazuna. "Shall we get going then?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, pulled his pack up on his shoulders, and checked his headband to make sure that the slobber his sister had put on it as a going away present had dried before falling in behind Naruto.

Their first stop was a village quite a ways southwest of Konoha on foot. On the maps that had been provided with their mission scroll, this regular town was barely a finger's width from Konoha, but Sasuke had never put much faith in maps. No map could tell him exactly what he needed to know: where _that man_ was and how safe that made his family. That finger's width turned out to be a two-day journey. The only satisfactory thing about this was that their grumpy clients got hardly any sleep and complained about aches the following day from sleeping on the ground.

It was hard to keep the smugness off his face when Keji insisted that they find a hotel before finding out where the permit office was. Apparently, this bridge project had been given the go-ahead by the Daimyo and the local feudal lord quite a while ago, but suddenly, inexplicably, that permit had been rescinded. Keji and Tazuna had only ventured this far into Fire territory in order to argue for a renewal since all of the closer government outposts had refused to hear their case.

This explanation made Sasuke frown. Naruto didn't seem troubled by it all that much, but the loser had never been what Sasuke would have called "quick." Sakura though, she looked a little puzzled now too. Their sensei was as blank as ever, infuriatingly so. Naruto was left to keep an eye on the clients while Sasuke and Sakura were sent to set up an appointment at the permit office and find some provisions.

"If you want, I can go find the food," Sakura offered, glancing at him from under her lashes.

Clueless as to why she had made such a strange offer, he shook his head. His frown deepened when he spotted a rather well armed pair of unsavoury types prowling down the street. Their eyes darted from side to side, seeking something.

The shorter member of the pair met his eyes for a moment, and Sasuke had the unpleasant experience of being on the receiving end of being marked as a target. There was almost something like recognition in those cold grey eyes as they flicked over his form, assessing him. Something in him clenched and froze at the same time when Sakura was also appraised. The gaze had lingered longer on the two of them. Something about it stuck with Sasuke as he scouted out the town while Sakura dealt with the infuriating officials.

He didn't like dealing with government even though it had been thoroughly trained into him by this point. Akio-ojiisan, despite his own snide demeanour, hadn't tolerated it from him. His mother had agreed. According to her, "Hn," was not the same as "Yes, of course, sir." Sakura was good at buttering up authority figures anyway and actually seemed to have the patience for it.

When Sasuke was confident that he had gotten his bearings when it came to the main streets, he slipped into an alley and leaped up onto a roof to begin scouting from a more obscure angle. From his perch, he could watch the flow of the crowd and begin to get a feeling for the mood of this small town that fed off traffic going east and west along the trade route that looped south of Konoha's mountains and swamps, keeping Hidden Leaf's presence concealed.

The slat roofs were only a little moist from the last rainstorm that had passed through this area beneath the fingers he used to maintain balance as he crouched to peer down into an alley where a group of unsavoury sorts were meeting. Their clothes were mismatched: some farmer garb, some richer garments from the bourgeoisie, and hardy leather pieces made for the deep woods. These men didn't seem to belong to any one class. What was worse was that they were obviously armed: clubs, staves, daggers, and the rare katana hung from belts and baldrics and hid in pockets, bracers, pouches, and boot sheathes. Too well armed to be peaceful, so Sasuke kept silent and watched.

The possibility that this was just an insignificant meeting disappeared when the pair from earlier joined the group.

"Did any of you see any traces?"

"Even if I did," a cocky one said, "why would I tell you? That bounty is as good as mine if I keep my mouth shut."

"Fool that you are, I doubt you could even get within ten kilometres of the target without drawing the attention of the ninja," said a bearded man who was testing the edge of a utilitarian dagger.

"Ninja?" sputtered the fool. "I wasn't told anything about ninja. Two targets, unarmed, untrained, no threat—that was what I was told when I was recruited to 'cooperate' with you lot."

"The situation has changed," the bearded one said. Sasuke had the feeling that this man was the leader, if this ragtag group had a leader at all. All of them quieted down when he spoke, and they considered his words. No one questioned the assertions, merely the old orders. "They came in from the west only a couple hours ago. There were four ninja walking with them then."

"Four!" squawked another thin man with a nose worthy of ploughing a field. "Four ninja? He only offers eighty thousand ryou for his head and another fifty for his companion's. A pittance for too much effort, that's what I say. There are easier targets."

"That stinks of cowardice," Beard noted quietly when likeminded grumbles followed the stick's announcement.

"What good is money when the ninja are going to string you up by your guts? An old man and a boatman are hardly worth this effort. The boss can find his own cutthroats to go against these odds. I saw some notices in the south side tavern. Good luck, fools!" The stickman gathered up his gear and left without trouble. A couple others wavered for a few moments before skittering out of the alley to find easier work.

"Now that the wimps are gone, what sort of ninja were these ones?" asked a squat man.

"Three children, one older man."

"Children!" The bear-like fool laughed. "Those chickens ran from child ninja!"

"Children that walk with purpose," said the one Sasuke recognized. His voice was just as cold and derisive as his gaze. "Children held Kumo-nin back eight years ago. I saw a skirmish once. I was lucky to escape with my head from that 'child.' He summoned flame from nowhere and burned men alive without remorse. I could swear that the boy I saw today is one of his kin. Same dark eyes, same pale skin, same 'bug me and I'll roast you' look."

Sasuke froze as the past crept up on him. Several young Uchiha had won renown during the last war, Shisui and others among them, but Sasuke knew that _that man_ was the one in the story. _He_ had been a genin during that war. _He_ had fought on the front lines and had lost his team and his mentor, delaying his entrance to the chuunin trials. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke forced himself not to slink away to pretend that this hadn't happened. Every reference was a punch in the face of his attempt to deny _the traitor's_ existence.

"So you saw them closer than I did." Beard met the cold one's eyes.

The latter nodded.

"What else did you see?"

"There was the boy, as I said, a petulant little brat with a cold stare. Spry, focused—he might be skilled. The girl—pink hair, red target—she shouldn't be as much of a challenge. She's the nervous type, maybe brainy, but not a lot of will in her. She couldn't meet my eyes for long."

"What about the other two?" another man asked hoarsely, following his question with a bout of coughing.

Beard fielded this one. "The other wears shoot-me orange—a blonde with tattooed lines on his cheeks and a goofy look. He doesn't look competent enough to tie his own shoes, but we'll see. The man, now there's one we won't last long against conventionally. He's a veteran; you can tell. He could be in his fifties; he's got the haunted look and the grey hair to match it, but I don't think so—maybe thirty, maybe younger. He saw me."

"Well," said the fool jovially, "I've heard enough. I'm off." He scooped up his club and jammed it into a loop on his belt.

Glances were traded until Beard sighed and shrugged. "That's enough for today in any case. We'd never win here, not now." He sheathed his plain dagger, though his weathered hand didn't leave the hilt. "Until the next time we meet up." As soon as he was gone too, the meeting broke up.

Sasuke wavered for a long moment, debating over whether he should follow one of the members or report. Cold Eyes and his partner were still around, so Sasuke crept in their wake, hopping silently from rooftop to rooftop in the deepening twilight. Dissatisfied murmurs were traded between them as they wound casually through the streets, their voices pitched too low for Sasuke's ears to interpret the drone. When the other broke away at last, grumbling about slivers and cheap sandals, Sasuke kept on his target as he wound his way through sections of town Sasuke had only looked at from a good height earlier in the day. He slunk from roof to roof, worried that inhabitants of his path would give him away if they heard him clatter on their shingles.

In the end, it was in vain. A misstep, one actually not his fault, cost him.

A slight breeze had most unfortunate timing. A pebble on the edge of a chimney clattered down the slope of the shingles.

"Little boys shouldn't be out of bed at this hour," the man said in his general direction, pale eyes fixed on a roof two houses to the left of the one Sasuke was pressed flat against, "Especially not when a man is only off to get an honest drink and some supper. Someone might take offence at how the boy just 'dropped in'."

Stymied, Sasuke waited until the man walked on before heading back towards the hotel. He slipped onto the window ledge of their suite and slipped out a thin strip of metal to manipulate the lock.

Out of nowhere, orange assaulted his vision and the metal strip was nearly yanked from his grip. Shooting an impatient look at Naruto's toothy grin, Sasuke grunted loud enough that the loser could hear him and attempted to yank his metal strip back, but the idiot was in one of his difficult moods.

"Why, if it isn't a cold fish out of water!" The blonde chuckled until his face was slammed into the thick glass, his features contorting grotesquely as they were squished against the pane.

As he crumpled, Sakura in all her short-lived fury appeared behind him and opened the window as Naruto recovered himself and snarled at her behind her back.

Sasuke nodded thanks to her. "Where's Kakashi?"

"Where are our groceries?" she asked in return, frowning at him. "I thought you were going to get them while I went to the office. And you"—she rounded on Naruto—"were being unprofessional, not letting him in! Something here gives me the creeps. What if he was being pursued?"

Naruto pouted.

"I was scouting and doing perimeter checks." Sasuke crossed his arms.

"Well, Kaka-sensei's picking up some essential supplies, like our dinner," Naruto said. "The old farts' stomachs are grumbling loud enough that I can hear it from here. That was _your_ job, bastard. What's your excuse?"

When Kakashi set aside his empty plate quite a while later, his eating having gone unnoticed as usual in the face of Sasuke's report and Naruto's questions about why Sasuke hadn't barged in a knocked some mercenary heads together, he eye-smiled grimly. "I'd say that was a pretty good excuse, Sasuke, almost as good as having to double back because you forgot your wallet and our grocery list."

His attempt at humour wasn't appreciated by his team.

By morning, no trace remained of the mercenaries. Sasuke wished he had stayed on the man's trail, cold eyes or no.

* * *

"How does one stop ninja?" grumbled Kan as he set his empty glass aside and wished that he had enough money to buy brandy, but the imported stuff was beyond his means and he was getting sick of sake.

Grumbling, he glanced at the bearded Masujiro, who was as collected as ever. Kan wished he had enough followers to club the scut and take over this useless little band of thugs, but unfortunately, Masujiro was good at what he did. The man was quiet and knew how to plan things out. Masujiro's flaw was that he didn't know how to get people going in a good direction. Oh, he could jabber on and on about it and they would listen, but when it came down to it, they wouldn't do anything.

Kan was a man of action; he knew how to get things going, but they all thought him a fool. In this particular instance, there was a grain of truth in their thoughts. He was too foolish to know a good way to get through those ninja protectors their quarry had hired. Impatience getting the better of him, he slammed his glass down on the counter, cracking it into three pieces and cutting up his palm as he repeated his question as though it was a curse.

"With ninja of course," said a voice to his left.

He looked past the three mercenaries beside him and his eyes widened as he realized that it wasn't a mummy in the corner, but a living man with an impossibly large sword propped up against his thigh. The delicate looking girl next to him and the two partly masked lackeys in the nearby booth convinced Kan that he had finally hit gold.

"And how would I find ninja?"

The mummy's eyes narrowed, assessing him with more force than even Fein Cold Stare could manage. "By asking the right questions and offering the right price."

* * *

After finally finding a receptive audience in this permit officer (Tazuna's permit had been rescinded because the man holding a trade and transportation monopoly over Wave had felt threatened, so he had made up all sorts of false accusations and bribed Fire officials) and Kaka-sensei and Sakura helping the poor man hand copy the documents because the office was understaffed, Tazuna and Keji were in a rush to be on their way. So here they were, enjoying a forced march, trying not to be edgy for no apparent reason.

"No wonder Ryuuka's tough as nails, bastard!" Naruto hollered as he raced ahead to take up point position. "She has to be after being forced to deal with you every day."

"Shut it, Moron."

"What kind of lame comeback is that? Come on, Bastard! You can do better than that!"

"Hn."

"There it is! I knew that it would show up eventually! Whenever the going gets tough, Sasuke's vocabulary gets going."

"Shut up, Naruto!"

_Thud!_

"Ow! Sakura-_chan_!"

"All right, settle down," their sensei said as their clients grumbled. "Instead of bickering, what _useful_ things could you be doing?"

"Finding out where those sell swords went," Sasuke said.

Now that did worry Naruto even though these guys weren't ninja, so they wouldn't be any trouble. The details that Sasuke had given them, sometimes unwillingly, about the event had made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, especially that bit about the war with Kumo. From the way the bastard had talked about it, it was obvious that he thought it was Itachi. It had been there in his voice and in the furious clenching of his fingers.

"A good thought, Sasuke, but unlikely at this point. The mission forces us to stay with the clients rather than hunting down the whereabouts of possible threats."

"Why are they hunting Tazuna and Keji though?" asked Sakura, glancing at their clients, who kept staring straight ahead at the road. The three genin traded looks before Naruto trotted right up in front of the silent pair.

"Hey, Sakura-chan asked you guys a question! Aren't you gonna answer her? I mean, we've got blokes with knives and blunt instruments chasing after us. Don't you think we should know _why_?"

"Mind your own business, brat," said Keji, lengthening his stride and outstripping Naruto's backwards trot. Tazuna took the heat in stony silence.

"If you're not gonna tell us that, you can at least tell us where we're going," Naruto said, scowling something fierce. His attempt at drawing even this simple bit of information out was thwarted when he tripped over a tree root that had been unearthed in the middle of the path. Sakura and Sasuke snickered at his dirt-covered back.

Kaka-sensei shook his head sadly at Naruto's lack of spatial awareness. "How you manage kage bunshin when you can't even keep yourself from tripping all over your own feet is a mystery."

Naruto, horribly red, crossed his arms and went back to pouting. A noise that wasn't quite right reached his ears. Straightening up, he ran forwards a bit, trying to catch the sound again. His attempt was cut off when a dark brown blur shot out of the bushes well ahead of them, darting towards Keji with terrible speed.

Horrified, Sakura gasped and fumbled for a kunai. Narrow-eyed, Sasuke shot forward with all the speed Kakashi and his mother had trained into him over the last few months. Gaping, Naruto barrelled forward, sputtering curses and obscenities, also snatching kunai from his hip pouch.

All three of them were far too late.

Fortunately for them, Kakashi was a jounin.

One moment he was behind them, and the next he had pinned the brown and green man to the path and was holding a kunai to the attacker's neck. Keji had fallen flat on his butt, white as rice under the travel dirt and gasping. Sasuke arrived at Keji's side a moment after he had fallen, interposing himself between the attacker and his client, kunai primed for action. Naruto spun around and herded Tazuna within range of his sensei with Sakura's help. By the time they got there, the strange assassin was already bound to a tree.

"Which of you was aware of him and when?" Kakashi asked his team.

The tree genin traded anxious looks.

"Ten minutes ago," Sasuke offered sullenly, "he made a noise that Naruto's blathering didn't cover. It was when I told Naruto to shut up."

Naruto scowled, cursing himself for a fool.

"Sakura?"

The girl in question blushed darkly and stared at her feet. "Two minutes ago; I saw something move through the trees when I was asking Tazuna-san and Keji-san questions."

"Naruto?"

"I heard him a couple seconds ago."

Embarrassed silence reigned as the trio waited for their teacher to pass judgement on them.

"He's been following us since midmorning."

They all winced. Four hours, this _civilian_ had eluded them for four hours. This was bad.

"Sasuke, do you recognize him?"

Naruto watched his friend peer into the dirty face. Sasuke nodded. "He's the one that said he could find easier targets before walking out on the meeting; the stickman."

"What sort of fighter did you think he was?"

"Tantō; his build suggested he would be good with short blades: speedy, thin and tall, good for darting in and striking at close range."

Kakashi nodded with something like approval, looking down his masked nose at the prisoner. Naruto wrinkled his: there was a strange smell around the guy, something pungent and foul that he vaguely recognized from the slums of the tourist town and the smoky dens that Snake had made him walk past on that night so long ago. Drugs, he thought. Maybe this guy was an addict.

"Name?" asked Kakashi.

The guy spat on the ground and sneered.

"I didn't think so. Tsuba it is then."

Tsuba looked rather offended, but Naruto had to snicker. "Spit" was so fitting.

"Who hired you?"

The man continued sneering.

"Very well then, we'll do this the hard way."

Naruto's initial enthusiasm began to recede. Even he had a vague idea about what "the hard way" involved. Apparently, Tsuba did too because the sneer fell off his face and an obstinate and frightened look replaced it. Naruto gulped a little when his sensei pulled out a pair of kunai and began rotating them out of sync around his pointer finger by the rings. The casualness of the motion made Naruto glance away. The rotation halted suddenly when his sensei somehow clasped both kunai in his fist and arced the blades towards Tsuba.

"Wait!" stuttered Tazuna, looking rather grey.

Kaka-sensei glanced back at the client with complete innocence. Naruto almost believed it. Kaka-sensei was nothing if not sneaky. "Perhaps you'd like to elaborate on what you gave my Hokage?"

Tazuna and Keji exchanged wary looks before the former sighed. "It started a couple years ago. Maybe you heard a storm destroyed more than half of Wave Country's useful boats, making it hard for us to transport goods to and from the mainland and between our islands. Keji here thinks that was when Gatou decided to start taking over. At the time, his shipping fleet was a godsend. How could we repair our boats with no materials? He brought them to us. How would we keep up trade while we worked to repair our fleet? His people handled all transport for us while we got back to work. Going through his company was easy and his prices were so low that all competition went out of business. We didn't worry. He seemed like a philanthropist to us; what other man would set up outposts of his huge company in a decimated area and cater to the needs of the people at a price they could afford to pay?" Tazuna shook his head, as though mocking himself.

"We quickly found out how wrong we were the moment he was the only one left. Once every other possible shipping company had either gone bankrupt or been bought out by him, he started raising prices at a crippling rate. Within four months, most everyone was in debt to him. What could we do? Our boats weren't ours anymore; they were his. If we protested, shipments of essential supplies were cut off. Wave was never rich, but our land isn't suited to farms. Most of our food is shipped in. When he cut us off, it was only a matter of time before we caved."

"Gatou-san's company is not the only one in the world," Sakura said suspiciously. "Why didn't another come in to compete with him?"

"Maybe because Wave isn't what you would call a good profit base, or maybe out of fear," Keji said, scowling at the ground. "We found out pretty quickly that Gatou has ties to the black market. Drug dealing and illegal weapon trading aren't unfamiliar markets to him. Drugs were cheaper than food on some of the islands. When you're hungry and hopeless, what do you turn to? When your spirit is beaten down too much to support dreams, where do you go to escape? Lots of people went down that road. It only helped him subdue us faster."

"Why didn't you fight him?" Naruto asked, clenching his fists. "Don't you have an army or something?"

"Our daimyo, well, he was in Gatou's pocket before he even realized it as far as we know. He was never very powerful or wealthy to begin with, but Gatou's got him on a shorter leash now. How can he hire soldiers he can't pay to arm or feed? As for the rest of us, what good are we against hired thugs like him?" Tazuna asked, gesturing at Tsuba. "With drugs or money, Gatou had more than enough thugs at his beck and call. They're more than willing to keep us in line."

"Why didn't Konoha do something?" Naruto demanded, glaring at Kakashi.

"Wave Country is not within Konoha's jurisdiction," Kakashi reminded him. "Konoha cannot interfere unless we have been contracted. Fire's Daimyo didn't send us in, so Konoha didn't act. It wasn't any of our business. Other countries might have protested if the Sandaime had decided by himself to go in and sort things out. Ninja are a contracted service, not a body that can enforce whatever idea of order it likes wherever it likes."

Embarrassed at how his sensei had quoted old Academy definitions at him, Naruto scowled at the ground.

"What about your bridge?" Sasuke asked. "How are you building it when it threatens Gatou?"

Now Tazuna smiled. "My bridge will help my people take control of their destiny again when it's finished. Building it has been a long battle. It is impossible to find someone with enough money to fund a small construction project in Wave aside from Gatou, so I had to leave. My project is anything but small after all. That was a task; Keji and I managed to slip away in his little boat under the cover of fog one evening. Keeping out of sight of Gatou's patrols was hard even then.

"Finding someone with enough money to get me started was a task and a half. Not a lot of people saw profit in it for them, so we were turned down a lot before we found Jun-sama in Waterfall. He's one of Gatou's competitors in Earth and Lighting and he was looking for a way to keep Gatou's focus away from those places. The bridge project seemed perfect to him, so he signed up with us. He's been keeping us out of the red ever since.

"Hiring people to work on a project that goes against Gatou in Wave was impossible at the time, so we had to start our bridge in Fire. Gatou thwarted us however he could without interfering outright so he wouldn't upset any of Fire's feudal lords: he deprived my people, used extortion on my workers and suppliers and drove them off in droves, and even vandalized what progress we did make.

"A month ago, he started trying to get my construction permit invalidated. It wasn't very hard for him to bribe or threaten the right people because our permit disappeared and all our workers cleared off. He must have really considered us a threat to actually step up from simply making our project difficult. I think he thought we were a joke until he could see my bridge from shore even in the fog. We hired you on our way to the permit office because we began to fear his thugs would brave Fire Country justice."

"Is that it?"

Tazuna nodded firmly and their sensei didn't press him further.

"So it wasn't much more than you said," Kakashi said cheerfully. "Good, it complicates things when missions are underrated. We can deal with thugs. It would have been better if you had told us just how likely you were to be targeted though. We can plan accordingly now." He favoured his trio with an appraising look that made them cringe.

"What about him?" Sasuke asked, jerking his chin at their captive, who was attempting to cut his bonds.

"We have a couple options," Kakashi said. "We can kill him, leave him here to be eaten by animals, or take him with us. Setting him free isn't really a workable option. If we do take him with us, someone will always have to watch him."

Despite what Tsuba had tried to do, Naruto wasn't keen on any of those options, though leaving him for the animals sounded the most just to him.

"There's a town about a day down the road," Sakura reminded Kaka-sensei. "Can't we leave him at the jail there?"

Kakashi nodded, eye-smiling at her suggestion. "Okay then, which of you is going to carry him?"

None of them had a good answer to this: all fingers pointed to different people. Unfortunately, Naruto found out that Sasuke and Tazuna had more in common than he was comfortable with; both of them were pointing at him. When Kakashi acknowledged the clear majority, Naruto decided that even if Rasengan wasn't as useful as tact, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was. His clones weren't so certain though. Tact might have saved them a burden that made them curse the stupidity and annoying tendencies of the original. The boss was not a popular person that day.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Five Swords of Gold

"So, where are we going again?" The route that they were taking wasn't the quickest one to the point where Tazuna-san's bridge touched Fire Country. Sakura had been following their route on the map every evening just before ending her watch.

"Why do you ask?" Keji demanded, wiping dinner off his pointy face with the back of his hand.

"Because this is the long way. This reaches the coast kilometres north of where we want to end up. If we had taken that road south five days ago, we could have cut following the coastline out of the equation." She was almost positive she saw Kaka-sensei hide an approving smile. Sasuke and Naruto looked faintly lost and a little startled.

"How do you know that?" Tazuna-san asked before taking a swig of whatever he kept in the little metal flask in his pocket. "You've been out here before or something?"

"I looked up the best routes before we left," she said, working hard to hide her smugness. "Shinobi need to know about what sort of conditions they'll be facing." She had no idea why Naruto and Sasuke traded slightly guilty looks, but she wasn't given time to ask.

"Sakura brings up a good point," Kaka-sensei said. "I guess we're not going to the bridge right away."

Their clients traded guilty looks and shifted.

"Strange how the plans changed. A tollbooth and gates were omitted from the resubmitted designs. Jun-san's signatures were old, too old for him to know about the change in plans. The dates were off. Would he have withdrawn his financial support knowing you didn't intend to let him hold the bridge the way Gatou holds the channel?" Kaka-sensei's last statement was anything but a question despite how it was worded.

Sakura, awed and shamed, flipped through her memories of the documents she had helped copy for the permit officer. She hadn't even thought to check those things.

"This bridge shouldn't belong to one man," Tazuna-san said, staring down at his folded fingers. "It should be a symbol of hope to my people. How can it be that when it is only going to hold them the same way Gatou strangles them now? My grandson should be free to walk the bridge without needing to worry about paying a hefty fee to a man living in a faraway country. My daughter should be able to buy plums at the store without needing to count every penny to make up for the inflated price because of how much the carter was charged to bring his wares across the bridge. This bridge will bring freedom to Wave Country. I will not allow it to be exploited along with my neighbours by big businesses or warlords for their own gain."

"That's all well and good, but this changes our plans somewhat, huh?" Kakashi-sensei said, releasing the hem of his mask and setting his empty plate aside.

Sakura had to restrain a growl of frustration. How come they always missed seeing his face? Even Sasuke looked rather peeved.

"We want to go back to Wave Country to recruit our people to finish the bridge."

Now Sakura stared. After all the horrible things she had been told about the situation in Wave Country, she had never thought she would actually see them. That she would be experiencing poverty up-close made her uneasy. Poverty was dark alleys and scruffy men that Mother hurried her by in broad daylight, clutching her hand too tightly, something she wasn't supposed to get close too.

The next evening, they struggled through the thick bush down into a rocky bay. According to Keji, they had left a boat just for this instance. Brambles were determined to rip them to shreds though. Naruto swore up a storm behind her, wrestling with a thorny bush to reclaim his shirt.

"Hey! Is that the boat?" Naruto shouted down to them half an hour later from a position a couple hundred metres ahead of them. He was pointing at a badly concealed boat, covered with thin branches and some dead leaves that didn't do much in the way of camouflage. "How are we all gonna fit in that and how are we gonna get it in the water?"

Sakura was similarly sceptical. _Six people sitting pretty in that? No way in hell!_

"We'll have to ditch your instant ramen, Naruto," Kakashi-sensei said solemnly.

Sakura burst out laughing at his horror.

Keji-san and Tazuna-san ignored them, pulled branches off the wooden hull, and checked for leaks or flaws. When they were satisfied, Kaka-sensei helped them flip the boat over and check the motor. Sakura and her teammates watched that messy process with quiet interest. She hadn't seen a working motor except in junk piles. The gas can that had been protected under the overturned boat was mostly emptied into the tank and then they were called over to help carry the cumbersome thing down to the shore through the bracken. Their path was twisty because of the steep incline and the narrow spaces between the tree trunks. They got stuck a couple times before they finally got out of the trees, scrambled across the rocky shore, and slipped the heavy boat into the water.

Sakura panted, her arms aching fiercely. "How did you even get this all the way up there?"

"With help," Keji-san replied as he checked over the oarlocks and inspected the sturdiness of the oars themselves. "We've been planning to do this for a long time, just not quite like this. We didn't think we'd need you four."

"I can't even see the island you were talking about," said Naruto, shielding his eyes as he stared out across the hazy ocean. "How long will it take to get there?"

"Long enough," Keji-san grumped. "This won't be a piece of cake. There are patrols even this far north of the usual crossing point where we built the bridge. We have to hope that the fog rolls in. It looks promising, but the sea is tricky that way: unpredictable as a rule."

She glanced at Kakashi-sensei for reassurance, but he was looking to the north, where a dark smudge on the horizon gave her a sick feeling in her stomach. Tazuna glanced at the smudge too, and his face hardened into a determined mask. She had the feeling that they were going to leave, hell or high water.

High water was closer to the truth. Wind stirred up mighty foot-tall waves that rocked their poor little boat into almost capsizing. She clutched at the gunwale as their vessel pitched and thrashed.

Naruto and Sasuke were unruffled by their hazardous passage. Kaka-sensei had put his book away though. She wanted to think that he understood her worry, but it was more likely that he simply didn't want his pages to get wet from the spray. The motor chugged and whined steadily in the background as they crossed the seemingly endless watery expanse.

Daylight was sucked from the sky and overcast darkness took its place. Mist, thin and whispery, began to form fingers as the water calmed. Their passage, now steady, disturbed the infinite black of the mirror beyond the boat. It shook Sakura to know that just below her was a chasm deeper than she would survive. If it hadn't been summer, her body would have been frozen whether she could swim or not. When Naruto reached out to trail fingers over the surface, she shuddered and tried to comfort herself with the knowledge that she would probably have enough chakra to run quite a ways.

Even as the presence of the clouds above them became oppressive, the mist gained more presence, transmuting into fog that billowed around them. With her sight restricted like this, Sakura's knuckles gained some colour and her breathing calmed. Blinkered, she could deal with this.

There was an uncomfortable shuffle when the gas tank thirsted for the last half of the can, but then the world went back to the never-ending expanse of fog and water and the gentle thrum of the motor, which had quieted over time. She didn't know how Keji knew where they were going, but she had to trust the sallow-faced man.

When he suddenly cut the motor, she broke out of her doze against her sensei's shoulder and elbowed Naruto in the gut to get his snoring face off her back. She apologized to Sensei, who had lapsed back into his addiction. He waved off her apology as Sasuke snapped awake at Sensei's voice coming from his pillow. She stifled a giggle and didn't feel nearly as guilty since Sasuke had done the same thing to the backdrop of Naruto's pained whimpers about abuse.

"Why—?" She never got the chance to finish her question because Keji prodded them into moving so he could get at the oars.

"Because it's too dangerous now. We're close. Be quiet." He stuffed bits of cloth into the oarlocks to muffle the squeak and set to rowing so cautiously that Sakura was sure that they weren't making any progress.

She nearly panicked when a strange fence rose up before them. They slipped through the strange maze of driftwood and into the mouth of a slow moving river fed by the stinky fenlands beyond the shapeless earthy barrier. Keji had to work harder to paddle against the stream's current. As soon as the banks of the river dwindled into walls of bulrushes and other swamp foliage, Keji angled their boat through a break in the barrier and struggled to get them into the fenlands, swearing all the way.

"The river is watched," Tazuna-san whispered from behind them. "This is the route the drug-runners use in the fall when the crop is ready to ship to the mainland. We have to get as far inland as the swamp will allow and hide the boat. The nearer we are to the river, the greater the danger of being discovered. This is the best route though; the others have stronger currents and are too close to ports where Gatou's men gather."

"We could have taken them." Naruto cracked his knuckles.

"The point is to avoid fighting when possible. Taking risks when guarding isn't—"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said, cutting off Kakashi-sensei.

Another long silence developed as Keji continued to fight against the weeds, their obstacles darker patches in the dark. At last, they ran aground with a squishy sort of scraping noise. There was no dry ground ahead of them though.

"All right!" Naruto grinned as he hopped out of the boat with a splash. "Who's ready for a good old-fashioned hike through the mud?"

* * *

As far as Naruto was concerned, this was the best part of the trip. The warm squish of mud under his sandals was familiar even if he couldn't see very well. Sakura acted as though leeches were out to destroy her person, Sasuke reacted with the same indifference he had when he and Neechan had dragged him along when they were seven, Kakashi took it all in stride, and Tazuna-grumpy-butt and Keji-sour-face grimaced and took it.

By the time they reached the wooden walkway that ran through the worst part of the marsh, the bastard was plastered with muck. Naruto took great pride in this accomplishment since Sasuke had gotten better and better at dodging the clods of mud Naruto had hurled at him. Sakura hadn't been pleased and Kaka-sensei had looked aggrieved at how much noise they were making, so the game had continued in silence as the bastard had gotten more and more pissed off, retaliating in kind. It hadn't quite worked because Naruto wasn't the one that cared how his hair looked when oozing mud.

"Is this path well used?" Kakashi asked their clients as Sakura hopped up onto the platform with obvious relief.

"It wasn't before, not during this part of the year. The marshes are murder in the summer during the day. The insects—"

Naruto winced as Sakura, who was standing far too close to him for the comfort of his poor ears, shrieked and swatted something on her arm.

Tazuna cleared his throat and tried again. "The bugs during the day are horrible and no one can stand camping with them at night for long. Most people go about twenty clicks east and take the road past the fens. It's faster since this route doesn't go anywhere important except the northern harbour and winds a lot. This platform isn't quite wide enough for carts anyway. It's just meant for travelers on foot going between the little villages."

Mud dried and flaked off, a pity since it had been great protection again the clouds of insects. It was very humid, but there was a breeze coming in off the ocean that kept them from sweating rivers. The soft whine of insects turned into a ceaseless drone. Naruto was grateful when the marsh was absorbed into a swampy forest. The boardwalk was still necessary, but the shelter of the trees seemed to make everyone relax.

The croak of a toad from beneath the platform actually made Sakura jump and curse. Jabbering excuses, Naruto hopped off the platform and landed in the muck with a sucking splash.

Crouching down and waddling under the platform almost on his hands and knees was a pain, but it was worth it when he saw just what toad had made that noise. It was green and black in the light of the late rising moon, but when he reached out, it bellowed again and reared back, revealing its red underside. _Way cool!_ He was tempted to reach out and grab the tiny thing, but the retreating footsteps warned him he was about to get left behind.

They camped beneath on the boardwalk. A village was just a few kilometres away, but they all needed sleep after having travelled all night. Their sensei disappeared for a few hours to scout ahead and returned with cheerful sounding reports of thugs and poverty. Naruto saw what he meant the next morning after everyone finally got up to meet the day long after he had watched the sun rise on dawn watch.

They packed up with an air of tension hovering around their clients. Naruto wouldn't have noticed at all, being more interested in trying to find turtles and toads, but the unusual silence from the pair that usually chattered quietly about building materials, worker requirements, and shipping schedules forced the knowledge into his face. They looked almost pale under their labourer's tans and only grew jitterier as the village appeared out of the woods.

It was tiny. Naruto wouldn't have called it a village when there were only twelve houses slung between a stand of trees. Since there was no dry ground here, all the structures were erected on stilts and all the roads were boardwalks between them and the three roads leading out of town. Ten houses were private, one was a grocery store, and the other was an inn with a bar. Short, narrow boats were tied to the sturdiest stilts and they bobbed a little in the swampy water, flattening rushes as they swayed on their tethers in the slight wind.

Despair was prevalent. The boards beneath their sandals were slick with dew and beginning to show signs of rot. The wood around the rusty old nails was dark and spongy under Naruto's finger. The houses were in various stages of decay, from needing a new coat of paint to desperately needing to be knocked down and redone. There was a depressed air over the whole collection that was only reinforced by the lack of people moving around in the early morning gloom.

"Ho there!" called a muddy man poling his narrow dugout canoe through the swamp from the southwest. "What brings you here so early in the morning?"

As he got closer, Naruto could see that this guy liked frogs: he had a couple in a cage made of slender branches bound together with some sort of twine. Slender fish were strung together on a line by their gills near the frogs, lying on top of a much-mended net. The man was clad only in ragged pants cut off just below the knee and tied up with a sturdy cord. His tanned body bore signs of hard labour and old scars. They stopped and waited for him to bring his unsteady craft to a halt beside the boardwalk.

"Travelling in from the northwest," Keji said, nodding to the man's catch. "Good hunting this morning?"

"Better than what the Big Man lets in nowadays. We're luckier here than most so long as you don't mind fried frog. I've heard that those on the southern islands aren't as lucky. What about you?"

"We've brought provisions," Tazuna answered.

"And ninja too," the man said, eyeing their forehead protectors warily, but looking much happier with the knowledge that they didn't require food. "I'm Kohan." Naruto was just about to give his own name and ask why the hell this guy was eating frogs when Kohan smiled widely. "I know you!" He stepped off his boat and approached them eagerly. "You must be that bridge builder they talk about! Taki? Taku? Tazu…?"

"Tazuna," Keji said.

Sakura looked disgusted. "So much for secrecy and keeping them out of trouble."

"Ah, so ninja do talk!" Kohan grinned, shaking Tazuna's hand as he spoke. "I never thought I'd get to meet such a famous person from a wanted poster that the little Big Man passed around," he explained as he pumped the old coot's hand one last time with an awed look on his bearded face. "Everyone here either hates your guts for what you've done and hopes to get the chance to string you up or praises your name for what you're trying to do to rid us of the little Big Man."

Naruto had to admit that Kohan's summary of their client's situation was not comforting.

"Hates him?" Sakura said, sounding aghast.

"Well, of course," Kohan replied, still looking a little star struck. Maybe he had been dropped off the boardwalk one too many times as a child. "How else would people feel when he's the reason we've been given for how everything here is being sucked under the quicksand? I hear that Little Man won't ship anything with that bridge going up. Bridge sympathizers get run out of towns."

"How do you know all this?" asked Kakashi, a picture of ease with his hands in his pockets.

"People coming through here to escape to the northern fishing grounds tell me things. The Little Man's thugs coming through here for drug-runs talk too. They get around, those scuts. Not all there though sometimes, if you know what I mean. How'd you get here from Fire without getting mashed is what I want t'know! They've doubled the patrols down in the southern islands. Not even a skeeter could get through there!"

"Came across on the evening tide," Keji grunted, obviously warming to the simple hunter.

Kohan looked even more awed, if that was possible. "You came across the Wide Mouth? Frogs, you must all be cracked! That crossing takes hours even in good weather!"

Keji nodded smugly.

"But you've got ninja with ya, so of course anything's possible. The Little Man had a couple a year or two ago; used them to knock off a couple of the lord's old generals, them that wanted to resist and raise an army. Don't know what happened to them…"

"They got pickled!" Keji informed him with an ugly grin and a laugh.

"Really?" Kohan asked with such surprise and interest that Naruto felt embarrassed for him. "I haven't heard that story. You'll have to tell it to me over breakfast. Come on, I've got to get them silver fingers into the pot, the smoke, or the salt before they go bad. My sister will be fault my pole if I'm late and then I'll have to go hunting afoot tomorrow until I can find a solid one as a replacement."

Kohan hopped back into his dugout canoe and poled ahead of them, chattering enthusiastically as he avoided submerged stumps and hidden rocks with the ease of long practice. He pulled up alongside a house that definitely needed some work and tied his canoe securely before snatching up his burdens and his pole and leading the way inside.

"Amenbo-oneesan?" he said as he walked through the door ahead of them. A harsh thud and a pained yelp greeted them. Amenbo apparently considered Kohan late because she had just walloped him upside the head with a wooden ladle.

She had to be the gawkiest woman Naruto had ever seen. All elbows, knees, and big feet, Amenbo stood taller than Kakashi and almost half as wide. Her frizzy black hair didn't seem to understand that hair was supposed to lie limply against the scalp and instead had gained a lot of volume in the humidity, so much indeed that it strained against the bit of leather she used to secure it in a messy bun. Her grey-green eyes were too large for comfort and had a perpetually staring look to them, as though everything was slightly out of focus unless she burned a hole in it with the force of her gaze. Naruto figured that she needed glasses, but was too proud to admit it because Old Man did the same thing when he looked at paperwork these days and his secretary always complained about how bad his writing had become.

"How many times have I told you that we don't have enough food to feed more than two people? How many times?"

"Seventy-three, Oneesan."

"Very good. Now, why don't you ever listen, you great lump? We can give them no breakfast if we want supper—!"

"They've got food, Oneesan!"

"Have you seen it? Smelled it? Tasted it?"

Kohan shook his head.

"Then don't trust it! And they wonder at how you haven't been snared by them drug dealers yet! You're too stupid to sample the stuff before offering to bring them home for dinner for a chat."

She continued ignoring their presence. Naruto and Sasuke exchanged mournful looks. This scene was too familiar for comfort. Shikamaru's mom nagged just as badly, though she didn't smack their lazy friend with a ladle. Outside, they could see neighbours slipping out of their houses to meet the day as if Amenbo's shout was their usual wakeup call.

She lunged forward and grabbed the creamy stone strung on a leather strip hanging around Kohan's neck. "You went to visit her this morning, didn't you?"

"What's it to you?" he asked, his former good nature disappearing beneath sullenness and secrecy.

"You know I don't think she'd be good enough!"

"And what if I don't care?" Kohan growled back, setting the slender fish in the waiting bowl of water and expertly gutting them as he sent them a wink and a nod to the table, indicating that they could sit and rest while he handled his rude sister. Naruto and Sasuke fought over the seat farthest away from the sibling spat while their sensei claimed the chair with the best view of all the exits and Sakura quickly claimed the chair next to him. "So what if she doesn't have her village under her thumb?"

"What good is she then? She's no herb woman, fisher, or guide. What can she do for her community? Gathering watercress, what good is that when it only makes thin soup?"

"It's for eating too, Oneesan."

The argument went on until Amenbo realized that the people at her table were eating. Muttering dire things under her breath, she grabbed the fish that Kohan had gutted and stalked out the door. Awkward silence reigned over the small kitchen until the sound of the smokehouse door around the back closing reached them.

"Whew!" Kohan wiped his hands carelessly on his mucky pants as he plucked some watercress and began to chew on it. "I thought she would never let go! Sorry about that. Let's hear about those ninja that got scrapped!"

What followed was a very stilted account of how two nukenin, having been hired by Gatou to "take care" of some people that had been bothering him in the past, had been targeted by another pair of their fellow defector ninja. Keji didn't know many details, but it sounded as if it had been a hell of a fight.

"So why are you here?" Kohan asked as he peeled some sort of root at the counter. "It's so far away from the bridge. Why come here?"

"To find help," Tazuna said. "Wave Country needs to finish this bridge, not hired men from Fire and other places. Wave needs this bridge, so Wave needs to claim it and take a stand instead of getting overrun every time something goes wrong here. We have no courage left in us, no will to fight. I want the bridge to give us that."

"You want to hire Wave people?" Kohan's brow creased with wrinkles of confusion. "Didn't you hear what I told you about how mad people are? Are you crazy? You'd get run out of town before you even got to wages. People know who you are and what you look like. The Little Man made sure of that when you disappeared."

"What about you?" Tazuna asked. "Would you come? Would you fight for your nation by building something that your grandchildren could use?"

Kohan stared down at the withered roots and scraped at them half-heartedly with his knife. "It's a long way to go to get south," he whispered, a flush covering his cheeks above his short beard. "There's gathering to be done before winter sends the swamp to sleep. If I leave now, Otsu and Amenbo would be on their own."

"It sounds like your sister can handle it," Keji said.

Kohan shrugged.

"You'd be a hero to your children, to your country, as well-known as I am, if you come."

Kohan laughed at that and shook his head. "I'm a simple man, as my sister often tells me. I have simple wants. Glory isn't one of them. What good is glory if I get skewered by a thug like a frog beneath my spear? I am comfortable here. What point is there in leaving this marsh for an uncharted bog full of sinkholes?"

"Finding courage," Tazuna insisted, but his heart wasn't in it.

Naruto glanced back and forth between them, narrowing his eyes as he saw that Tazuna wasn't cut out for making inspirational speeches. This whole mission would be a waste if he didn't learn fast. Fortunately for Tazuna, a master of inspirational speeches was along to help him.

"How old are you?" Naruto demanded of Kohan.

The man blinked with surprise before answering.

"Thirty-three and you still let your sister boss you around and say who you can't marry?"

Kohan flushed with shame, looking a little cornered.

"Thirty-three and you still sneak out of the house early in the morning to visit your girl? I don't think she's gonna be a 'girl' much longer either! She is gonna be a baba if you wait much longer!" Kohan sputtered in Otsu's defence, but Naruto didn't let him keep going. "You need some courage."

"Courage doesn't form on lake surfaces!" Kohan snapped, slamming his knife down on the tabletop.

"Then come get some on the bridge!" Naruto stood up to spray spittle into Kohan's face.

"You are a ninja," he said. "You know nothing of being powerless and fearful!"

"I'm twelve! If you think I don't know what fear is, you've got another thing coming. People in my village don't like me. They've been bullying me, ignoring me, and putting me down since the day I was born. They didn't even want to let me learn how to defend myself, but now I'm a ninja. I don't let them win without a fight. You can't say the same. You give up."

That shut Kohan up, but it wasn't a defeated silence. It was a defiant one. He had decided to retreat into his shell of self-knowledge and refuse to listen. Nothing Naruto said made any difference to him. He wasn't willing to hear and understand. Amenbo changed this though.

She stormed back into the kitchen, picked up her ladle, and swatted Kohan with it, hard. "Fool! If I knew anything about building canoes, I would go help these folk, anything to bring proper cloth back. Do you really want to cling to your pole your entire life and only know the marsh? Do you want your entire knowledge of our land to be hearsay? If Otsu can't be important, at least you can be. At the very least, you'll shorten their journey by guiding them south."

She addressed them for the first time. "You, if you are Tazuna, I want you to understand this. Though I don't hold with how you slipped away, I can understand you did it out of necessity. Hearing about how you'd managed to strike a deal with another of them shipping vipers gave us heart until _he_ started punishing the rest of us for it. I'll never forgive you completely for what I've suffered because of your bridge. We lost kin to the privations in the south. My friend lost everything when cloth stopped coming in and they took her when her debts ran too high. You bring the cloth back and finish that damn bridge of yours if you know what's good for you. You can't leave things half done. How long will you need him to swing a hammer for you?"

"A month or so," Tazuna said, blinking at how quickly she had changed the entire tune of the conversation.

"That long? You keep an eye out for him then. He talks too sweet sometimes for his own good, too friendly for the times. Finish your meal and be on your way. Kohan, go pack. Maybe you'll grow a brain while you're away and figure out you can do better than Otsu, little bug under a rock."

When he made moves to protest, she shook her ladle at him and chased him from the room. Once his swearing could be heard from a back room, she reappeared to watch them with a grasshopper's intensity as they finished up the scraps of their meal. Naruto and Sasuke exchanged looks. Nobody could get ready to depart for a month as fast as Amenbo seemed to expect. Was she even going to let Kohan go say goodbye to Otsu so she wouldn't worry?

Kohan appeared with a rather frightened and off balance look about him, and they were all herded out the door. Amenbo was a whirlwind if nothing else.

"One is all our village can spare," she said as she pressed some salted and smoked fish into her brother's hands. "You do as you're told," she spat at him when he made one last effort to protest. "Otsu will still be single in a month, fool that she is." She turned to them once more. "Get ye gone and finish what you've started." She pushed her brother into his dugout canoe and watched their baffled departure with a smug smile on her strange face.

Maybe Neechan wasn't so bad after all.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Whittling the Knight of Pentacles

Sasuke was annoyed with how brusquely that insect lady had dealt with them. However, Tazuna had become pleased when it had finally sunken in that he had recruited his first Wave Country worker, if in an unconventional manner. Kohan poled his canoe alongside the boardwalk in a daze. Sasuke couldn't say he was impressed with the man's resolve. However, it was reassuring to watch the simpleton put himself back together and he took everything in stride in a determinedly happy sort of way. Sasuke had to wonder if the man understood that he had just become a fugitive considering that he was now an accomplice to a marked man.

Their journey south continued in a rather jumbled fashion. The problem was that their clients didn't really have a clear plan on how to accomplish their goals. They were succeeding to a degree though. Kohan was invaluable over the next two days. Friendly to a fault and accidentally adept at drawing anyone into his light-hearted conversations, he was the one they sent into each village to carefully spread their tale. He would come back usually with one or two brave followers. People this far north in the archipelago weren't as cowed as those in the south.

Their numbers grew slowly from seven to fifteen. When they came to the crossing to the next island, it was too dangerous to brave the bridge, so they hired a passing riverboat to get them from one side to the other with Jun-san's funds. From there, their journey continued in a straightforward manner until they hit the longest of the islands, Sentan. Wide as it was and relatively heavily populated because of its higher elevation, there were suggestions that their force split in order to better recruit.

Kohan, reluctant to abandon his boat for anything, demanded that he be sent along the delta on the western coast. The new recruits were to go with him while the core group continued along the plateau farther inland to avoid Gatou's eyes and to gather those that farmed and herded in the highlands. Eager to beat the rumours of their coming to the site of the bridge, Tazuna and Keji headed off with the ninja in tow.

People in the first highland village were the least happy to see them so far. No one spoke to them, no one would sit near them, and worst of all someone tipped off Gatou's thugs. This resulted in a swift battle. Sasuke didn't embarrass himself, dealing with his opponent within moments, Sakura and Naruto fumbled through the motions clumsily and ended up having to double-team their opponent, and Kakashi was finished with three before they had time to turn around to see how he did it.

The highland folk were displeased with how they had brought Gatou's wrath down on them, so leaving that town was the best option. How to efficiently evade pursuit that was sure to come worried Sasuke. In the highlands, there was no cover until they reached the forested marshes again. To get there, they had to pass over bare hills and flat fens after descending back to sea level. Their clients weren't up to travel ninja-style and carrying them wasn't a feasible option for a long period.

Kakashi watched Naruto bicker waspishly with Sakura over how clones could accomplish some short bursts of ninja-speed if trekking along on foot got them caught by hunting dogs. "What are they looking for?" he asked them out of the blue.

"For Tazuna and Keji of course!" said Naruto.

"And your hair, Sakura—no one here has hair that colour," Kakashi said in a half-serious manner as Sakura protested. "So we want to make sure they don't see them, right?"

All three of them nodded, not quite understanding what the jounin was getting at. Kakashi continued to watch them, waiting for them to figure it out.

Scowling, Sasuke went through all possible options. It was something even a genin could do; it had to be. Kakashi wouldn't be looking so disappointed otherwise. It was probably something simple… Not Kawarimi, not Shunshin, not Bunshin, not Henge… no, wait. "Henge no Jutsu."

Kakashi smiled. "Exactly. So, what form?"

"It needs to be something common, something that will be easily overlooked, and something that can keep moving because we have a deadline to meet. A group of people is too obvious, so changing their appearance to another person is out," Sakura said, her brow creased with concentration. "What's common here?"

"Dogs, rabbits, cattle, goats, sheep…" Naruto listed off the top of his head.

Sasuke shook his head. "Rabbits are rubbish, Goofball. Cattle aren't common where we want to end up."

"Sheep move in flocks of about twenty and are too valuable to be wandering around down in the swamps. Goats though…" their sensei mused. "Okay, that'll work. Let's see it."

"See what, Sensei?" asked Sakura.

"See how well all of you henge into goats. Not you though, Sasuke: someone needs to be the goat herder."

Protests were loud on Naruto's part with Sasuke snarling a decibel below him, but Kakashi refused to relent. He looked wickedly amused by this plan. Grumbling, Sakura went through the handseals and reluctantly assumed her goatish form. A roan doe swayed nervously in place when the smoke cleared. She made quite threatening motions toward Naruto when he burst out laughing. His laughter died when Kakashi gestured that he was next. For once, it was probably a good thing that Naruto found it easier to assume the illusion of a female: male goats were only good for meat, hair, and skin. The white-haired creature that stood in his friend's place was definitely a nanny goat. Once his teammate's packs were safely under the illusion with them, Kakashi applied the jutsu to Tazuna and Keji, making them appear to be rather nondescript goats.

"Why do I have to be the goatherd?"

"Because you've got the right tone," Kakashi told Sasuke cryptically.

Cursing internally at being the one left to deal with anyone they came across, Sasuke flashed through the seals and took on the appearance of a scruffy, uncouth youth with average enough colouring that he could have been related to anyone.

Kakashi's hands slid through the seals without trouble. When the smoke cleared, jealous bleating came from Naruto. Though Sasuke couldn't understand a word of it, he got the gist that Naruto was furious that Kakashi was the one that got to be something cool, namely a dog. Sasuke had to agree. Kakashi panted a laugh and ambled off across the crown of the hill, getting into character by getting all of the grumpy goats going.

This had to be the oddest thing Sasuke had ever been forced to watch.

The worst thing was that it worked. Oh, he supposed that he was proud that he had figured out the right way to deal with the situation, but hell, he wished that it had been less embarrassing. Who had ever heard of a goat-herding Uchiha? For that matter, who had heard of an Uzumaki or a Haruno goat? He supposed that the Hatake dog was only too probable given how his teacher was a dog summoner, but it was annoying to look ahead and see his sensei's flagged tail swaying from side to side as he trotted onward, keeping the goats going at a good clip whenever they weren't "grazing."

As for himself, he completed the herder picture by shaving down a fallen birch limb he found beneath a stand of the familiar trees in the intersection of a trio of hills. He made sure to drop it a lot and handle it excessively so it would acquire a faux worn look. With the crook in hand, it was easier to "get into character" when a search party caught up to them.

"You! Herder!" called one of the toughs as they raced up, some on foot and one on horseback.

The one astride the gelding obviously belonged to a higher class than his compatriots: his clothes, his horse, and his manner said it all. Sasuke hadn't known that nobility hired themselves out as thugs. Maybe this was a rounin. He certainly spoke like one used to working with nobility: all arrogance and dismissive address to anyone significantly below his station.

"What?" Sasuke had to work hard to keep from snapping at this prig. Masquerading as nobility, addressing him as scum, and now demanding answers when he was just the one they had to humiliate themselves to avoid—Sasuke had no reason to like this man. He couldn't think like that though. He was a goatherd that was used to being out of contact with society up in the hills. Kakashi sent him an expectant look as he snarled at the thugs who came a little too close to the goats.

"Call off your dog."

It was the moment of truth for Sasuke: he had to boss his sensei around. What came after made this entire farce worth it. "Kashi, come."

Kakashi growled one last time before lowering his head and padding over to him meekly. Sasuke tried to seal this moment in his mind forever as Naruto the goat tossed his head in what Sasuke knew was a full-bellied laugh. Naruto would help him remember this forever; Sasuke was sure.

Just to take advantage of this while he could, Sasuke cleared his throat and said, "Kashi, sit."

Kakashi sat, but he sent him a clear look that told him not to push it. Sasuke had to work very, very hard to keep from snickering.

The faux lord didn't find this delay quite as amusing. "Are you done?"

Sasuke nodded.

"I have some questions for you."

Again, Sasuke kept himself to nodding. This prick could do all the talking.

"Have you seen the criminal known as Tazuna?"

"Tazuna?"

"The bridge builder who is to blame for all the shortages of late. His treachery—"

"The one wid de beard on de poster?" This slurring of words wasn't all that hard. It was a bit of rebellion against Akio's forceful lectures about being well-spoken.

"Yes."

"Wid de glasses?"

"Yes."

"And de short 'air?"

It was not quite lost on the rider that Sasuke was the one actually asking all the questions, so he belatedly retook control of the conversation. "Yes, that would be him. Have you seen him?"

"Can't say."

"What?"

"I can't say I have; only me and de goats and Kashi up here. Maybe Ari-san has seen 'em. He's far, far west though, so maybe not. Was I supposed to have?"

"Your trail loops near where we lost theirs."

"Well, I haven't seen 'im, or them, whoever 'they' are." He kept his gaze direct, lying through his teeth without any remorse.

He did have to remind himself that he had no idea how to throw kunai when one of the thugs not quite up for standing around and listening started knocking Naruto and Keji around with their walking sticks and laughing at how they reacted. When the man Kakashi had snarled at aimed a blow at the dog sitting by his side, Sasuke half expected his sensei to set things to rights, but he held his shape and darted out of range, snarling as he loped forward to scare off those now messing with Sakura and Naruto. Tazuna had wisely stuck to the high ground and Keji, free at last, was quick to join him there.

Sasuke was relieved that Kakashi had kept Sakura and Naruto's tempers from boiling over. A few more minutes of petty abuse and he had no doubt that both of them would have flipped out. They were touchy when it came to that sort of maltreatment, Naruto's reasons obvious, Sakura's yet unknown.

"I'm not sure I believe you, peasant. Lie to me and I assure you that your life and your livestock are mine."

Sasuke met his eyes for a moment, his hands desperate for the reassuring chill of kunai or shuriken. Kakashi was watching him without appearing to, waiting for Sasuke to prove why he had been chosen to stay human. Glancing at a dog for backup wouldn't look good if done for too long though. Of course, it could be excused as a simple, lonely boy looking for reassurance from a familiar source, but these suspicious pricks weren't likely to buy that.

He dropped his gaze to the ground. "I ain't lying. Got no reason to. Don't like trespassers up in my hills, 'specially not bridge builders who keep my ma from her medicine." Pretending to be cowed, despite how it worked, left a very bitter flavour in his mouth. He would never do this again, he resolved firmly as the faux lord bought it.

"Good, keep that in mind and report him as soon as possible if you do spot him up here. He should have a couple companions: three children, a sallow man, and a grey-haired man. Keep well away from them; they're dangerous, especially the grey-haired one."

Sasuke forced fear onto his features and worked hard to hide the woodenness of his frantic nodding. The lord smiled smugly and called his compatriots away as they set off across the trackless hills again.

Sasuke watched them disappear into the horizon. Relief didn't last long. Kakashi glanced at him, amber, canine eyes full of unspoken warnings. Sasuke nodded. Breaking the dog's character for once, Kakashi got to his feet, rounded up the goats without a command from Sasuke, and headed out, leaving Sasuke to run after them to keep up.

Apparently, Kakashi was paying him back for the "sit" command. Such petulance made Sasuke smirk despite the speed he was required to maintain to keep up with the "four-legged" creatures.

* * *

There were two other close calls over the next three days. The first was when they actually bumped into real herder who was familiar with these hills if his white beard and large flock was any indication. Kakashi had scented him from two valleys over though, so they had managed to swing quite wide of him, avoiding questions. Getting too close would only give away just how little he belonged. His act, passable in front of the unwary and uninformed, would shatter if held up against the real thing. They couldn't afford that.

The second was almost not worth the worry.

Sasuke had been sleeping, letting Naruto take his turn at watch, when the devil himself had shaken him out of sleep. It had taken a couple seconds for his sleepy mind to take stock of his surroundings and figure out what didn't belong. Once he did spot it, he nearly walloped Naruto for waking him up over a civilian woman who was obviously not from the area. She was approaching their camp from the top of a hillock they were using as a shield against the wind. Not too tall, not too wide, and not too threatening appearing, Sasuke let the flat of the shuriken slide through his fingers and grabbed his useless staff instead, getting into character sluggishly. Kakashi sat up and watched her approach, sniffing what wind was coming their way cautiously.

"Who're you and what do you want?" Sasuke called, letting anxiety he didn't really feel creep into his tone. He could handle this twig girl even if she had a head on him. No, she was no threat, but a herder wouldn't know that. She held up her hands in a peaceful gesture, one that showed that she was unarmed. Her smile was amiable.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to frighten you." He scowled at her, not just because it was in character. "I was just wondering if you could tell me where I could find Ari-san."

He had to work very hard to keep the confusion off his face. So there was an Ari-san? "Somewhere west. I last saw 'im way out there, almost to the western coast. He says the grass is better there." He was pretty sure that was consistent with what he had told the lord, but who knew if it was correct or not. Maybe this Ari-san was to the east keeping his goats fit on the bare rocks and scaling cliffs in the light of the rising sun. Sasuke neither knew nor cared. As long as he sent this woman far away from where he was going, all would be well.

"Thank you," she said before circumnavigating the camp with a nod of farewell and heading west.

He and Naruto stared after her for a long moment before trading puzzled looks. Naruto the goat "shrugged" and went back to keeping watch in a goatish manner. Sasuke, knowing that he had a long day of walking ahead of him with little chance of rest if they were to reach the fenlands by evening, went back to sleep, dismissing the incident within the context of the mission for the most part.

Kakashi stayed up long after Sasuke, watching the western horizon, canine eyes full of unnatural thought.

* * *

Escaping Sentan Island, which was the longest and narrowest of the islands that made up Wave, according to Sakura, was far easier than Naruto had anticipated. Sasuke, being the only human of the group, had hailed several passing boats once they reached the end of Sentan's southern tidal flats and the beginning of the inlet that divided northern Wave from southern. A cutter crewed by a father and his many children had given them grudging passage to Kagiana's northern shore, marked by unforgiving cliffs with a horribly steep switchback path to the top. The old geezer clients had had trouble scaling that.

As far as Naruto was concerned, Kagiana Island was out to hinder them in any way possible. First, there had been the cliff. Strangely enough, about two kilometres past that vertical barrier, all had become dwindling rolling hills and dense temperate forest. It was as if the island was trying to test them by giving them the evillest of its obstacles and then lulling them into a false sense of security. No wonder so few people lived here.

There was a road going southwest though, towards the harbour and the next island they had to trek across. Sasuke had sullenly picked up his staff and had become the unwilling herder again, leading them along the twisting and often muddy road. Kakashi had taken up point, scenting what lay ahead.

The only good thing about Kagiana Island was that they traversed it quickly despite the way it seemed determined to drench them, swallow them whole, or devour them via mosquitoes. Kaka-sensei had declared that it was too risky attempting to recruit here after the increased number of Gatou's hirelings had become apparent. Keji and Tazuna hadn't protested all that much, seemingly eager to get to the bridge and meet up with those that had actually come willingly. They were all hoping that Kohan figured out that getting to the bridge was more important than waiting up for them at the ferry on Sentan.

Naruto thought it was hilarious that the former Dog-san fit the dog henge so well. When Neechan heard about this, she would laugh so hard, or at least he hoped she would. She usually enjoyed a laugh at his sensei's expense almost as much as Sensei appeared to thrive on pissing her off. They were both weird and so obvious about their enmity that their feeble attempts to hide it from him were laughable. And Neechan said that he shouldn't fight with Sasuke so much… She couldn't talk at all. Of course, telling her this wasn't in his best interest since letting her know that he knew about the fight that was supposed to be going over his head would make her embarrassed and she would stop, which would mean that he wouldn't be able to laugh at her anymore.

Naruto had noticed that people were getting grubbier and skinnier as they got farther south. However, he hadn't really considered the implications until a group of bandits decided that they wanted roast goat for supper. None of them had been very amused. Naruto had been so unhappy with the prospect of being slow roasted over a fire that he had dropped the henge and proceeded to knock heads together with the bastard's help despite Sakura's howls promising death and doom for breaking cover as she helped beat the large and very hungry and astonished group into unconsciousness with her evil fists.

Grumbling and still trying to shake off the occasional phantom ache after having one too many clones die on him, Naruto recreated the henge. Within ten minutes, they were walking on as though nothing had happened. If Naruto looked back over his shoulder, he could just barely make out the limp shapes of the ones that had accosted them tied up in the trees. Knowing that they were as safe as they had had time to make them and knowing what they had almost done to him didn't make that niggling guilt go away.

* * *

"We shouldn't risk it," said Sakura as they huddled around a fire kept out of the rain by the slight overhang of the cliff they were sheltering from the winds beneath. "Cutting across that inland sea and continuing down that southern inlet just to avoid two islands isn't a good idea. Travelling by water makes us sitting targets!"

"But travelling by road exposes us to more potential of breaking our cover," Sasuke pointed out, making her flush with shame at being against him in the argument. "Travelling on a boat would allow us to limit our interaction with locals."

"I thought the whole point of taking the long way here was to talk to the locals," said Naruto. "I mean, it would have been a hell of a lot easier just to stay in Fire Country and build the bridge from there."

Tazuna shook his head. "My people need to be a part of this. They need to prove to themselves that they can fight."

"Also," Kakashi-sensei said, "the south-westernmost island has been cut off by water according to what we've heard. The bridge entrance is probably guarded. By coming around from the rear, what do you think we've done?"

"Hit the soft underbelly," Sasuke said, a smirk distorting his face. "Increased our numbers and added to the confusion. With luck, they'll think we're still on Sentan Island, drawing the search away from the area around the bridge. Moving people out to search takes time and it will take even more time to bring them back."

"Excellent. And?"

"We've decreased the resistance we'll face when we finally do get there," Sakura offered, wondering if there really was anything more because Sasuke-kun's answer had implied her own.

"And?"

The three genin traded looks and shrugged.

"Rumours," Kakashi-sensei said. "People will hear about his coming. What do you think that will do?"

"They'll be mad or happy about it," Naruto grumbled. "If they're mad, they'll chase us like they did last time."

"Yes and what did that start?"

"Confusion," said Sasuke.

"Chaos." Naruto brightened up, looking as though he had just realized what prank they were pulling.

"People are getting nervous and starting to jump at shadows," Sakura elaborated. "They're gonna start doing things with Tazuna around instead of letting things happen to them. Gatou's going to be distracted by keeping them in line."

Now Kaka-sensei smiled at them and nodded sagely. "And that's when a ninja is most easily missed. We need to be quick to get into place and let Tazuna make what progress he can while Gatou's people are stretched thin. We're taking a boat." Sakura pouted, not quite happy she had lost this argument, but Kakashi-sensei wasn't finished yet. "Naruto, you've got another task too."

Intrigued, Naruto leaned forward. Kaka-sensei's eye smiled slightly as he began to outline a plan vaguely, but even Naruto didn't need much detail to figure out this one. Chaos was familiar to its favourite Konoha agent.

* * *

Reaching the shore of the tiny sea that was protected from the ocean to the south by the shores of Kagiana and Kouhekigyoku Islands took hours and hours of running and walking. Naruto admitted that carrying Tazuna even with the help of clones was a drain on his developing stamina. He had never truly appreciated just how much chakra it took to enhance strength and balance when it wasn't just him supporting his own mass. Dividing his initial chakra reserve among his clones didn't help.

They had broken cover and were speeding through the treetops, abandoning secrecy and plausibility for the sake of speed. This meant swinging wide of every road and village, but it was necessary according to Kaka-sensei. Fortunately, only three villages lay between them and the southern shore.

When they hit the small harbour town, they paused on the outskirts and took on a new configuration. Sasuke and Sakura were left as humans this time, a pair of middle-aged traders, who had a kennel of four mutts. Naruto had to admit that he liked the dog henge quite a bit better. Sakura was happier too, now allowed to talk cordially with people while Sasuke remained taciturn. Their story was simple: they were going to see this bridge that everyone was talking about while evaluating prospects on the westernmost of the isles.

Naruto scampered around Sasuke and Sakura as they walked the docks, evaluating ships and listening in on conversations in hopes of finding a boat going their way with the right speed capabilities. Anything capable of braving the open ocean was tied up in Gatou's red tape or belonged to him outright, so their options were severely limited. The only speedy boats available were ones with low passenger and cargo capacities. That left them with two options: an aged motorized rowboat that looked as though it was going to fall apart, or an equally decrepit and slightly larger catamaran. Kakashi sniffed out both boats unobtrusively with Naruto hot on his heels while Sasuke and Sakura asked questions and kept the boat masters occupied. Sasuke was quick to get Kakashi's hint that the catamaran was their best bet and opened terse negotiations with the aged captain, who looked eager enough for their money that he agreed to go along with their desire for haste with an extra incentive.

Within three hours, they were bouncing over the waves, the sail catching what wind there was while the engine made up for what there wasn't. Four dogs and two merchants kept out of the path of the loosely secured boom as the two-man crew tacked this way and that, eager to get the bonus promised them if they arrived at port within two days. Had he been free to act like a human, Naruto would have crouched on one of the pontoons and dragged his feet in the spray, but as a dog, he wasn't supposed to be capable of balancing on the slippery surface properly. Instead, he crouched at the stern and watched Kagiana fade behind them, in the process of being consumed by a cloudburst. Somewhere far away, Naruto was soaked. He grinned, glad that he was the one that was fairly safe and warm.

* * *

Tazuna trudged down the beaten track, yawning widely. The boat ride had been far too long in his estimation. Scratching at his beard, he pulled out a water bottle and took a swig to get rid of the salt sitting on his tongue. Gah, boats. Why did all the inlets have to be saltwater? It always made him thirsty for hours and hours after landing. It had been good to stop acting like a hunted creature and walk with people upon reaching land though. The astonishment on people's faces had been a little odd though. He was just a tradesman. He hardly should have needed ninja…

A pair of dark shadows appeared before him, a long metal chain connecting them. Before he could even force the obvious question past his lips, he felt the cold steel bruise his arms.

Then excruciating pain took him.

* * *

Naruto jerked awake and would have tumbled into the water if Kaka-sensei hadn't been lying between him and the edge of the catamaran's deck. "Holy crap!" he bellowed, masking the words with a doggy howl. That woke Kaka-sensei up real quick. As Sakura scolded him for the sake of appearances in front of the two crewmembers, Naruto scuttled far away from her henge's beefy hand.

Kakashi followed him as he made a beeline for the stern. "Which one was it, Naruto?" He hid their words from the crew with some sort of genjutsu; the captain, who was working the rudders nearby, didn't even bat an eye when the grey dog started speaking without appearing to. Naruto was a little preoccupied with memories though. It took a while to sort through the haze of pain to figure out the details of the kage bunshin's existence. Naruto had never thought that reconnaissance and misdirection would be this painful.

"The one that ran back to Sentan Island and hitched a ride across the inlet was wandering around between the marsh and the hills… Oh, cool! He found this awesome turtle and—" One unamused, amber glance from his sensei got Naruto back on track despite his desire to avoid reliving death. "Um, yeah… He had already gone through one of the hill villages and was heading towards another one when he got caught by these two masked guys who came out of nowhere. They wrapped him in this wicked chain and… And…"

"Ripped him to pieces?"

Naruto fought his dinner back down. "Yeah, that's it."

The grey dog looked thoughtful. "Where are the other ones?"

"All over the place." Naruto tried to seek out each link in his mind, but the distances involved were too great. "They're still kicking though."

"Good. What else can you remember about the men who killed Tazuna?"

It was a little freaky when Kakashi put it that way; Naruto felt it was a personal death: a henge didn't really change the way he thought about himself. Putting away that grievance to be addressed during their next sparring match, Naruto reluctantly pulled all the details out from behind the wall and flipped through them.

"They were wearing forehead protectors on their weird headgear," Naruto said. "It's the village mark with the four squiggly lines—"

"Hidden Mist."

"I was getting there, geez! Anyway, these guys wore wicked claws and had these stupid little metal horns on their headgear. They wore gasmasks or something."

"Probably a breathing apparatus. Mist ninja deal with water enough that it would be useful for them."

"Okay then. Anyway, they were dressed in brown and grey, patchy stuff like you find in those junk shops full of outdated gear…"

"Old camouflage uniforms."

Naruto frowned at his sensei, wishing he would stop interrupting so he could get this over with and put the memories away to rot. _Did Sensei think it was fun to remember how two bums had chopped him into pieces with something as silly as a chain?_

"How did they sneak up on Tazuna?"

"I dunno. I didn't even see them coming. I mean, I was walking by these puddles and 'scratching my beard' and whatnot, and suddenly these bastards pop out of nowhere. I didn't hear them or anything!"

"At least chuunin then," Kakashi muttered.

Sasuke was watching them out of the corner of his henge's eye, but he wasn't moving over to interrogate them just yet, instead staying near the pair of old hounds sleeping behind him. He probably didn't want to find out the hard way whether the genjutsu only covered Naruto and Kakashi or not.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed reluctantly, "maybe. They weren't as cool as Iruka-sensei though."

"Well," his sensei said brightly after a long silence during which Naruto scanned the horrible memories one last time before shoving them away, "they know we're here for sure now. The only good thing about having your bunshin explode in front of them is that now we know who two of the real threats are, not that we'll see them until they're on top of us."

Naruto was hardly comforted.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Synthesizing Temperance

Sasuke was relieved when they got going on solid ground again. Sitting on a little boat in the middle of the wide inlet and watching the jagged cliffs and the misty fenlands pass by on either side had not been good for his peace of mind. He had spent hours figuring out how each bit of the scenery that Sakura had started enjoying could be used to put a halt to their journey. The glacier-hewn cliffs that she had prompted the first mate to wax poetic about only made him think about aerial attacks and barrages of kunai or even hefty stones. Paranoia seemed to be infectious. Sasuke blamed the initial carrier for his case: Kakashi.

Ever since the night that Naruto had howled bloody murder, his sensei had been more alert than ever. He didn't look it, but Sasuke had glimpsed the dog assessing too many of the same geographical features for comfort. Tazuna and Keji had lain about, oblivious, but Naruto had cringed or flinched exaggeratedly a couple times. Sasuke figured that more of the loser's clones had met some sticky end at the hands of Tazuna's hunters. According to his count, Naruto had four more clones to go before their diversion was destroyed. Those numbers made Sasuke grimace: it had been hoped that those bunshin would be able to keep the chaos going for at least another three weeks, not just three days. The moron was going to have to figure out some way of keeping those that remained intact.

They were doomed.

Sasuke forcibly pushed his gloomy thoughts away. It went against the grain to have to rely on Naruto to come up with a way to save their asses.

The catamaran stayed at the pier, gathering supplies to sail back to Kagiana. Their group of six left it far behind as they slipped through the town based around the harbour. Sakura tried to restock on provisions, but she came back mostly empty handed with a disturbed look on her face. "They barely have anything here," she told them, glancing sadly over her shoulder at the gaunt woman leaving the store with a mostly empty basket hung on her bony arm.

She had the look of a person who had lost a lot of weight in a very short period: her skin hung loose on her bones, lacking the fat deposits that had been there before. She was dirty besides and wore an expression that suggested she was so used to her poverty that it failed to rouse indignation in her any more. She had given up. The despair that hung around this place made Sasuke more leery than he had even been when the bandits had been about to waylay them. The insidious aura could seep into them and steal away all the fight in them.

They struck out along the road heading southwest, breathing easier as the oppressive poverty of that tiny town fell behind them. The forest at least was constant no matter what tribulations humanity was being made to face.

"How far from here?" Naruto asked, dropping the dog henge with relief the moment they were ten kilometres from any human habitation. It was intensely odd to see the blonde spikes after days of horns or dog's ears. Naruto seemed to feel the same way because he winced when he caught his reflection in a nearby pool of rainwater and ran his hand through his hair worriedly. "Where are we gonna stay anyway while Tazuna's working on the bridge?"

"I have a house—" Tazuna started, but Kakashi cut him off.

"That should be a last resort if possible. It will only be too easy to figure out who you are if you stay there."

"You mean that we have to keep hiding like this?" Keji asked incredulously, making his hound dog henge seem even more ridiculous. Who had ever heard of a whiny hound? "We're paying you to protect us, not shelter us behind a bunch of tricks and nonsense!"

"Ninja tactics are always tricks and nonsense. Whether we hid you under a henge or not, you would be guarded by a frail screen of ninja competence with trickery and clever tactics. The problem is that you commissioned us to deal with thugs, bandits, and normal trouble. Your enemy has apparently gone beyond that and enlisted the help of people that are not included in the parameters of this mission: ninja." Tazuna and Keji didn't have a good answer for that. "My team has only been taking missions for a couple months. While able to handle other fighters, they aren't ready to take on other ninja by themselves."

"But you're here," said Tazuna.

"Yes, but I am only one."

"We managed when the Oto-nin attacked Tsunade," Sasuke protested, but Kakashi shook his head.

"Those were chuunin that weren't interested in starting a war by killing you. Oto is too new on the scene to risk making enemies with Konoha by killing their genin just yet. Smaller villages need powerful backers before they can start killing off opponents without fear of overwhelming retaliation. Oto doesn't have a backer, so they're keeping their options open until there's no choice. Hidden Mist has no such problem. You weren't fighting on your own either. Whenever things went beyond what you could handle, Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama, Shizune-san, or I stepped in to make sure that nothing happened. That may not be possible here if there are multiple opponents as Naruto's reconnaissance suggests."

"What did you find, Loser?"

"Well," the idiot began, rubbing his hair one last time before creating a new henge, human this time.

Changing their apparent numbers would keep people from connecting them with the group that had just arrived from Kagiana, so Sasuke assumed the appearance of a younger man, swarthy and foreboding with a sense of mercenary about him. Sakura quickly did the same, making her henge slightly taller than her previous persona and with a slighter build. In fact, she looked quite a bit like the Tsuba that was mouldering away in a jail cell because of them.

Kakashi nodded approvingly at them, switching up his appearance as well to a wolfhound as he modified the henge over Tazuna and Keji so they appeared to be nondescript old labourers that somehow looked nothing like themselves despite how they fit their true description now. Five humans and one dog were quite a change from two traders with four dogs and an even bigger jump from one uncouth scut with four goats and a sheepdog. No one was likely to make the connection between the groups now.

"Well what?" Sasuke scowled at the black-haired woman walking beside him that looked too much like his mother for comfort. "Drop that one, idiot, unless you want a kunai in your eye."

"What?" The loser batted his eyelashes as he nimbly flipped out of range. Hearing the moron's whiny voice coming from his mother's lips was disturbing. "Don't you miss your mom?"

Sasuke punched his arm and glared menacingly. "Moron, I mean it. Pick something else."

"Fine, how about this?"

When the smoke cleared, Sasuke grimaced, but admitted that it was an improvement. It looked uncannily like a feminine version of his father, or a grownup version of Ryuuka. He hoped she didn't turn out looking like that.

"Well, Bastard, there's at least two blokes trying to rip Tazuna to shreds at the moment: Kiri-nin too. They've knocked me out three times in the past couple days. I got killed by another guy, but I was dead before I saw who did it. He had a huge ass sword though—chopped my head off with it and everything!"

These details subdued Keji and Tazuna's indignation. They only passed a couple of people on the last leg: a pair of old men that had regarded them with unveiled suspicion and a delicate young woman with a hesitant smile to go with dark hair, snowy skin, and innocent brown eyes.

* * *

It turned out that all of their fretting about Kohan and the rest of the recruits was unnecessary. Kohan poled out of the mangroves that bordered the stream the road followed into town and glanced at them suspiciously before continuing on his way upstream. Naruto almost ran after him to keep him from skewering innocent frogs when he saw the spear in the bough of the dugout canoe, but Kakashi was trotting at his side, keeping him in line.

"Say nothing until we know more." He hung his head at a better angle to detect scents lingering on the road ahead of them.

"But we have to get in contact with them so the work can start," Tazuna said.

Sasuke shook his head at the man, his dusky face contorted into a scowl. "They might be watching him. Besides, there might not even be a bridge for you to finish."

That possibility put both clients on edge, granting the ninja a measure of peace. Where they were staying and how to keep from breaking their cover with their clients unused to deception of this level was a challenge Naruto didn't really have many ideas for conquering. He was all for just winging things and taking down problems as they appeared, but the bastard and Sakura didn't seem to agree because every once in a while they would mutter a suggestion only for it to be shot down by Kaka-sensei, who wasn't willing to make any firm decisions until they had more info. The possibility of ninja hanging around to lop off their heads had definitely put everyone on edge.

In town, they were given a wide berth. Something about their appearance frightened people. For Naruto, it was the oddest thing he had ever experienced. In Konoha, people did their best to harass him. Here, they stayed away out of fear. He wasn't quite sure which was worse: the hostility or the suspicion.

As they raided the grocery store with little hope of finding enough food to last the week, Kakashi disappeared into the roiling mass of people, an impressive feat for a huge wolfhound. Naruto was a little more nervous without Kaka-sensei around to make sure everything went smoothly, but the jounin was undoubtedly off to gather badly needed info. Naruto only hoped that one of the unidentified enemies didn't decide to show up and pick them all off when it was just the three of them guarding.

When their meagre foodstuffs for the week were safely packed away in their knapsacks, they let Tazuna and Keji show them the sights, getting a feel for the main streets of the city as they waited for Kakashi to catch up with them.

"Where is your place anyway?" Naruto asked as he glanced around at the same sort of houses on stilts in this district that had been in Kohan's tiny village. Just how rundown these buildings were was making him wary of stepping on the boardwalks too heavily. The gaps where boards had already broken were not reassuring him at all and the wet creak of weathered wood that was well on its way to rotting wasn't helping.

"Quite a ways out of town actually," Tazuna said as they passed a group of ragged children, who ran away the moment they were abreast of them. Naruto had to wonder just how scary they looked if punks older than he were terrified of them. "It's out in the suburbs off the river. Getting to the bridge is quite a walk from there. You can see my work from here." Tazuna stood at the edge of the boardwalk and pointed out into the bay, where the massive concrete structure was just visible through the edge of the rain that was headed their way.

"Wow," said Naruto. "You built that?"

"With help. We've still got a lot of work to do."

"How come it's still standing if Gatou hates it so much?"

"Jun-san has people guarding it. He's enough of a threat that if he took Gatou to court over the death of his employees, the bastard would feel the hurt," Keji said with a smug edge to his voice. "Any threat to the bridge would incur Jun-san's wrath as well since he's invested so much in it. He's got it covered. He knows how to cover his ass."

"One less thing we have to worry about," said Sasuke caustically as a grey shadow crept up behind them only to meet the bastard's fierce black gaze. The pickpocket slunk away, stymied.

Kaka-sensei padded out of the shadows between two buildings and sat on his haunches as he inspected the reason for all of this trouble. "We'll go to your place. There's trouble in town, so we're better off out there. Besides, that's near where Kohan ended up taking all of the recruits. Watching over them will be easier if they're close. Your daughter and your grandson are probably very worried about you by now."

Tazuna did a double take, and Naruto hid a snicker. Kaka-sensei was good. Tazuna had probably forgotten all about how he had mentioned his family during his spiels about how his bridge would help Wave Country, but Kaka-sensei hadn't.

They left town in the most roundabout manner possible to lose any pursuit. Kakashi dropped behind them at one point to really check if someone was tracking them and only re-joined them when he was positive that things were safe. They hightailed out of town after that with their meagre supplies. Tazuna took the lead once they were in the cover of the forest again.

An estuary appeared before them, dotted with houses and boardwalks. Tazuna led them through the maze, Keji close on his heels as they headed towards the coast in the most roundabout way possible. Both of them seemed more comfortable with their surroundings: they were almost relaxed. Naruto wanted to emulate them, but it was impossible with the huge wolfhound of a sensei nearly treading on his heels, reminding him that things were not as safe as their clients believed.

"Eh, Sensei?" Naruto whispered as they rounded a corner and cut through a stand of trees.

"Hmm?"

"How's his daughter gonna recognize him if he's under a henge?" When Kakashi didn't answer, Naruto grumbled under his breath about teachers that didn't know how to string two words together and how suiting it was that Sasuke-bastard was Kakashi's student. He got pinned with three glares for his efforts; Sakura's was by far the scariest because she currently looked like a man that would kill him as soon as take a leak.

Tazuna's house was pretty dang big. Naruto was glad: it would have been cramped otherwise. The old tradesman knocked on the door and smiled down at the little boy that opened it. "Hello, Inari. It's good to see how big you've gotten in the last couple years."

The boy stared at them from under the brim of his hat. Naruto had never seen a little kid look so impassive. This Inari could have given Snake's mask a run for its money. "Who are you?" the boy asked, putting the door between him and them, ready to close it at the slightest provocation.

"Inari, it's me."

The brat remained unmoved.

"It's Grandpa."

The kid remained suspicious. "Grandpa? You don't look anything like my grandpa."

"Inari, who's there?" called a woman from inside.

"Some guy's saying he's Grandpa." Inari shouted back. Hurried footsteps approached and a dark-haired woman shoved the child behind the door, blocking their view of the interior of the home with her body.

"I don't know who you are, but I want you to leave now. Tazuna has not been in contact with us for years. He has forgotten all about us."

"Tsunami, it's all right. I'm really here." She shook her head ferociously at them, but Tazuna wasn't finished. "You let Kohan-san stay near here, didn't you? He told you that he'd seen me."

Her expression didn't change much, but the slightest glimmer of doubt was there. The door didn't shut any farther, so Naruto guessed that she must have wanted to believe them.

"Hey, can you drop this thing?" asked Tazuna.

Naruto glanced down at Kakashi, who was casually scratching his ear, the picture of doggy innocence.

"Come on, Master Ninja; there's no way I'm going to sit at home wrapped up in your illusions."

Kakashi stopped scratching and cocked his head curiously at the man. Naruto snickered behind his feminine hand, working very hard not to break into full-bellied laughs. Women didn't do that very often for some silly reason. It was one of the cons of not being very good at using Henge no Jutsu to become a man.

"We're here now," said Keji. "What's the point of continuing to hide who we are? People are going to notice when we start making progress on the bridge; besides, I'm sick to death of being seen as something I'm not. First, it was goats, then dogs, and now this beefy bloke. Honestly, who's gonna try to off me?"

When the illusion covering Keji dissolved, Naruto pouted. "Aw dang, now we're gonna have to work even harder because this guy can't keep his face off the map! What's it matter to you if your ugly mug isn't everywhere?"

"If you didn't look like my niece, I'd hit you, gaki," Keji growled, clenching his fist as Tazuna's daughter gaped.

"Keji-san?" she whispered as Naruto stuck out his tongue. He had always known that there were pros to balance out the cons. "Keji… But you and Father left."

"Good riddance," Keji muttered, rubbing at his oily hair and scratching at the bug bites he had acquired during their journey. Naruto figured he had lice too. "I never thought I'd be glad to have that bump on my nose back. You ninja, I don't know how you stand it."

"It's a lot of fun," Naruto said.

"Pfft. Hardly. You're telling me you enjoyed being kicked around as a goat?"

Naruto was just about to put in his two cents when the woman lost it. "Hey! Is he my father or not, Keji-san? You can't just stand here outside my door and bicker about ridiculous things when my father, who hasn't sent word to us in _years_, is claiming to be on my doorstep!" She stalked forward, almost as though she was going to smack Keji. Naruto hoped that she would, but Tazuna, still concealed beneath Kaka-sensei's henge, intercepted her.

"Would Keji really travel here without me to keep you from hitting him?" he asked, and she flinched away from his touch.

"You _left_," she snarled at last, her son peeking out from behind the door with wide eyes. "You ran off and left us here! Do you have any idea how many times we have been made to suffer because of what you did? I ought to…!" She stalked back into the house, dragging Inari behind her and slamming the door.

"That went well," Sakura said, sounding a little too much like a man for comfort.

* * *

They spent the night on the porch, camping ninja style: no fire, no comfort, and lots of watches. As usual, Sasuke and Naruto got into a hissing fit over who was going to take the middle watch and have the broken sleep. Sasuke-kun was still far better at taijutsu, so a sodden and muddy Naruto sat on the roof during the midnight watch after Sakura went to bed. The terrace was wide, but not very clean. Pebbles and other little annoyances kept poking her through her blanket, not letting her have any rest. She was still wide-awake when Naruto attempted to wake Sasuke-kun up with a long string of drool in his ear. Fortunately for Sasuke, he was so used to these annoyances that he managed to bash Naruto in the head without getting slimed.

Their hissed insult war put her to sleep simply because it was so common to hear them toss "teme," "dobe," "baka," and "bastard" back and forth as though those four words were a strange language. The not so affectionate names were replaced by the wailing cry of some depressed bird early in the morning. Sasuke was still perched on the roof, staring out into the woods, which were just starting to be drenched with sunlight. Naruto was sprawled some two metres away from his blanket, spread out on the bare boards. She cringed when he let the world know that his intestinal tract was in perfect working order and the bacteria were quite happy to help him pass food along. To escape the smell, she scrambled out of her blankets and scaled the house.

Sasuke glanced at her in greeting. She had to sigh a little; he still wouldn't let her get too close. How was she supposed to make any progress if he kept her at arm's length? Still, pushing too much would make him angry with her, so she crouched down as close to him as she dared and stared out at the mesmerising ocean.

Inside the house, she could hear the echoes of doors opening and closing and soft conversation. She wondered whether Tsunami-san would ever forgive Tazuna-san. It would be much better for them if she did; Sakura wanted to sleep inside for once, dammit!

"Anything?" asked their sensei, appearing in his true form behind them without warning, probably a good thing since the chances of a wolfhound getting on the roof were slim. It was so odd; she had almost forgotten what he looked like.

"No," Sasuke said, "not unless you count the loser's salutation to the sun."

Sakura snickered at that.

The front door of the house slammed open. Sakura lay flat on the roof and hung her head over the edge to better see what was going on. Naruto woke up with a start, glancing around as though some bomb had gone off. Tsunami-san stood in the doorway, her face a torrent of so many emotions that Sakura couldn't decide which was dominant. The still disguised Tazuna obviously understood what was going on though because he elbowed Keji-san in the side and gestured that he should make a run for it while he could. Keji-san was quick to obey.

Sakura's spying attempt was interrupted when her sensei tapped her on the shoulder and gestured that she should follow Keji. She glanced forlornly at Sasuke for backup, but he didn't even look her way. Naruto was bugging him, hogging his attention. Narrowing her eyes and clenching her teeth until the ache eclipsed the one in her chest, she jumped off the roof and ran after Keji, who was on his way to the partially obscured worker encampment.

Not surprisingly, Kohan-san was already up, roasting frogs and fish over the fire with his usual sunny attitude. He was so glad to see them that he almost knocked half of his catch into the fire, though he required a little time to get used to the fact that the thin assassin was the oddly pink-haired girl. His confusion reassured Sakura about the effectiveness of her henge. Maybe Kaka-sensei was right about her hair making her easily recognizable in this nation where most had dull hair colours like black and brown. She was not happy to admit to this though; she loved her hair.

"We had no idea when you'd find us," Kohan said, grinning winningly at them in his simple way. "Some of the others wondered if you'd been killed. You should have heard the rumours! Some people said that you'd been kidnapped by the ninja! Others insisted that Gatou's men got you and strung you all up off some cliff that I've never heard of before. Apparently, he did that to some rebels on Sentan once. It's a pretty famous story; I can tell it to you if you want."

"Some other time," said Keji, spinning one of the skewered fish so it would roast evenly. "We've got to get to work while we can. Tazuna wants to start this morning as soon as he's done talking with his daughter. We need a boat to get out to the bridge."

"Jun-san's men have actually come ashore to buy supplies every couple days or so. We could flag them down and borrow their boat, right?" Kohan had to speak loudly to be heard over Tsunami's screamed accusations.

"That so, eh? That'll work. Better than spending money hiring a boat when there's one we don't have to pay for that we can definitely trust."

The same principle was applied to their lodgings later: Tsunami-san whaled on her father for almost an hour before she broke down and let them into the house. Keji-san settled into a room across from Inari-kun's for the day, claiming weariness as his excuse for not wanting to go back near town now that he was bare to the world, but Tazuna-san only wasted half an hour getting back into his grandson's good graces before he filled his pack with what he would need for the day, grabbed a worn hardhat, and headed out the door with Naruto and Sasuke on his heels.

Sakura had been assigned to Keji-san, so she was stuck here for the day. Kakashi-sensei went with Sasuke and Naruto, but she had the feeling that he wouldn't be staying with them long. Dogs always got their cold noses into everything.

Kakashi sent them out one by one the next night to map the area, insisting that maps were important pieces of tactical information that all good ninja needed. Even Sasuke-kun allowed himself to be conned into going out during what would have been his watch and returned with a sketch in hand. Kakashi spent the next morning cheerfully pointing out all of the flaws in their drawings. Hers received the least criticism, something that pleased her immensely, but Sasuke scowled darkly when Kakashi pointed out each error in scale and design against the jounin's mental map, which was apparently so flawless that it actually made her wary. Just what details he could have picked up about her without her knowledge made her edgy.

With maps done, Kakashi encouraged them to go through a list of traps that might be useful in the event of an attack. "Even if all ninja know to look for traps, not all of them will. Common thugs will be the first to fall into these of course, but catching even one ninja evens the odds in our favour." He supervised their setup and had them mark down the location of traps on their maps, which was a very good idea if they didn't want to become victims as well. Besides, they would need to disable all of these when the mission was over; anyone could be caught in tripwires or log traps. Having a list would keep them from forgetting any.

He also assigned them the task of picking out all of Gatou's thugs in town, but that was going to be a long-term project done while out on duty.

So began the most boring of ninja duties: stationary guarding with small chance of attack for the moment.

* * *

Naruto sat on the railing of the bridge, swinging his sandaled feet back and forth. Far below him, the waves devoured each other, white foam and froth capping their battles from time to time. Tempting gravity to pull him to his doom was a lot more profitable than his recent efforts to keep his last clone kicking wherever it was.

He could only feel one link tugging at the back of his mind, like a call from downstairs, but failing to get through spectacularly. Naruto could "emit" stuff according to the scroll, but he couldn't receive unless the clone went poof. This was unfortunate because the clone could have told him tons of useful stuff. The guy was still alive, so he must have been doing something right.

The problem was that Naruto needed more clones out on those eastern islands to keep the focus away from the bridge. Sakura, Sasuke, hell, even Kaka-sensei had explained that to him enough times that it echoed through his head as he slept. The thing was that the clone couldn't regenerate chakra the way he could. It was stuck with one ninth of his usual reserve. When that chakra ran out, which could be any minute now if the clone was stupid, the clone would be a little cloud of smoke and a whole bunch of memories hitting Naruto over the head like a plank of wood. If the clone got killed—got injured too much for chakra to sustain its shape—then Naruto would be pole-axed by the memories of that death with a little more useful information. Either way, there would be no more decoys out there to sow confusion.

As he saw it, there were two options. He could have new clones run back to the eastern islands, but they would eventually run out of chakra too and would leave a trail back here. The other option was to attempt to figure out a way to channel chakra into his existing clone and have it make more bunshin. The latter was his best chance, but the physical distances involved—the clone was somewhere way out on the other side of Wave—made him dizzy. How was he supposed to get chakra—something contained within his chakra network—all the way out there? It wasn't as if there was a conduit…

"Sakura-chan?" he called, waving her over from where she was watching the concrete mixer churn the gravel, cement, and water up. She shot him an annoyed look, but she came over. "Can you answer a question for me?"

"What is it?" She leaned against the railing, the thin face of her henge looking especially cutting today.

"What sorts of things are just one thing, but in many places? You know, like strawberries; they have little offshoots—aren't they called rhizomes or runners or something?—and they spread all over the place, but they're really just one really big plant?"

She cocked an eyebrow at him, looking rather confused.

"It's like ramen: a ramen noodle can be all tangled up in the others, but you can grab it from anywhere and get the whole noodle, you know?"

She shook her head at him and sighed. "You really need to get some other hobbies. It's always plants and ramen with you."

"At least I'm not all about Sasuke," he said.

"You keep talking like that and I won't help you," she snarled, narrowing her henge's eyes.

"I'm just calling it like I see it. You're so violent when Sasuke-bastard ignores you. Geez… I'm asking 'cause it'll help me keep the mission going. I need to get chakra to my clone."

"That's impossible. Only a god or some sort of all-powerful being can do something like that. They're immaterial, so they can be everywhere at once and nowhere."

He blinked, paused, and blinked again. _Of all the unholy…_

"Say that again."

She scowled at him, probably figuring that he hadn't been paying attention, and repeated herself.

He blinked again. _What luck!_ So, this fox was good for something after all! "Sakura-chan, you are the smartest girl in the whole world." His excitement catching up with him now, he hugged her tightly. He took this golden opportunity to grime up her hair so she wouldn't get too used to this sort of grovelling and then jumped out of retaliation range. He clambered up on top of a pile of wood used to make forms for pouring concrete near the massive stacks of rebar and watched a cart full of gravel slowly move past from Fire Country.

As far as he understood things, Kyuubi "lived" in his navel. When he made a clone, his clone got the seal too, but Kyuubi couldn't be in two places at once, not really. However, the seal still bound the fox, even though he was still in the original Naruto's navel. That meant that Kyuubi connected all of the clones, which made Kyuubi the channel he needed. Working hard to concentrate now, he began to reverse the flow through part of his inner coil, or at least he tried to. Chakra didn't seem to want to flow the other way into the seal.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Mending Two Snapped Wands

Sasuke glanced over at the idiot, who was supposed to be sleeping. Naruto hadn't slept much lately because of the dreams. Who knew how much longer that last clone would survive wherever it was? Who was to say that the idiot would manage to get chakra to the stupid bunshin before it was too late?

Sasuke had heard about this stupid plan the moment Naruto had gotten back from guard duty on the bridge. The sheer excitement on the grownup version of his sister's face had almost made him homesick, but the idiot hadn't noticed. Sakura had helped explain how it should be impossible to push chakra back through the coil, but the idiot had been hooked by the idea. He would either keep failing until he died or defied odds and succeeded. Sasuke was banking on the former.

Kakashi had been missing most of the day. Sasuke figured he was searching for the ninja that would surely soon. Activity on the bridge was picking up: word was spreading about Tazuna's coming in the north, and men Kohan had missed talking to were coming of their own accord, eager to _do_ something for once. The rumour that the work paid well didn't hinder things either. Even if people didn't know that Tazuna was here, the amount of people coming into the area from other islands was sure to attract unwelcome attention.

Sasuke started when the sound of claws clicking against the wooden porch reached him. He sprang into position near the door and relaxed slightly when he sensed the now familiar feel of his sensei's chakra. The wolfhound scratched on the door, and Sasuke opened it, keeping up appearances. Once the door was safely shut, the dog walked over to their packs and scrounged some rations. Sasuke, having nothing to report other than Naruto's idiocy, kept his mouth shut.

"Nothing new," Kakashi said. "If someone is here, they've been planted here since before we came, so no one talks about them anymore. They're not hiding the way we are. They're established and waiting for something."

"What?"

"Some sort of go-ahead; maybe the coming of a teammate or an order to engage. Naruto, why are you still awake?"

"I'm working," the idiot said from his bedroll, his frustration apparent. "It's not working like I think it should though, so I've got some questions you're gonna answer." He rattled on about what he was attempting.

"You've got some flaws in your logic," the jounin chirped. "Chakra isn't just coming out of your reserves and going nowhere when you create it and pull at it. It's constantly flowing through you, like your blood. The excess gets stored back in your reserves if you don't bleed it off by doing jutsu, but there's always some present in your body. A ninja simply has more in them at any given time than a non-ninja. Ninja expand their reserves through training, so more chakra can be contained in our bodies at any given time, yes?"

Naruto nodded, a faintly puzzled look on his face hinting that that explanation was partially lost on him, but he was too stubborn to break down and make Kakashi explain further when there was a chance he would get the answer he really wanted if he stayed on topic. "What does that have to do with why I'm wrong?"

"You're trying to go against what your body is already doing for you. You already have chakra flowing into your reserves in the right direction. There's probably a chakra conduit that connects to your seal. Actually, there are two if what the Hyuuga reported on you is correct."

"You went and looked up stuff about me?" Naruto gibbered, his henge's brown eyes wide with horror.

Kakashi shrugged in a doggy manner, avoiding the issue. It made Sasuke a little nervous. What had his sensei read about him? What did those files say? "Your seal is designed to help you, so it would be connected to your system in the safest way possible. That would mean two links: one going in and one going out. Since the law of chakra dispersion states that chakra will move only from high concentrations to low except when faced with the vacuum effect of the reserve, the link from you to the seal should be unused and would be the one you need to use."

That obviously made sense to the idiot. This "law of chakra dispersion" that Kakashi had mentioned sounded a lot like diffusion, which Riko had demonstrated to them once by putting food colouring in glasses of water at different temperatures just for fun on a weekend when they had been stuck inside because of the rain without homework to do.

"Because you say the seal is common to all the clones, the chakra will spread to the lowest concentration: your clone. The seal is the conduit that defies distances since Kyuubi isn't physical. You'll be using a side effect of his existence to transfer energy past normal physical limitations, if this actually works that is. It's purely speculation until you manage to prove it can be done."

Sasuke resisted the urge to groan. Now the loser would be even more annoyingly persistent about it.

* * *

Sakura walked through the streets, Tazuna to her left and Kakashi padding along in her wake. Sasuke-kun was watching out for Keji-san, and Naruto was guarding the house while working like a maniac on his stupid plan. He constantly wore a constipated look on his feminine face.

They passed a dark-haired woman Sakura recognized vaguely from other visits to the village. She smiled shyly at them, a basket hanging off her arm, which was full to the brim with herbs of some sort. They traded pleasantries quickly since Tazuna was intent on getting to work.

He pushed so hard that progress was rapid despite the slowly swelling numbers of only partially competent workers, who wavered between wanting to risk working on this project and loving their own skins more than money and national pride. Sakura remained ambivalent towards them since they weren't steady in their alliance. The only one she liked at all was the simpleminded Kohan, whose determinedly cheery attitude kept things from getting depressing on long days with marginal progress as far as she could see.

Tazuna was beginning to attract more and more attention as people began to recognize him as the foreman of the project. It couldn't be helped though; the bridge was closing the divide and some of the men truly were beginning to show more of the courage that Tazuna so desperately wanted his country to regain.

Sakura followed him to the beach where the bridge was going to touch land. A small pier, more of a floating dock, had been built, keeping the boat from needing to be dragged up on shore between trips. Six men besides Keji and Sasuke were sitting in the boat, waiting impatiently for Keji to cast off.

"Took you long enough, Tsuge," Keji hollered from the stern, shaking his fist and scowling out from under the wide brim of his woven hat. "We were nearly going to leave without you."

"This one got distracted by some girl," Tazuna (Tsuge) said. A couple workers chuckled as Sakura scowled. If he weren't the client she was supposed to be protecting, she would have…!

"You and your excuses," scolded Keji. "Get in the damn boat already so we can get out of here. Hisoi-san here says that there are too many people becoming interested in our work. He wants us on the bridge if he's gonna stick around." Sakura glanced at "Mr. Thin," and Sasuke scowled through the henge.

"Leave him be," she growled, getting into the masculine character she had foolishly chosen with some difficulty. How come she hadn't thought to pick a woman? That would have made things so much easier… But being a guy made her like Sasuke. Damn. Maybe Naruto was a little right about that stupid comment of his. "If he says there's something to be worried about, you'd better listen to him. We _are_ starting to attract bad attention. Did you think the wrong sort wouldn't notice that you're getting nearer and nearer to being finished?" That shut them up. She smiled as Sasuke went back to staring at the bottom of the boat, ignoring her. Her joy faded. She had thought he would be glad she had stood up for him. Why were boys so difficult to understand?

She was left sitting alone on the railing for the rest of the afternoon. Kakashi and Sasuke were farther up the bridge, intent on getting as much gossip as possible out of traders bringing in supplies from Fire. Sasuke wasn't having much luck; people didn't like how standoffish he was. Usually, she tried to help him by easing things along, but today he had brushed her off.

She kicked a pebble off the bridge angrily, watching its ripples get swallowed up by the waves even as the sound of its impact was drowned out by the ceaseless shushing of the ocean. The soothing noise eased the ache of rejection a bit.

This dreary place had grown on her. It was lonely and rough, echoing her feelings. Though she was loath to admit it, she liked the days that Naruto in all his female henge glory came along. He never made her feel like a rock in the path before his feet. She always knew exactly where she stood with him, and he never ignored her even if he was furious with her. Still, he was Naruto and thus nowhere near as good as Sasuke.

The next day confirmed her assessment. At first, he was sort of absent because he was still sleepily working on the clone problem. He was still failing, or at least he continued to do so until mid-afternoon. That was when all hell broke loose.

"Yatta!" Naruto danced around like a maniac, his henge's long hair flipping around in a mess of tangles. All work within a certain range around him stopped as all stared at the strange sight he presented. "Take that! Who's the man? That's right!"

Grimacing, Sakura sprinted over and slapped a hand over his fool mouth. "Baka," she growled in his ear, wanting desperately to hit him, but unable to because he resembled a woman and so many were watching. Doing so when she appeared to be a man would bring all sorts of trouble down on her. "You can't jump around screaming how you're the man when you _aren't_ one!" Louder, she said, "Fool! You're distracting these guys from their work. Try to hold your hysterics in."

Eyeing her fist warily, he nodded in a cowed manner, but he could only keep so quiet. "I did it though!" He bounced around gleefully. "I did it! There're more of them out there now!"

* * *

Naruto's clones wreaked havoc in the eastern islands, running around posing as Tazuna. Naruto kept them well supplied with chakra, which unfortunately left him sleepy. They were still getting picked off now and again, but they were definitely causing trouble for Gatou. Rumours about how he had gone east to assert his dominance against various petty uprisings reached them in town now and then. They always made Naruto grin widely. He had always known he was just that awesome.

For almost the rest of the month, they made good progress. Tazuna pushed his growing number of labourers as hard as he could without driving them all away, but there was little chance of running out of fresh faces. With Gatou out of town, people were becoming braver. They came in ones and twos, applying for work hesitantly. They came from town, from the northern isles, and from the east. Naruto took credit for all of the last type because he had taken advantage of Tazuna's notoriety and was spreading the bridge builder's message through his clones as loudly as he dared, which wasn't very.

Kakashi had warned him against attracting attention back to them, and making speeches in every village square about finishing the bridge would definitely do that. Instead, Naruto's clones quietly talked to those that would listen. The clones that died at the hands of the Kiri-nin had all drawn just a little too much attention. He got the feeling that the Kiri ninja were getting frustrated by this game. More and more of his clones had died at the hands of a killer that had fallen upon them without warning. The memories of those deaths, quick and merciless, woke him up some nights. He was becoming grateful that Sasuke kept making him take midnight watch: at least he wasn't made to sleep for as long.

It was ironic that he knew that their reprieve was over after three days with no clone deaths. He rejoiced until Kakashi heard about it and froze. "What's wrong with that?"

"Naruto," Kakashi said, "_why_ would they suddenly stop hunting you?"

He blinked and thought it over. "They've found a better target?"

"That's right."

"Us," said Sasuke, glaring at the floor.

"You're all going to die," Inari called from behind the door to the stairs, sounding snider than ever.

Naruto had just about had it with that little snivelling brat! "You shut up." He pointed at Inari with a threatening finger. "Heroes like us don't die until we've finished saving what needs saving. I'm going to be Hokage someday, so I'm not gonna let a goon like Gatou or the numbskulls he's hired take me down!"

"There's no such thing as heroes!" Inari roared back. The kid ran up the stairs before Naruto could shout more.

Sakura grabbed him before he could chase after the brat. "You leave him alone, idiot. This isn't your house. You can't do whatever you want here."

Tsunami shot a dark look their way, muffled though it was by her courtesy.

He struggled to get out of Sakura's grasp, only succeeding when Sasuke grumbled about the noise they were making. Since Tsunami was watching the stairs like a hungry snake, Naruto stalked out the door and clambered up onto the roof of the main level of the house and walked around to where Inari's room was. The brat was crouched on his desk, clutching a framed photograph and snivelling like a baby, but Naruto wasn't in the mood for mercy. He had taken the kid's comments for weeks now without blowing a gasket, but this was one time too many. He wasn't going to let this go unaddressed.

"Hey," he growled. The kid hiccoughed sharply at stared at him with overflowing red eyes that only softened Naruto's resolve a little bit. He knew perfectly well what it was to cry, but he sure as hell didn't think much of it. Crying had never made Misako take it any easier on him, Ino had used tears to her advantage one too many times, and Neechan had always likened crying to being sissy; her attitude had rubbed off on him. "You think you're something, don't you? You hide behind stupid tears instead of doing something about your problem like your grandpa."

"Be quiet!" Inari glared at him through his tears. "You don't know anything. You don't know what pain is, but Gatou will teach you good. He'll show you what a loser you are."

"I'm not going to let him. I'm not going to sit around letting him make me miserable like you."

"You can't talk! You're just here because my grandpa paid you. You don't care about Wave at all." Inari stabbed an accusing finger at him.

"I care a lot more than you do," Naruto shot back, crossing his arms. "I'm doing something for your country, not like you. You say you love Wave, but I'm the one risking my life for it."

"I never asked you to." The kid was just striking out ineffectually now. "Go away! We don't need you to make trouble here."

"Heh." Naruto sat down, ready to dig in for the long haul. He had been itching to get in a good long argument for a while. Sasuke didn't count. "I don't believe you. Somebody's got to keep your grandpa from getting killed."

"Just leave me alone!"

"No."

"Go!"

"No!"

This went on for some time. Naruto got to the point where he was just shouting on instinct, and only the kid was really into it. This was actually getting kind of boring. No wonder Kaka-sensei always read… He created a clone and had it grab the book he had brought with him from his pack. When it got back, it had a weird look on its face. He had it release the jutsu and glanced through its memories. A conversation from downstairs brought him up to speed. Maybe he would thank Sakura-chan for being nosy and observant later. Gatou was an asshole beyond measure if that story about Kaiza was true. Narrowing his eyes, Naruto flipped to his current favourite part in the book and started reading aloud when Inari paused for breath.

"'No matter what obstacles I come up against,' Hiroji proclaimed, testing the edge of his father's sword, 'as long as I can wield this blade, I will protect what I believe in. You don't have to agree, but I will defend that right to disagree. No man should hold sway over all minds. Though your overlord may cut off my legs, I will crawl forward and continue to defy him with these two arms of mine. Should he take those from me as well, I will defy him with my words. Should he cut out my tongue, I will defy him with my thoughts. If he puts me to death for thinking differently, I will take my notions with me to the grave, but I will never forget or forgive. My defiance will continue in this world until he is the only one left alive, and even then, he will doubt his control, eventually destroying himself. I am not just myself; I am a vessel representing an idea that cannot be killed. Even when I am gone, that idea will survive so long as we two share our thoughts like this. You will remember for me.'

"'But you're just a swordsman, Hiroji!' cried the priestess, frowning at the man before her who was defying her wisdom.

"'I am just a man,' he agreed, 'and I can die, but courage and ideas are not so flimsy. Even if I fall, I trust that my friends and my followers will carry on in my stead. I know that they will understand what I told them and that they will keep going even without me there. I can die in peace knowing that, without much regret. You, Miko-sama, cannot do that because you refuse to have faith in ideas and beliefs. I am a simple man, but I know that men need dreams if they are to rise high. Hardship only binds those that let it get to them. You stand before me spouting prophecies of doom and disaster for your people and me, but you do nothing to prevent them from coming true. You are the useless one, the antihero.' Hiroji stared down at the old crone clad in silk that didn't suit her.

"'You are the useless one because you won't do anything, no matter how wise you may be. I may be a fool, but at least I will work as hard as I can to try!' The Miko snorted her contempt even as Hiroji's men traded nods and muttered encouragement. 'Who's ready to go show that overload that he cannot subdue all of us?'" When Naruto paused for breath, the kid was staring at him incredulously.

"You read _The Adventures of Hiroji_?" the brat asked him, scowling as though his favourite dish had been full of worms. "I thought ninja didn't have time for silly books."

"You can't insult Hiroji!" Naruto crossed his arms. "It's the best series in the world! The author's amazing. I bet even a whiny brat like you can't resist the awesomeness of this book!" When Inari flushed, Naruto broke off mid-sentence and blinked. "Ha hah! I was right then. Even _you_'ve read the books. I bet you're a fan too. Even the bastard reads them, but he won't admit it."

"I haven't read them in a long time," Inari snarled, narrowing his eyes.

"Since your dad died," Naruto suggested. That stopped Inari short. "If you think that you're the only one that knows what that sort of pain is like, you need to take another look around you, brat. Your mom lost him too, you know. Your grandpa lost his son-in-law. Hell, even the bastard knows what you're talking about. Most of his family is dead because his brother went psycho and killed them all." Naruto glanced around anxiously, hoping that the ass wasn't around. Mentioning that incident was taboo.

"He's not sitting around crying though and neither is your mom or your grandpa. Sasuke's learning how to fight so he can go show his brother what for. Your mom let all the workers stay near here because she wants to fight through them. Your grandpa's fighting with his bridge. You only sit around making them feel horrible with your sissy crying and snivelling. I'm glad I'm not like you." Nodding to himself, Naruto stood up, closed his book with a snap, and chucked it at Inari's head.

"What about you?" The kid clutched the book that Naruto hadn't seen in any of the stores here. Apparently, Gatou had decided not to ship kids' books into the country anymore to keep them from dreaming of something better. "It only sounds like that other boy knows, but not you. You can't say anything."

Naruto laughed woodenly. "I know, all right. I never had any parents, but that didn't stop me. I'm here, aren't I, not crying? Not like you. I know it doesn't help."

"Moron, hurry up," Sasuke called from the boardwalk. Naruto dropped down beside him, wondering how long he had been hanging around, grinning nervously, rubbing the back of his head, and putting the henge back on. "You know you're not supposed to do that, idiot."

"Do what?" asked Naruto, grinning innocently under the henge.

"Take off the henge outside the house and shout out things like a maniac that anyone can hear through the walls."

Naruto froze, but Sasuke made no further comment. The bastard pretty much let it slide save for the fact that Sasuke was insufferably moody for the rest of the day and spent the night brooding. Naruto noticed this—it was hard not to—and worried. Things never ended well when Sasuke got this wound up. It was mostly because the ass had a horrible habit of picking the absolute worst times to get emotional.

Only when Naruto got back from trying to beat the snot out of Sasuke in the forest as training that evening did he realize that he hadn't gotten his precious book back. Nursing a split lip and a black eye, Naruto grumbled under his breath as he slipped up the stairs. When he tried to sneak into Inari's room, he discovered that the light was glowing between the edge of the sliding door and the frame. Naruto slowly pushed it open a bit only to see Inari sitting cross-legged on his desk, completely absorbed in the book.

Naruto let him borrow it for a little while. It looked like Inari needed it more than he did for now.

* * *

They never saw it coming.

The first attack was the one that they should have been able to predict. Who better to hit than those that weren't protected at all? The workers camped near Tazuna's house suffered being bait to draw them into battle.

The screams hit Sasuke shortly before dawn. He had been crouched on the roof, polishing shuriken to pass the time. He jerked with shock and dropped to the ground without thinking, pounding on the window and shouting at the idiot as he came barrelling out the door with his coat half on, his fingers already forming the seal for Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Sixteen clones exploded into existence and sprinted towards the woods without any subtlety whatsoever. Grown men were screaming like children. That worried him a little more than Naruto's usual lack of ninja delicacy.

Kakashi got way ahead of them before they even got ten metres from the house. "Sasuke, Naruto, help Sakura guard Keji and Tazuna."

Snarling obscenities, Naruto created ten more clones to give Kakashi a hand and another five to help guard the house. Those that had been waiting for the diversion to take effect took advantage of the clones' presence: Naruto howled, clutching at his neck before getting a hold of himself. "Sakura, hurry," the idiot shouted as he turned to Sasuke. "There's a guy attacking from the ocean. He slit my… the clone's throat!"

"We need to get them out." Sasuke sprinted back towards the door in time to witness a massive sword decapitating another of the moron's bunshin on the edge of the boardwalk as Inari screamed and froze despite Sakura's attempts to drag him towards the forest. Sasuke snagged Tsunami when she tried to turn back to help and forced her to get a move on.

Naruto—maybe a clone, maybe not—was hauling ass with Tazuna and Keji. Another Naruto dove selflessly in front of a decapitating strike intended for Sakura. Blood spattered when the clone rallied enough chakra to be solid enough to absorb the hit before dissolving into smoke. With Tsunami moving, Sasuke used Shunshin to get in between Sakura and Inari and this bandaged attacker while yet another Naruto grabbed the scaredy cat and dragged him so Sakura could get out of harm's way.

"Well, aren't you a brave man to oppose me? That woman too, not an ordinary mercenary turned bodyguard if she can use clones, huh?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the Mist-nin until the man's murderous intent hit him. Sasuke shook under the oppressive weight; his mind ran in terrified circles, screaming that he didn't want to die, that he had to run, and that he needed to hide…!

"Sasuke, you bastard, _haul ass already_! Sakura's clear!" Sasuke couldn't move though. "Sasuke, you ass! Do you want your mom to _castrate_ me because you died and I lived? Move your damn ass already!"

The comment about castration had an unintended effect: the enemy paused for a moment, perhaps a little puzzled by a woman screaming about being neutered. It gave the howling Naruto time to throw himself in front of Sasuke and take the hit that would have ended Sasuke's relatively short existence. The way the blood dissolved into smoke gave Sasuke enough presence of mind to turn tail and rally with the others, shuriken in hand. He chucked a couple just to offer some resistance, but the enemy ninja was already gone.

Terror lent Shunshin speed. He almost botched his landing beside Tazuna, skidding to a half halt ungracefully in his effort to go from one hundred to zero in less than a second. The thin face of Sakura's henge was distorted with terror, sweat beading her brow. Sasuke swore that if he survived this he would never let Ryuuka look as confused and overwhelmed as Naruto's henge-masked face did.

Identities blurred as suddenly the enemy was among them, right behind him, in the centre of their terrified circle. Sasuke shouted a primal, wordless warning and knocked Sakura and Tazuna flat as Naruto's replenished clone ranks took everyone else down. A couple of them got hacked up in the process to a degree that would give Sasuke nightmares later about torn bodies dissolving into wisps of bloody smoke.

Naruto was reacting purely on trauma-formed instinct. His clones were gathering Tsunami and Inari and scrambling away with them as quickly as they could, panic obvious.

Sasuke wrenched a kunai from his pouch to deflect a strike headed straight for Tazuna's skull with such speed that he didn't even have time to think about moving. All those hours of simply practicing drawing kunai were suddenly good for something though they had seemed a damned waste of time when his mother had forced Naruto and him to do it some weekends.

Pain lanced through him as the kunai fractured in his hand, unable to stand up to the force of the blow it had been made to redirect. Even as Sasuke howled and cradled his lacerated hand and his cut arm (slit open by the tip of the sword), the sword cleaved the ground beside his thigh. Tazuna was up and running for his life before the blade was drawn from the wet earth.

Only Sakura's panicky yank kept Sasuke's jaw attached to his skull when the sword's upswing was intent upon the opposite. Her kunai was brushed aside into the gathering mist by the flat of the blade even as another Naruto—Sasuke hardly cared if it was the original or another clone—dove into the fray with a kunai in hand, his teeth bared in a feral snarl. The enemy ninja walloped him off trajectory with his sword, the edge ripping apart what turned out to be another clone. Sasuke had no time to be grateful for this mercy because that blow looped around and headed right for Sakura and him.

Pain inconsequential, Sasuke back-pedalled, dragging Sakura with him when she wasn't quick enough to find her own feet. The man's wicked sword followed them with frightening speed. Yet again, Sasuke was forced to drag Sakura to the ground to avoid being beheaded. Gathering chakra frantically, he managed to perform Shunshin with her in hand, getting them both out of their enemy's immediate area and more towards where the sounds of the ambush had alerted him to the attack this morning. It was instinctive on his part: he wanted safety, so he headed towards Kakashi, the only one that could possibly create that. The closer they got to Kakashi, the more likely it was that he would save their severely overwhelmed skins.

The enemy was not interested in letting them go, but they weren't his primary target. Sasuke's eyes widened when he saw that only three Narutos stood between that machine and Tazuna. The clones in question seemed to realize this because their eyes only had time to go wide and fill with the words "Oh Shi—!" before that sword bisected them, tearing their torsos apart before they exploded into smoke.

Leaving Sakura behind without a thought, Sasuke rallied what remained of his courage and chakra, got several kunai and shuriken going and several more in hand, and disappeared to interpose himself between the threat and the clients. It was stupid. It was foolishly self-sacrificing. It went against his creed of living until he could murder his brother. Ryuuka would have screamed at him. His mother would have scolded him within an inch of his life for being so suicidal.

Disregarding the obsolete pain in his right arm and the way it was sluggishly bleeding—since when did he have the time or presence of mind for such details when he hardly had time to _breathe_?—Sasuke tangled with the speeding blur that was toned muscle and killing intent in a manner that would have done the moron proud.

Naruto, flesh, blood, and breathing chaos, was three seconds behind him, howling about justice and promises and other such crap. How did the idiot even have time to form words? It must have been a side effect of thinking with thirteen brains, collective memory and thought processes and all that crap.

Both of them attempted to hit vital spots: neck, chest, kidney, stomach, liver, lungs, arm or leg muscles, tendons, brain, eye… anything really. They were that desperate. They were that outmatched.

Sasuke snarled with thwarted rage when the ropy muscles impaled by his kunai dissolved into a puddle of water. He glared about, determined to find the prey he had been denied. Something was draining him as he scanned the area. Every movement drew his gaze even if it was just the motion of grass in the wind.

If Sasuke was feral, Naruto was beyond the help of civilization. Sasuke could feel the hot wrath radiating off him before the idiot howled and spat as he launched himself at another target, acting completely on killer instinct. Sasuke bypassed him with superior speed, intent on downing this threat. That damn sword was in the way the next second. He actually saw it coming despite its speed, but he couldn't move fast enough to do anything with that knowledge. It clanged off of his forehead protector, which saved Sasuke from losing the top of his skull. The impact, though not as deadly as it could have been, was rather like having a gong of pain go off in his forehead, his neck wrenched.

He was sent flying, out of control of his spin, his brain rattling in his skull. He landed with a wet thud on the soft ground, but even through the haze of survival instinct-induced rage, he couldn't find his way to his feet. Hell, finding his knees was beyond him when he couldn't even see… Black, everything was so black, though the curtain over his vision was lifting to slowly reveal mud, reeds, grass, and…

Oh, shit. Feet.

"_Sasuke-kun_!" Sakura was screaming not too far away, even as pure fear in the form of adrenaline (as if he hadn't had enough going through his system already) attempted to push him into action.

"_Bastard!_" Two shouts overlapped from copies of the same throat. Naruto was alive somewhere and completely furious and terrified. Sasuke could admit to himself that he wasn't much better off, or he might have if he had had time to think of anything except "_LIVE!_"

And he did.

"I don't let my comrades die." It was a strange whisper, almost a promise, riding on the air ahead of a new force. Sasuke had no idea if he was meant to hear it or not.

A green and blue form that should have been a blur if his understanding of speed was correct appeared, shouldering its way into the enemy's midriff even as the sword continued its arc to cleave Sasuke's skull in two. Two jounin tumbled in a heap of deadly force as Sasuke managed to force himself back a distance on hands and knees, every muscle electrified. Shaking with reaction to the linear series of close calls, Sasuke somehow found his feet and fled a few paces despite all training that insisted he stupidly hold his ground.

"All of you protect Tazuna," Kakashi directed them before dissolving into a motion trail in the thickening mist.

Orders overriding instinct, Sasuke staggered towards the milky pale civilians as Sakura sprinted towards him, her face almost grey with fear as well as being muddy, and her eyes filled with tears. She tried to touch him, but he couldn't bear it, sidestepping almost frenetically to avoid the contact, friendly though it was. She stumbled as though he had punched her, her breathing pattern distorting towards sobs at his rejection, but he was beyond the reach of shame, too glad to be alive to worry about such silly things as courtesy or tact or softer feelings.

"Geez, Ass, I thought you were dead," a Naruto breathed, awe apparent in his tone. "Kaka-sensei totally saved your chicken ass!" Something shattered in Sasuke, and he punched the Naruto hard enough in the shoulder to make him wince. "Yup, you're a live bastard for sure. Touchy as ever."

This was completely the wrong time for levity, but Sasuke managed to regain enough feeling to back a hysterical laugh. Now Sakura sobbed even as she pulled out a second kunai to complement the one in her right hand.

All four of them watched the fight as the civilians shook behind the ring they had formed around them.

It was beyond the scope of what Sasuke had thought was possible. Chaos was the only way to describe it: vaguely organized, patterned chaos. Each move led to an array of counters that spiralled into eternal possibility and slowly narrowed into the reality playing out before their eyes. Sasuke could hardly track the motions. What one knew, the other could predict and counter in such a way that the knowing was never brought into bearing on reality. All of this told Sasuke one thing: the ninja had been toying with them the whole time.

They would have died the moment the ninja had gotten bored with stringing them along. It made him shudder.

Kakashi looked odd. For one thing, he was no longer a massive wolfhound. For another, his eye wasn't covered. Sasuke froze when he got a glimpse of red and black when Kakashi forced his fingers through a complicated sequence of handseals in a complete mirror to this enemy's movements. Creepy in the extreme, but what was worse was that Sasuke knew this tactic. This was Uchiha strategy at its finest: a mental game used to psych out opponents, the first Sharingan tactic any child lucky enough to activate the latent bloodline trait was taught.

"Sharingan Kakashi, huh? I suppose I'm honoured I'll be the one to kill you for all the good it will do me. No legal bounties for nukenin and all that."

"Nukenin, huh?" Kakashi drawled back as the water began to seep out of the marshy ground ominously, a blue tinge haloing him and his opponent that Sasuke didn't quite understand. The desire to bolt flared to life in Sasuke once again. This time, he listened right away.

"Move! Now!" He turned to push Keji and Tsunami into motion even as Sakura and the two Narutos took care of the others.

They weren't a moment too soon. In fact, they were about a minute too late.

Muddy waters roared to life, spraying out of the ground in a geyser of force, assuming draconic qualities before clashing, spraying in all directions. The wave of muddy water swept them off their running feet, throwing them some distance through a maze of trees. To his left somewhere, Inari screamed. Sasuke had the feeling that the kid either couldn't swim or knew only too well what a flash flood was. If it was the former, well, the brat was screwed until he found a tree to cling to. To his right, Keji cried out, having found a tree trunk in a most painful fashion. Naruto's string of swearwords told Sasuke that Keji had been knocked out by the impact. That Naruto struggled to haul the client's head above the water without meeting an untimely death against the trunk of another innocent tree at the wrong place at the wrong time.

When the water let up, Sasuke did a quick headcount and was relieved to note that they were all there even as the coming of another torrent told him that this survival was only temporary. Acting out of an instinct developed from dealing with Ryuuka, he used Shunshin to get to Inari's side and dragged him up into the boughs of a tree, leaving the wailing kid there even as the next wave took everyone else. Sasuke grabbed the woman next, somehow finding the chakra to get her into a tree near her son despite how her sodden robes weighed her down.

Sakura was clutching at a tree and Tazuna with the other Naruto's help as the first clung to the insensate Keji, staying in place only with the help of chakra. Sasuke, figuring that this poor idiot needed the most help, flashed over to his side and helped drag the client up into the limbs of the tree.

"Honestly," the guy groused—Sasuke was again unsure whether or not this was a clone—"of all the places we could set up camp to hold against Kiri-nin, we end up holding fort on a fucking floodplain, a bloody marsh right on the ocean. Whose bright idea was that?"

Sasuke had to admit that it sounded pretty damn stupid when Naruto put it like that. Like a good ninja, he blamed the whims of the client. There was no way that he was going to accept the blame for that tactical blunder. Water… he hated suiton. Katon was useless against suiton. Of all the unfortunate matchups, this was the absolute worst!

Kakashi seemed to be faring fairly well. Their sensei was keeping up with the enemy, giving him a run for his money more than half the time. The guy was getting more and more freaked out by the mirror routine; Sasuke could tell. If it hadn't infuriated him so much, he would have grinned at the effectiveness of his clan's tactic.

"Monkey Kakashi—"

"—huh?" Kakashi finished for him, no trace of a smile on that face despite the humour in the words. "There's—"

"—no way you can beat the Devil of the Mists! How did—"

"—he know? He can't read my mind, can he?" Kakashi's deadly mockery made a slight smirk curl the corner of Sasuke's mouth. He could appreciate this humour.

Kakashi was gathering chakra; Sasuke knew this even though he wasn't close enough to feel it across his skin. It was something about the concentration of the blue halo… Any minute now, their sensei was going to pull out a trump card so amazing that it would—!

A rain of needles downed the Mist ninja before Sasuke could clench his fists in anticipation of the takedown. All of them faltered in the face of this upset; time stumbled on a fold in the rug. Silence held them in its hand for a moment.

"_What the HELL?_" the Naruto beside him bellowed, racing through the trees to stand as close as he dared to the action. "What asshole did that? Come out here, you bloody scut!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Naturally, the moron would have picked up Wave Country slang. He held his ground, unlike Naruto, because he realized that just because the primary enemy had been taken down, it didn't mean that this new menace wasn't a threat to their clients.

A masked boy appeared at the base of a mangrove, twirling a senbon cockily around his finger. "Thank you for providing me the opportunity to take down my target," he said, his voice muffled by his ceramic mask. It was ANBU, though the mark was Mist's.

Kakashi didn't reply. Instead, he stalked towards the fallen body, both of his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

The ANBU appeared near the Kiri-nin, hovering possessively over the corpse. "I'd thank Konoha to mind its own business. This is my target to destroy. Attempt to take it from me, and I will take you down as well."

That made Kakashi pause. "I merely want to verify that my opponent is dead. Battle instincts demand satisfaction. I haven't lived this long by not making sure that loose ends are tied up."

The boy reluctantly nodded, the needle now held at the ready in his fingers. The Naruto was shaking with suppressed fury, but Sasuke was a little more concerned with the possibility that their teacher would set the ANBU off. The grey-haired man knelt down near the ninja's torso and set two fingers on the pulse point hidden beneath the wrappings covering the lower half of the face and neck. Ten seconds later, Kakashi stood up without a word and retreated from the battle.

"The other two that travel with him?" the ANBU inquired mildly, looking anything but mild.

"In the woods over there. Probably dead now."

The Kiri ANBU curtly nodded once and levered the heavy body over his shoulder before disappearing. Naruto started screaming about the unfairness of it all, embarrassing them completely. Now that the danger was past, Sasuke was too exhausted to care.

Sasuke dropped from his branch with Keji awkwardly slung across his shoulder, swaying upon landing on the sopping ground with a squelch. The pain in his hand and arm, no longer subdued by adrenaline, made itself known. Blood left trails down his arm alongside the mud as he propped Keji against the tree.

He couldn't rest though, not yet. Stumbling through the muck, he somehow made it to the base of the trees Inari and Tsunami were huddled in. Gathering chakra from some source of vitality he wasn't actually certain existed, he launched himself up the tree and extended his lacerated hand to Inari. The boy's eyes widened with horror. Sighing at his blunder, he pulled his stinging hand back, fighting back the nausea lingering from the blow to the head, and extended his unwounded left. With his mother's urging, the brat grabbed it and let himself be carried down.

Tsunami clambered down, landing on the soft ground in a heap. Hiccupping with relief, Sakura was helping Tazuna down from a tree with the other Naruto's assistance.

The complaining Naruto changed tune abruptly, so Sasuke whipped around dizzily to see what had set him off. The reason for Naruto's panic became clear: Kakashi was lying motionless in the mud. Naruto was scrambling over to him. The Naruto that had been helping Sakura dissolved into a cloud of smoke, revealing the original once and for all.

Unfortunately for Sasuke, this was the last thought he had before he too face-planted in the mud, Sakura's horrified screams following him into oblivion.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30: Falling Back on Nine Pillars

Left with only Naruto as backup, Sakura was moments away from a complete panic attack. _Sasuke was down! Kaka-sensei was down! What were they going to do?_ When Naruto mimicked her alarm aloud and with a lot more swearing involved, she pulled herself back together and snarled at him. "Create some clones, baka! Help me get them to the house!"

Order, she would have order if it were the last thing she did! Naruto knew enough about her temperament to know not to defy her. He created five clones, his exhaustion beginning to show. She couldn't let him rest though, not yet, not until the entire team was relatively out of danger.

She bullied Tazuna into scooping up Keji and sent Tsunami and Inari off to find a doctor. It would have been much more helpful if one of them had been a medic: she didn't want to endanger her teammates by exposing their true faces to outsiders. Heck, she was very worried that Naruto no longer had the energy to keep his henge on at all and that Sasuke's had dissolved after he had nearly had his skull broken open.

She fingered the deep dent in the metal that had saved Sasuke-kun's life. The rough edges cut her finger, but she hardly cared. She was too thankful that he was still alive. That had been the most terrifying moment of her life, even more so than when Zabuza had been about to behead her and Sasuke had come. She had thought for sure that he was dead until suddenly Kaka-sensei had been there. She had never been gladder to see her sensei, but all of that would be for nothing if Sasuke slipped into a coma. She was sure he had used more chakra than was good for him, just like Kakashi-sensei. How had he kept going for so long after that double whammy?

With a Naruto's help, she managed to haul Sasuke's limp form back into Tazuna's residence. She wondered if that was safe, but they had nowhere else to go, and that Kiri ANBU hadn't seemed interested in Tazuna or the rest of them. Staying here was the best option now, especially since it was where Tsunami and Inari would bring the doctor. Clones rushed around the main room, laying out futons, collecting bandages from packs, and boiling water for washing out wounds. She was glad that Naruto seemed to have some idea of what needed doing as she deposited Sasuke between Kakashi and Keji. Though she wanted to watch over him, other things needed doing.

She harassed two clones into giving up their water boiling duties and sent them outside to watch. She didn't have the heart to drain Naruto further by making him create more clones. She couldn't tell which one was the original, but they all looked beat. She let the water boil for a good three minutes before using some to sterilize a basin. They would need a lot of water: none of them had been exempt to cuts and scrapes.

The moment the two large basins Tsunami owned were full, she carried the coolest one over to the futons and took the cloth one clone offered her while it soaked its own and squeezed the excess water out in a pan yet another clone dug up to hold the dirty water. She pulled Sasuke's forehead protector off and hissed sympathetically at the huge bruise purpling his forehead. She set the cloth over the lump, hoping the heat would ease things. It was more likely that he needed a cold compress, but she wasn't sure.

Gritting her teeth against her overwhelming feeling of uselessness, she carefully cradled Sasuke's right hand in her left, hissing every time her motions made the cuts bleed. She wiped the wounds clean, trying not to think about how much hurt she had to inflict on him to get kunai splinters out of his flesh with her fingernails. The water in the pan was soon rose-coloured, and she grabbed another cloth when the other became too dirty to continue using. Once she was convinced that she had done all she could for his palm, she wrapped it with linen bandages. Next, she turned to the cut on his arm, which took less time since the slice was clean except for some grit that the suiton jutsu's torrent must have forced into the wound.

She could tell that the Naruto watching over Kakashi was tempted to pull the mask aside. His fingers were just starting to pinch the cloth over the bridge of Sensei's nose. She swatted him over the head, careful not to use excessive force so that her helper wouldn't dissolve if he were a clone. The Naruto whined about how heartless she was, but she stood firm, refusing to let Sensei be so exposed when he had absolutely no chance of defending himself and when there were other vastly more useful things to do. Though she also burned with curiosity, she could wait until the medic told her that they were all out of danger.

A scruffy man raced through the door on Inari's heels with Tsunami right behind them, nearly startling Sakura into tipping over the pan of dirty water despite the warning the clones on watch had given them by rapping a signal on the roof. The medic brusquely shoved her and the clone aside. The Naruto was put back on water duty with the compatriot that had been minding Keji, and Sakura found herself put on bandage duty. Sensei had acquired a slice on his forearm that needed stitches. Sakura watched the needle and the thick thread pass through her sensei's pale skin with horrified fascination, wincing every time the skin was tugged in such a way that it reminded her of the cloth she had used to sew dolls. It was beyond creepy that skin could look like that.

Keji was diagnosed with a minor concussion. Attempts to wake him were encouraged and if they did manage to rouse him, he was to be kept awake for at least eight hours before it would be safe to let him sleep.

Sasuke was worse off. The medic worked very hard to rouse him, slapping him sharply and checking for consciousness by pulling the pale lids open. When he did wake, he seemed almost punch drunk. He immediately fouled another pan with the meagre contents of his stomach until only acid and bile came up. She scrunched up her nose at the sight, but held the pan for him. They propped him up against the wall, and she and a clone sat with him to keep him from slipping back into unconsciousness.

Kakashi was allowed to sleep only because the medic didn't see any sign of head trauma. The medic's reaction upon pulling back the scarred lid to look for signs of who-knew-what was the most amusing thing Sakura had seen all day. He squealed and scrambled away, gibbering about demons until Sasuke snarled.

"It's a genetic gift," he spat at the scruffy man, his black eyes full of wrath. "Don't you dare sully it with your lack of understanding!"

The medic kept his mouth shut about it after that. He did admit he didn't quite know why Kakashi wasn't responding to stimulus before admitting defeat when Sasuke shot him a look that indicated he should butt out if he wanted to live.

"Why did Sensei pass out?" she wondered aloud, glancing over her shoulder as the doctor fussed over Inari's cuts.

"He's using something that's not his," Sasuke said, struggling to keep his eyes open. "The eye belongs to my clan. He's not an Uchiha; therefore, the eye isn't his to use and it won't work as well for him."

"That almost sounded like 'worthier than thou' crap," the Naruto grumbled, leaning against the wall and closing its eyes with a grimace. "You've been spending way too much time around Akio-sourpuss. You're starting to sound like him."

"He hasn't got a lot of time left to pass over the secrets…!"

"Don't worry, Ass. Didn't you notice? You got your damn eyes," the Naruto said wearily.

The medic's departure to see to the injuries of the workers in the camp that had been attacked left exhausted and tense silence in his wake. Sasuke-kun's astonishment was obvious. When he pressed Naruto, the fool mumbled something about creepy ass red eyes after Zabuza had nearly torn a hole in his head.

Inari and Tsunami studied the now unmasked ninja out of the corner of their eyes. Sakura had to work hard to not shift uncomfortably. She had been hiding under that henge for so long that she had grown accustomed to being almost two feet taller. Now she felt like a midget, a powerless midget.

* * *

It was agonizingly boring to watch Kakashi sleep. Sasuke was especially irked because he was burning with questions for the unconscious man. First and foremost, where had this bastard gotten an _Uchiha_ eye? It was an outrage, a perversion of the worst sort, to see an eye highly prized by his clan in this Hatake's face. Who had he killed to get it? Maybe a better question was what fool had given it to his sensei, unless he had desecrated the remains of his fallen family just after they had died at the hands of _the disowned brother_.

The latter possibility made Sasuke seethe and his fingers twitch towards his teacher's face. Sasuke knew full well the abilities of the mature Sharingan. Even the greatest geniuses would be reduced to average ninja before it according to Akio-ojiisan. Kakashi did not seem like a genius, but Sasuke had heard that nukenin: Kakashi was in a bingo book. Only the best ninja were in bingo books. _The disowned brother_ was in those books. Sasuke would be too someday if he had anything to say about it. But had Kakashi killed one of Sasuke's family members to get this eye? Was Kakashi good enough to have beaten the Sharingan?

This led to the next series of questions: who exactly was his teacher? He knew from Naruto that Kakashi had been in ANBU, but that didn't tell him much. ANBU would take anyone; they had taken Itachi. No, being in ANBU didn't help Sasuke understand who Kakashi was any better.

These questions were not new: Sasuke had mulled over these while the moron had been breaking into pieces trying to learn Rasengan. Sasuke had shadowed his strange sensei for a time out of loneliness and curiosity and had only found more questions. The man had been damnably evasive in answering—a habit that irritated him immensely since it also belonged to Itachi. Naruto and Ryuuka were not irritating because they were incredibly open and could not be evasive to save their lives; Kakashi's lack in this department had earned him the rating of "highly annoying."

"Hey, bastard?" called Naruto, who quickly jumped from "null" to "moderately annoying," Sakura's usual level. "What do you think is under Kaka-sensei's mask?"

Sasuke twitched. What was under that mask? Why did the man wear it? Had he always worn it? Sasuke had a sudden image of Ryuuka hidden under a mask and snorted. "I don't know, Loser. Why?" Why did Naruto always do this? He always interrupted his brooding about _that man_ just when he was getting into it.

"You mean you haven't wondered?" asked Naruto.

Sasuke snorted and shook his head, ignoring the remnants of dizziness from the healing head wound.

"Liar."

"Shut it, Moron." Why did his best friend have to be an annoying idiot? Why hadn't Riko taught him how to be quiet when he was younger? Questions, too many questions and no answers.

"Aw, come on Sasuke-bastard! Admit it!"

"There's nothing to admit."

"Sakura, get over here!"

Sasuke frowned, but his best friend was being a dunce, as usual. The fangirl trotted out of the kitchen where she had been trying to make conversation with Tazuna's daughter as she cooked supper. She was always watching him whenever she wasn't out at the bridge with Tazuna, as though she was afraid he would pass out again. It was getting annoying.

"Look at his expression and tell me if he's been asking questions in his head again."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Sakura, and she blushed darkly. His expression should have been intimidating enough to silence her, but she had been annoyingly gaining confidence around him.

"Eh, it looks like it," she said with a fragile laugh.

"Aha! Bastard, you're a liar!"

"Idiot," grumbled Sasuke, staring at his sandals.

"Don't call me an idiot! I was right, dattebayo. As punishment, you have to find out what's under Kaka-sensei's mask."

"Hn, I bet I can do it before you."

"Never! I swear that I shall discover the truth about Kaka-sensei's face before you, dattebayo!"

"Eh, guys?" Sakura tried to interrupt, but Sasuke wasn't about to let this challenge go unanswered.

"As if, Moron." It was always amusing to watch Naruto's face go puce with badly suppressed fury and righteousness. Sasuke made it a habit to annoy his friend to this extent as least once a day just so he could snicker mentally at Naruto's reaction. The bouncing around and the fist-shaking always made his friend look like a strangely spiky-headed toad.

"Guys—"

"Bastard! I never break my promises! I'll see Kaka-sensei's face first!"

"Fine, you're on."

"Guys!" Sakura shouted, a vein throbbing on her forehead. "Kaka-sensei's awake, you idiots."

Both boys turned to Sensei, who had tilted his head and arched an eyebrow.

* * *

It had been a very long day at the bridge. Without Keji up for organizing boat rides, comings and goings were getting more aggravating every day. No one was willing to take over manning the boat fulltime. They apparently didn't see it as a very glorious or necessary task when almost everyone in Wave could man a boat to some degree. Without Keji keeping order, workers were often stranded on shore or the bridge. It was amazing how the worth of the sour man was only obvious when he wasn't around anymore.

Sakura was supposed to trade off with Naruto in town so she could get some lunch. Sasuke's hand was almost healed, but he wasn't taking a guard shift until tomorrow just to be safe. She didn't want him to break his scabs open by going out too soon. He hadn't been willing to bow to her logic and caution, but Kakashi-sensei had backed her up. Of course, such double-teaming had only made Sasuke more pissed off with her than he had ever been. She dreaded existing under his ire, but she was hungry enough that she wasn't willing to stay out with Tazuna for another shift. She wanted some sleep, damn it! If it wasn't guarding Tazuna, it was watching Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei or staying up on watch for the night. Naruto had three steady clones going, but even he couldn't keep this pace going without relief. At least Sasuke was well enough to sit dawn watch now.

She smiled absently at the herbalist with her usual basket slung over her arm in response to the hesitant smile Sakura had gotten used to from the young woman. It really wasn't fair how pretty the girl was. She spotted a Naruto—maybe a clone, maybe not—and raised her arm in greeting.

* * *

"Shit!" howled Naruto, and Sasuke heard him pound across the roof and drop with a thud onto the boardwalk. "Someone just killed Sakura!"

_WHAT!_

"What!" Kakashi growled, on his feet in a flash with his kunai pouch in hand.

"Holy shit!" Now Naruto was just being annoying. Why couldn't the moron's clones be faster about getting information around? "Boss says that herbalist is trying to kill Tazuna with needles! Sakura is down and isn't getting up! Boss is… Oh shit!" Naruto howled and shuddered, almost hugging himself against some pain from within.

"Where is the fight?" Kakashi demanded implacably, the most serious Sasuke had ever heard him.

"In town, near the road past the docks," the moron managed to gasp out before exploding into smoke.

Sasuke blinked. So, Naruto really was there. Kakashi had already disappeared out the door. Sasuke headed after him, leaving the clone that had somehow survived the wave of pain from Naruto to hold the fort here. Sasuke hoped that it would be more use than it looked; it was pale and shaking slightly, focussed on some struggle far away.

Throwing off any attempt at secrecy, Sasuke followed his sensei through the canopy and over the rooftops when they got to town. Such was their speed that he almost failed to notice how the people in the streets were all scrambling to get away from some epicentre of terror.

When he got there, he couldn't really blame them.

The moron didn't look normal anymore. Sasuke supposed that was to be expected when he had been forcibly made to resemble a porcupine. That wasn't it though; the marks on Naruto's cheeks were more pronounced and the blue eyes were heading towards an unnaturally red shade of purple. He was snarling wordlessly, taking a beating within a dome of ice as one of his clones kept Tazuna out of range in an alley.

"That's not like you, Haku," called a voice Sasuke had thought had been silenced forever. "You were supposed to wait another half hour for me to get into place."

"I apologize, Zabuza-san, but they returned earlier than was their habit. I could not let the opportunity go to waste," the one that had posed as the herbalist replied apologetically, stepping out of the icy mirrors somehow.

The machine from last week appeared in the shadow of the alley, but a gust of wind from passage on Sasuke's left reassured him. Kakashi wouldn't let anything happen to Tazuna on his watch. Moron though… He needed help because his clones weren't doing much against that ice. He couldn't use Rasengan because the clone he used to help him form it always died before the sphere was complete. Sasuke had seen the effects of Rasengan too many times to doubt that it would work if the idiot just had the opportunity to use it…

"Well, I suppose I can't complain too much. I'll finish these off since you're taking too long—"

The shuriken Zabuza angled through the mirrors at Naruto were quickly deflected. Tense silence drowned them all even as the mist began to fill the streets, reducing visibility steadily.

"Zabuza-san, I must ask that you not interfere."

Silence fell again until suddenly the machine laughed.

"You spent too much time watching them," he said harshly, tossing his sword from hand to hand. "You're soft as always. What use are you to me if you can't accomplish the tasks I set you?"

"It will be done," said Haku, pulling out the ANBU mask he had worn the last time they had seen him, "but it will be done my way."

"Have it your way then." Zabuza grandly made a mocking gesture with his sword that was vaguely reminiscent of a courtier. It didn't suit this vagabond. Haku set the mask on his face, effectively rendering it blank, and stepped back into the mirror somehow. Sasuke ran through the conversation in his mind during this brief respite, trying to see what it meant from all angles. What were the connections? What was the intent? This analysis was short-lived.

His thought process cut off when he finally spotted the corpse of his teammate sprawled in the middle of the road, scuffed with dirt from the riot her fall had probably caused. People must have fled when they had realized there was a killer in their midst. Animalistic panic was infectious after all, and panicked beasts hardly cared what they stepped on in their struggle to survive. Two long senbon jutted out of her neck, stained red with blood seeping slowly from the puncture wounds.

It was the same sort of wound inflicted on Zabuza, but that one was alive… Did that mean she was too? But no, she couldn't have survived all that. Zabuza must have used a clone or something to escape, but even that didn't ring true. Kakashi had the Sharingan; Kakashi would have seen. The other two chuunin that had created the distraction really must have died if only Zabuza was here. Sakura was assumed KIA; Naruto could be next if he wasn't careful. Sasuke pushed chakra into his immature Sharingan as Kakashi had been helping him figure out while they had been convalescing. The dome and the chakra haze through it become only too clear.

This thinking wasn't really solving the idiot's problem though, so Sasuke attempted Goukakyuu on the dome, hoping that the heat would be intense enough to melt the strange ice without roasting Naruto in the process.

It wasn't. How the hell was he supposed to save the idiot's ass if he couldn't even dent those icy mirrors? Naruto needed thirty seconds to get Rasengan going. How to accomplish this when he couldn't even hit the nukenin that had posed as Mist ANBU was a little baffling.

"Your ninjutsu is not at the level where it can compete with mine," the boy that was somehow in every mirror at once lectured him in one voice. He strained with his ears to pick out which mirror the real one occupied, paying the tip no mind. He hardly needed his opponent to goad him on by stating the obvious. "You may search all you like, but your eyes are not fast enough to see…" _Was this guy trying to teach them or something? The asshole had some nerve after what he had done!_ "You must be stronger to succeed in protecting what is left."

That tore it. It didn't matter which mirror this bastard was hiding behind: Naruto was just going to have to destroy them all.

"Clones, Moron!" This asshole was going to roast in hell the moment they chased him out of those mirrors! Naruto twisted around despite the needles inhibiting the motion of the muscles they pierced and sent Sasuke a look that clearly said that Naruto doubted his thought process.

"What do you think I'm doing, you ass!"

"Just like against Kakashi for the bell test! The smoke, idiot!"

"Why didn't you say that forty seconds ago, chicken ass!" Naruto formed the cross seal, chakra changing shape with the movement of the fingers and bleeding off as the jutsu fulfilled its purpose.

"Dog pile" described the heap of clones that stuffed the confines of the dome. Needles couldn't gain much momentum before piercing the flesh of some relatively innocent clone with no room. What was worse, or better from Sasuke's point of view since this was hilarious, was that the needles weren't always deadly enough to kill the clone, so the real Naruto was buried. That this Haku kid wasn't quite up to snuff was satisfying, but not very helpful for Sasuke's plan to work. Shrugging off the knowledge that Naruto would kill him for this later, Sasuke readied Goukakyuu and smirked with quiet satisfaction as a pile of clones were snuffed out of existence, their smoky remains obscuring the remaining bodies.

"_Bastard_!" howled sixteen throats through the haze, which was blasted apart by the formation of a vortex. The clone that had been helping the original Naruto got a senbon through the eye and disappeared, but the original hardly let that stop him. Roaring triumphantly, he blasted a sweep of mirrors apart, launching himself in the air with the help of two equally satisfied clones, who died with needles through their temples. Rasengan easily ground the ice into snow that quickly melted in the summer heat. Sasuke, not willing to leave water around for a Kiri-nin, took care of that chance by using his favourite katon jutsu the moment the idiot was out of the way.

Haku burst out of the last sheet of ice standing and bounced off the walls of the buildings framing the street, putting distance between himself and the ball of contained chaos in Naruto's hand. Sasuke, now effective in the fight, was hardly going to let this opportunity go to waste. This ninja was a speed demon, something Sasuke understood very well. Naruto, tricky as he could be, wouldn't be able to keep up with this opponent, at least not until Sasuke hobbled him, but why share?

With that goal in mind, Sasuke dashed after the nukenin, kunai in hand. Thought was too slow to keep up with motion, so every move was instinctive, reactive, and yet guided by feral instinct and the knowledge the Sharingan gave him. The speed was greater than it had been during that fight with Zabuza, but the intensity wasn't the same. It was less of a fight for survival and more of a fight for destruction. Sasuke wasn't acting out of the desire to live here. He could take damage so long as it brought him closer to victory.

The Sharingan was invaluable, limited though it was by the presence of only one tomoe per eye. He could see chakra outside the body when it emanated through the skin, and he could track motions that would have been too quick to see in detail before. This newfound reliability of vision was probably what saved him against senbon, which this Haku seemed to have an unlimited supply of as long as there was water around, which, given that this was Wave Country, was always. It was damnably annoying.

Even as he and Haku zipped through streets, over roofs, under bridges, and around corners in all three dimensions, Naruto doggedly kept on their heels, the chakra halo Sasuke spotted around him every now and again when he had a spare moment to glance steadily going more and more towards red. It was unnerving. It was unsettling. It was _bad_.

Sasuke knew that his friend was acting out of character. Naruto was furious with his failure to protect Sakura. Just how far that rage was taking him worried the Uchiha though.

He wasn't given much spare thought to ponder this as Haku stepped up the speed another notch. Bricks and planks became an endless blur of resistant surface he could push off of to meet Haku's next strike. Chakra control, normally flawless, began to slip. Those expanses of bricks and wooden planks gained new features: craters where excessive chakra use blasted their surfaces. He acquired spin in midair by shoving off a rooftop, twisting his body out of the path of an incoming trio of senbon. Spin was corrected with a toe against the wall of the next house over. He wrenched himself forward with a windowsill. A blast of flame countered the next wave of icy needles. His path led him through the steam, and he managed to get a hold on Haku, pounding him into the ground with gravity augmenting momentum in his favour.

A dull crack told Sasuke that Haku's ribcage had not been happy with that ungainly smack down. Naruto, not one to let himself be outdone, cannonballed into the kid, but Haku wasn't quite ready to let Naruto's weight shove his intestines through his spine. Naruto was back on his feet within moments of crash landing, chasing after the two speedy ones again.

This terrifying game of Tag ended abruptly with the sound of a gunshot. Sasuke froze on the rooftop opposite the one Haku was crouched on, panting for breath as he tried to stare down at what was happening in the street below and keep an eye on Haku so he wouldn't escape. All these interruptions were getting so frustrating. Everything had to come to a halt, objectives and current situations had to be reassessed, and then the enmity had to be built back up after falling apart. It was hard enough to summon murderous intent without having what he had managed to gather blown away every time some idiot and his great-uncle wanted to join the party. The mask Haku was wearing made it easier: it made him seem like less of a person with it hiding his face.

"Wasn't this supposed to be a quick assassination job?" The shortest man that Sasuke had ever seen radiating that much egoism sneered, holding an ancient handgun that surely had to be something out of legend. Sasuke only knew about guns because some enthusiasts still existed in the world and the Academy was charged with warning those that graduated from its halls about the dangers of the ranged weapons. Two bodyguards hovered at this shrimp's side, making him appear even smaller in contrast. The masked ninja behind the man that had to be Gatou was the one that caught Sasuke's attention though. _Kiri ANBU…_

"What is that creature doing behind you?" Zabuza growled as he slipped out from under Kakashi's punch and back-pedalling to retrieve his sword from the wall it was stuck in.

"Hmm, this would be a hunter-nin if his letter of recommendation is correct. Apparently, Kirigakure is only too happy to have you killed, all for free. What a cost effective way to be rid of your incompetence. How long has it been since I employed you and your trio of followers? More than a month, hmm? Well, I've discovered that letting Kiri have you is probably all for the best. Why, this one is so pleased at the chance to bring your head back to your old village that he's offered to see to your opponents as well."

Damn. Real hunter-nin this time, that was _not_ good.

Any thoughts of self-pity vanished when Gatou casually kicked Sakura's body, sending it tumbling into the wall it had been carefully laid near. Rage blossomed. _That asshole!_

Apparently, Naruto felt the same way because that wild scream of grief and rage told Sasuke quite clearly that Naruto had just lost whatever control he had been holding onto before. The aftershock of the wave of chakra that slammed through the idiot's system made Sasuke's chakra feel as though it was being flattened in his skin. Such was the effect of what had to be Kyuubi's chakra that he almost didn't notice that Haku was gone. Naruto was gone the next second, moving with greater speed than Sasuke had ever witnessed from the idiot before.

Haku was just as surprised because Naruto's punch to the boy's face sent him ploughing into a wall, cracking a good chunk of that mask off. The fragments that Naruto's fist ground into the older boy's skin lacerated the cheek, the porcelain staying in as slivers more often than falling to the ground. When the boy managed to slip out from between Naruto and the wall, a good portion of his lower jaw and cheek was bleeding. As satisfying as watching Naruto exact punishment on Haku was, it wasn't really helping their situation. The oinin was still just waiting behind Gatou, but Sasuke had the feeling that that wouldn't last for long.

"If that's so, you've broken our contract," Zabuza grunted, watching Kakashi warily as he addressed his former client.

"Yes," Gatou replied, the smirk evident on his face, "it would seem that I have. My men are mopping up the rebels on the bridge as we speak, so all of your jobs have been taken care of. The end of things is well in sight with the bridge builder right there."

"Then, Kakashi, it would seem that I have no further reason to fight you."

Sasuke glanced warily between his teacher and the enemy jounin, watching them size each other up, wondering if that implication of joining forces was real or just accidental. He wasn't given much more time to wonder because Gatou moved in a way that set all of his instincts screaming.

Sasuke's eyes widened when Gatou raised the gun and took a shot at Tazuna that the clone guarding him took for him. The likelihood of the cartridge being empty was very slim, especially when Gatou smiled as the clone exploded into smoke, leaving Tazuna unprotected. Such a needlessly self-sacrificing idiot! The Mist ANBU decided to complicate things by disappearing from behind Gatou, making Kakashi and Zabuza tense. Sasuke didn't have time to pay attention to them though; the client was unprotected and currently looked rather frozen with horror for some reason or another.

Another shot exploded out of the short barrel, and Sasuke knocked Tazuna flat. The bullet punched a hole in the wall where Tazuna's chest had been a moment before. Before the next shot could take them while they were lying down, Sasuke scrambled to his knees and used Shunshin to drag Tazuna along with him down the alley.

"He's attacking the bridge then?" Tazuna wheezed the moment Sasuke stopped moving.

Sasuke nodded.

"We have to go there and keep them from destroying it!" the man insisted, but the Uchiha shook his head.

"The man behind Gatou is a hunter-nin. They specialize in taking ninja down. My job is to protect _you_ and Keji, not your bridge. You did not hire me to fight wars for you. You are safer away from here and there, and Keji is safe enough at your home with Naruto's other clone watching over him. My job right now is keeping Gatou from blasting holes in you." Sasuke paused, assessing the alley and trying to remember what streets it hooked up to from his time making maps of this stupid place. Left, right, south about a hundred twenty metres… yes, that might work for a little while. Buying time was all that could be hoped for in these circumstances since he didn't actually know anything about that oinin. "Okay, we're getting out of here. If that ANBU decides to get in Gatou's good graces by taking you down with me, we're screwed."


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Drain Eight Draughts

Naruto's world, burning and twisted through eyes that weren't quite his, was nothing but fury. The target of this fury was going to get ripped to pieces, disembowelled, and he was going to dine on the entrails…

Yes, Naruto wasn't quite himself just now. He was acting completely off of an instinct that wasn't his. It came from somewhere else, somewhere deeper within his mind, somewhere caged… The instinct was slipping through the bars and bleeding into him, clouding his judgement, feeding his anger, and leading him on a downward spiral that was difficult to break out of.

He was unaware of gunshots, screams, grunts, the howl of dogs, the shouted orders from a pipsqueak, and the simple fact that his battle was beyond the bounds of the mission now. He was going to rip apart the one that had killed Sakura—friend, annoying, violent, frightening, known, partly trusted. He hadn't quite believed that she really was dead until Gatou had kicked her. He had half hoped that she was simply sleeping, knocked out, or even pretending while waiting for an opening, but the Sakura he knew wouldn't have let Gatou kick her and get away with it. She would have lost her temper and beaten the prick to a pulp. That was when it had finally sunken in that she really was dead. That was when he had snapped. She had died because he hadn't been quick enough to see it coming…

Haku, the one he would kill, was a fly darting in and out of range of his fury. Every second that Haku continued to live increased Naruto's rage by an almost exponential factor. When his speed finally got him within the proper range, he sent the older boy—his nose told him that this was a boy no matter how feminine he looked—flying into another wall, making the nose bleed and the skin bruise while cartilage crunched. Haku was escaping the next moment, but Naruto _knew_ he would win. Haku was a fly and a fly only ever had a couple days of life in it. Naruto knew that his supply of life—of chakra—would last far longer. He could wait, but he didn't want to.

"Do you have someone precious to be strong for?" Haku asked him when Naruto finally had him pinned against a wooden wall, his throat clutched in a clawed hand. Instinct wanted to bat away that question, but it rang a bell in him. Someone precious, someone that would appalled if she could see him now, had said something like that once before.

"What?" Naruto growled, battling with confusion and bloodlust.

"Do you have a person to protect, someone that inspires you to be this strong?" Haku's tone wasn't full of fear or desperation, merely genuine curiosity. It further broke instinct's hold.

"Lots of people," Naruto growled. "I'm going to be Hokage someday, so I have to be strong enough to protect everybody. What good is a Hokage that can't even keep his people alive?"

"That's right. It's the same principle. What good is a tool that cannot serve its master? What do you do with a broken tool?"

"Burn it?" instinct suggested in a growl that Naruto wasn't sure he liked, but it took hold of his tongue and came out anyway.

"Perhaps," Haku agreed. "I was more thinking along the lines of sacrificing it to gain what can be gained. You desire my death. I cannot beat you, though it was simple enough four minutes ago. Though my reason to exist is shattered because I have failed, I have one thing that I can still do for the one that I hold above my own life."

Confused by this sudden shift, instinct continued losing its hold. Rage was hard to maintain when the guy was essentially agreeing that he needed to be killed. This wasn't a battle anymore; this was a discussion about a certain execution and it made him as leery as hell.

"I hold Zabuza-san's life and dream above my own existence. There are those here that threaten that, so I cannot let you kill me, useless though I may be to him otherwise."

"Huh?" Naruto was completely baffled now. Why did everyone say things in such a complicated way? For some reason, his response seemed to amuse Haku because the blood-flecked lips twisted into a smile despite the way that the porcelain shards cut further into his cheek and the wounds that had begun scabbing over began to dribble blood anew.

"That Kiri ANBU is going to kill all of us if he can. It would be better to work together to survive and protect what remains."

"You expect me to forgive you for killing Sakura-chan and help you fight that guy?" Naruto yelled, spraying Haku with spittle.

The boy watched quietly as Naruto panted with the effort that it took to keep from screaming with frustration. "Yes; we are only tools after all. Our goals do not matter, only our usefulness. I am only useful to Zabuza-san while I am alive and my bloodline limit intact. You are only useful to your client if you get the job done. You don't need to forgive me, only work with me for a while to keep the dreams of our precious people alive."

Naruto had a brief image of Tazuna insisting that the bridge was just what Wave needed to get back on its feet. If Gatou won, he would never be able to forgive himself… but Sakura… "How do I know that you're not gonna run?"

Haku reached up and pulled the shattered remains of his mask off his face. "I know of nothing more painful than living without someone in the world needing me. If my existence doesn't matter to Zabuza-san because I am useless, I would rather die than exist as I did before he came and found me."

"So you want to help him even though he only sees you as a tool?" Naruto sputtered, not understanding at all.

"Yes, whatever it takes to be useful to him, I will do it. My bloodline makes me hated in Wave, but he saw beyond that after my father murdered my mother for it and tried to kill me as well. He is my most precious person. What he sees me as does not matter. I live to protect his dream. Since I cannot do that, dying by your hand is preferable."

Naruto blinked, feeling the beginnings of empathy tugging at him. This, he understood this… His experience with this didn't sound half as harsh when held up against what Haku expressed in such a matter-of-fact tone. "Okay," he said, wavering on whether this was wise or not. This guy had made a pincushion out of him only a little while ago and now he was insisting that they had to join forces to defeat an even more dangerous enemy. Had Hiroji ever had to make stupid choices like this? Mikoto-obachan had never told him what to do when the enemy tried to bargain like this. Her lecture had just covered being smart and staying alive. He had the feeling that she hadn't talked to her targets a lot.

"I thank you," Haku said. "We should go back to the street if we are to be of any use at all."

Use, use, _use_! It was all about being useful with this guy! His dedication made Naruto feel like a complete slacker. He grumbled obscenities under his breath as they sprinted back to the street. Just how much distance they had covered since that gunshot and the ass had made him so angry was a little worrisome. He had a feeling about what had happened, but he was avoiding it, not wanting to admit that he had lost control. He shoved that depressing thought out of his mind as he crouched on the roof adjacent to the one Haku was standing on while he scouted out the scene below.

Wow… Kaka-sensei must have been totally pissed! He had never seen Inu-san make that much of a mess before.

Gatou was cowering behind four mercenaries, two of whom Naruto hadn't seen before. The ANBU guy wasn't behind him anymore, which was probably why the entire street looked as though a tornado or another hurricane had decided to have a go at it. The people who owned those houses weren't going to be happy… Zabuza, Kaka-sensei, and the ANBU had made piecemeal of a couple sections of wall. The splinters from the gaping wound in the wooden boards were scattered on the dirt road under the sandals of the combatants.

"Naruto," Kaka-sensei called, not taking his eyes off his temporary compatriot and his enemy, "Sasuke and Tazuna disappeared a while ago. Go track them down and back Sasuke up."

Gritting his teeth, Naruto shook his head and pulled some chakra up from his drained reserves even as he pulled some more needles out of his shins. He had plucked a couple out while chasing after Haku and the bastard, and those puncture wounds were completely healed for some reason. He blamed the fox-bastard. It seemed like the best explanation given how close he had come to losing his mind, which was still as scary as hell and very hard to block out. He had been thinking about eating Haku's guts… That _couldn't_ be normal… Shaking his head to dispel that decidedly gross thought, he created three clones and they went running off to find the bastard. There was no way he was going to abandon this fight just 'cause Kaka-sensei didn't want to get skewered for putting him in danger.

"Naruto, I meant you! There's no way you can handle this fight."

"I wanna see why this cold bastard loves the eyebrowless freak so much. He says he wants to die if he can't be useful to him. He promised me—"

"Naruto, that's an order. Go make yourself useful somewhere else. This isn't a fight you'll survive." Kakashi seemed to know what he was talking about because the ANBU was suddenly gone, reappearing behind Zabuza with tantō in hand, intent on stabbing the freak through the kidney.

Past and present meshed for a moment and Naruto shuddered, remembering that night when he had been eight and Snake had watched out for him. She had killed like this too—mercilessly, clinically, and economically. The memory of how quickly she had pinned one ANBU agent with his throat in her crushing grip made him wonder if heading after his clones would be a better idea after all…

Zabuza's blade cut a wicked arc through the air, forcing the offending tantō away from its target organ. Kakashi moved, kunai intent on disembowelling, decapitating, or destroying muscle, but Haku got there first, peppering the attacking ANBU with icy senbon without any of the mercy that had been present when Naruto had been trapped in the dome. Maybe Haku really hadn't wanted to kill him…

"Oi, Zabuza-asshole! You take good care of that kid or I'm gonna come back and kick your eyebrowless ass!" He created a single clone—it was all he had enough spare chakra for—to nab Sakura and keep care of her body before disappearing in the direction the clone that had just dispersed himself to tell him he had found Sasuke's trail.

* * *

"Come on, Bastard! We've got to do something if that's true. Tazuna's right; we can't just let all those poor scuts die on the bridge! They're trapped and everything unless they flee into Fire Country."

"It's outside of the mission," Sasuke insisted, folding his arms and glaring at the rafters of the damp cellar they were currently hiding in.

Naruto could barely see an inch in front of his nose, so making out the finer details of Sasuke's expression was an impossible task. This, unfortunately, made figuring out how the bastard was feeling a task beyond imagining simply because the icy ass didn't seem to understand that sticking poles up your ass was not good for your mental health or your range of facial expression.

"It's not right to stay here and cower like rabbits!"

"You think I like this any better?" Sasuke viciously gestured around at the rotten beams and the mould. "Do you think I like sitting around in this sewer?"

"Then why don't we get out there?" Naruto whined, Tazuna nodding encouragement from behind him.

"Because, Moron, we need to keep the old man alive. Taking him to the bridge won't help that. Besides, maybe you haven't noticed, but we're both pretty low on chakra. You were injured and you lost control only two minutes ago. Can you keep it together and fight more than twenty mercenaries? Look at you; you're a mess."

"Asshole, Sakura-chan's dead! Of course, I'm a mess. I was right there…"

"Focus on the mission, Moron. Shinobi rule number twenty-five."

"To hell with rule twenty-five, Bastard! Sakura-chan's dead!"

"She…" Sasuke glanced away, perhaps searching the gloom for a heart that he was so obviously lacking if Sakura's death really wasn't affecting him the way it was tearing Naruto apart.

"Spit it out already! I've had about enough of your stoic crap. You're acting like it's no big deal!" Naruto was tempted to headbutt this ass the way he had when they had been little kids fighting over whether he was frightened of Neechan or not. Surely, the forehead protectors would keep it from hurting the way it had last time…

"She might not really be dead."

"… What?"

"She might not be dead. Haku hit her exactly the same way he took down Zabuza, who is currently fighting out there somewhere."

Naruto rolled this over in his mind, not willing to believe this. She hadn't moved… But Zabuza hadn't either… He flipped through the information one of his clones had given him on her condition after he had started trying to beat the pulp out of Haku before backup had come. Considering how well that had gone, he hadn't really had time to do more than skim through the surface impressions.

"She's got two needles through her neck, bastard. She's not breathing."

"Zabuza wasn't either or Kakashi would have slit his throat. He did check for a pulse."

This was starting to make horrible sense to Naruto. Hope, which had been completely trampled the same way Sakura had been by the stupid sheep that made up the majority of the population of this damn town, started to grow in the fertile soil of Sasuke's reasoning. Naruto knew that there was a reason that he hung around with this ass!

"Ass, you're my best friend if you're right."

"You're such a sentimental idiot, Loser. Get your head on straight and don't you dare hug me. Go be touchy feely with your damn pillow, not me. I don't know why it puts up with you."

"… You're losing your touch. The wrinkliest old bastard would be disappointed in that lame witticism."

"Shut up, idiot."

"The bridge?" Tazuna reminded them, rather annoyed with their inability to stay on track.

"No." Sasuke huffed, but Naruto immediately got back to his argument about this being completely unreasonable and unfair to the poor sods getting decapitated. "There's ANBU running around."

"Scaredy cat! You afraid that one of the masked ones is gonna take your tiny nuts with them when they go home?" A crack and Naruto's pitiful whining filled the cellar. "Bastard! I like my nose! Tazuna, if you go, I'm gonna follow you. We can leave Mr. Stick-Up-His-Ass here."

"Moron!" Sasuke growled, but Naruto wasn't in the mood to listen.

"Bastard…!" he shot back in exactly the same tone with an additional mocking edge that he had perfected over the years.

Footsteps and the creak of a door got Naruto going. Darkness and silence were undisturbed for a time until the sound of the door closing reached the one still sitting in it. The door thudded once, twice… and then footsteps sped out through it.

* * *

It was so dark.

Everything was so heavy.

Was she even breathing? Oh, there was air. The cool feel of the wind going down her windpipe and into her screaming lungs was by far the most gorgeous sensation she had ever been blessed with. Finally, the reassuring thump of her heart sounded within the depths of her ears: first, one beat and then another, slowly establishing a rhythm. Why had it stopped? Where was she? What was going on? These questions, though asked, were not very urgent. She was more than content to simply stay in this comforting darkness. She was secure here. There was no one here to impress…

Sasuke-kun. Where was Sasuke-kun? Something about her inaccessible recent memories hinted that Sasuke-kun was in danger. She couldn't sit around in here if that was true. Oh sure, she believed in him and all that, but she needed to reassure herself that he was fine. Kaka-sensei would look out for him, but that man still struck her as absentminded sometimes. He had never been a father or a brother as far as she knew. What would he know about keeping a boy like Sasuke in one piece? Maybe Naruto would know, but Naruto was generally an idiot… The worrying recent memory surfaced and her eyes snapped open.

Oh gods… what had happened?

Naruto was kneeling near her, hiding her from what was taking place out in the street. For once, she was grateful for this protection because what she could see was horrible. This was no friendly spar or a quick test of strength between opponents. These men were going to kill each other.

She tried to gasp when suddenly Sensei's hand was through the chest of the masked ninja that the one that had attacked them last week was disembowelling at the same time while several dogs held the masked one in place. Blood spattered all over the ground, and the white of bone was clearly visible from within the horrendous hole Sensei had made with his bare hand. The disturbing scent of ozone and gore hit her, and she wished she could turn away as Naruto did, but she couldn't move.

She could only stare, frightened beyond sanity, as the masked one, his dark pants even darker with blood and urine, swayed as the dogs let him go and finally collapsed. Sensei's hand was dark with blood and some dripped off the end of the Mist-nin's blade. Had she been able to move even the slightest bit, she would have shaken like a leaf. As it was, all she could hope for was that the tears would blind her.

It almost seemed anticlimactic when the gunshot ripped through the sound of the two jounin panting over their kill. One minute, there had been nothing on the far side of that nukenin; the next, a boy was taking the bullet meant for that bandaged man, falling, and curling up against the pain. The Mist jounin stared down at the fallen boy—the herbalist that had smiled at her before the world had ended—and then glanced up at something she couldn't see. Naruto was swearing, abandoning her, running towards the fallen herbalist, shouting about broken promises and assholes.

Another shot rang out, but it didn't hit anyone, or at least she didn't think it did. No one fell from it. Naruto was shouting about love and dreams to the nukenin, who was staring coldly at that thing she couldn't see. Naruto continued passionately, waving his arms around in a way that told her that he was on the verge of tears, if not crying freely already. A loud sniffle told her it was the latter, but she still didn't understand _why_ this was happening. It was like starting to read a story halfway through the book. She had missed all the explanatory text, and she was adrift without it.

More shots, further passionate words from Naruto, and suddenly that former Kiri jounin was moving beyond the frame the end of the alley created. Shortly after he left, screams echoed and the rate of gunfire sped up and then suddenly stopped altogether.

Naruto stared at whatever scene she couldn't see with an expression that told her he wasn't very happy, but that he knew it was the best that could be done with the situation.

Kakashi-sensei was as blank as ever, his bloody hands becoming even bloodier as he tried to staunch the flow of blood from the herbalist's bullet wound. Naruto was gone the next minute with Sensei's orders ringing in his ears, leaving Kakashi-sensei to face the return of the Mist jounin by himself. They didn't fight the way she had thought they would. Instead, the jounin knelt down beside the herbalist and took over Kakashi's job, keeping the boy from bleeding dry with carefully applied pressure, a strange expression Sakura couldn't quite describe on his face.

Kakashi, now free of his task, walked towards her. He didn't seem too surprised when he noticed that her eyes were open. "Sakura, you're alive then, hmm?" Sensei pulled something out of her neck in a way that made her want to howl. The feeling of whatever it was being drawn out of her flesh, the suction, and the scream of nerves were horrible. The worst part was when he did it again. "These did quite a number on you, huh?" he said with strained cheerfulness, displaying a long, thick needle in his blood-drenched hand, the same hand that had made that terrible hole in that masked ninja, whose body was still staining the ground red.

He didn't seem to mind when she lost control and started crying silently. He only picked her up and carried her away to who cared where.

* * *

They were too late. Naruto's curses flowed as he spotted the first bodies on Wave's side of the bridge. God, the stink! Just behind Tazuna, Sasuke was staggering, his face bordering on grey. Naruto had the feeling he was thinking about his family's massacre; his wide, glazed over eyes gave it away. Good thing Mikoto-obachan hadn't let Sasuke into the compound until after things had been cleaned up. Unfortunately, his friend could imagine now.

"T-Tazuna-san?" gasped out what Naruto had thought was a corpse, causing all of them to jump. "Tazuna-san, we tried…" Naruto peered closer at the bloody mess and belatedly realized that Kohan was the near corpse wheezing at them. As Tazuna sank to his knees to hear out the wounded man, Naruto picked his way forward, fighting his gag reflex with all he was worth. He couldn't think. It hurt too much. He could only move forward, something cold and hard in his gut pushing him onwards.

With a powerful leap, he cleared the gap remaining between Fire and Wave's sides of the bridge. Below, corpses—mostly workers, though there were some he assumed were Gatou's mercenaries since he didn't recognize them—bobbed in the waves against the bridge's pilings, paling and staining the waters around them red, some sinking as their lungs filled with water. Naruto ran the moment he touched down on Fire's side. He sprinted past more workers' groaning or whimpering corpses, past piles of supplies, past abandoned tools, and past strange boxes connected with wires. Ahead, he could hear faint screams and closer he spotted a couple groups of huddled unfamiliar men.

"Someone's coming!"

"Then we'll have to let it rip as is."

"Mark!" someone else shouted.

* * *

When Naruto had sprinted off with that blank look on his face and a strange gleam in his eyes, Sasuke had started swearing nonstop in his head, especially when Naruto had completely ignored his shouted orders to come back. He couldn't go after the idiot because someone had to watch over Tazuna, but at the same time, Naruto definitely was going to do something idiotic, Sasuke was sure.

"Gramps!"

"Tazuna!"

"Father!"

"Bastard!"

Sasuke spun around, shuriken in hand, only to find a glut of useless villagers, Keji, Tsunami, and Inari among them, and a clone, which had a resigned expression on its face. "Idiot, what are these useless people doing here?"

The clone grimaced. "They found out about the threat to the bridge," he explained as the villagers wailed and milled among the labourers' beaten bodies, searching for loved ones and offering meagre comfort. "The pessimist grabbed a toy weapon and threatened me with it until his mother and the coot backed him up. Then we had to go gather up help. They actually thought they were going to rout trained sell swords with pots and meat cleavers."

"Good thing you were too late," Sasuke muttered, as the wails became screams and sobs when corpses were found by loved ones. "There would have been even more casualties."

"I did what I could to stall them. Boss' info about the location of the fight and his scouts' reports about the safe zones helped." It was always disconcerting when one of Naruto's clones started sounding intelligent or making Naruto sound on the ball. It cast many doubts about the validity of Naruto's stupid actions.

Sasuke jumped when the Fire's side of the bridge suddenly exploded. The shockwave knocked him off his feet. Brilliant lighted faded into billowing black clouds as debris showered into the ocean. With a critical eye, he noted that whoever had set up the explosion apparently had no idea how to be efficient: the Academy taught that exploding tags were best set at critical structural points while what these goons had done was overkill. He risked a glance at Tazuna's face and wished he hadn't. The shock, horror, and utter defeat in that face cracked his analytic mask.

"Boss?" the clone crumpled on the ground whispered before he spotted the huge chunks of bridge the explosion had tossed sky high that were descending in their direction as Sasuke did.

"Oh shit," Sasuke whispered before rounding on the civilians. "Grab anyone that can't move and RUN INLAND! NOW!"

Dazed and overwrought civilians were slow to respond as the clone beside him created clones. "Into the sea!" one shouted as they hurled some of their number skyward to bruise their feet kicking debris off course. There was only so much they could do though. Sasuke spotted a piece of concrete as big as his torso rotate lazily as it headed for Inari, who was desperately tugging on Tazuna's arm, trying to get his grandfather out of his stupor to run. Only three seconds, two—!

_Crunch! _Without enough time to think, Sasuke had run and punched. His fingers hadn't made it through intact, but the debris had deflected, enough, unfortunately, to clip Keji in the thigh. The old man went down screaming and blood, blood, _blood _stained the deck.

"Pressure," a clone called to its partner and they applied their hands as another ripped up a shirt to wad in the mess. "Should we try a tourniquet? Find a doctor." Another clone ran off, leaving Sasuke the freedom to shake with shock and guilt.

"Naruto!" he howled as the smoke began to waft southward. "Naruto, you fucking moron, you'd better be all right! What happened to 'be aware of your surroundings'!"

"All that work," Tazuna whispered to his right as Kohan coughed weakly. Sasuke wavered, torn between needing to stay with his clients and needing to go after Naruto when no annoyed reply came. There didn't seem to be any mercenaries on this side of the bridge. Sasuke wouldn't have been surprised if they had all chased the workers to Fire's side, setting the explosives as some of their number cut down the defenceless labourers. The goons were now free to escape anonymously into Fire's coastal towns.

Sasuke wanted to clench his fists and grind his teeth, but his knuckles were bashed open and bleeding and a couple of his fingers purpling, limp, lumpy, and at the wrong angle. He didn't want to try correcting them when he had the feeling the bone had been shattered in his pointer and middle finger of his right hand. He couldn't feel them. He couldn't, just like he couldn't feel rage for this shitty ending. He wasn't Naruto; he wasn't some self-proclaimed Hiroji-wannabe protector of justice. This was a job and their clients' wellbeing took priority, not that he hadn't just fucked that all up.

"Boss is… Boss is still alive, I think," said a clone. "We're still here."

"That's not gonna stop him from doing something stupid. Tell him to get back here. Now."

The clone only managed a queasy shadow of a grin. "I can't tell him without disappearing."

"Leave Kohan to me. Drag him back here instead."

* * *

His lungs were on fire, aching from abuse from water and smoke in equal measure. His shoulder was a burning brand that was searing his shirt red and loosing rivulets down his arm. A piece of debris had clipped him good when he had finally reached the ocean's surface to hack out water and wheeze in the miasma of smoke, grit, and flame. Naruto was beyond all this again though.

He had stumbled ashore with only some frothing emotion in the pit of his stomach and searing through his capillaries keeping him moving. He only knew that this was wrong, _wrong_, **wrong** and that the people who had done this had to fall down and not get up again. The men squabbling over unused explosives had laughed at him initially as he had staggered their way. They had stopped abruptly when he had damn near blasted the jaw off the closest target with his burnt fist. The rest had scatted into Fire's nearby forest.

Naruto was halfway through beating the latest mercenary he had found to a bloody pulp on a bed of dead leaves with only trees as witnesses when a clone caught up with him. He just barely registered its presence through the haze of fury.

"Boss."

He couched beside the target's chest, swinging his good fist. Punch, punch, punch…

"Boss, you need to come back."

Right cheek, ribs, thigh, stomach… producing red, red evidence to match the blaze raging inside and out.

"Boss, the bastard… He hurt Keji-ojiisan."

Left—

"What?"

The clone squeezed his burnt and soaked shoulder and eased him away from his prey. "Come on, Boss. The fox-bastard is getting to us again. We need to go back. We did the best we could, but we couldn't keep everybody safe. The bastard's in shock. He didn't mean to redirect that hunk of rock into Keji. Broke his fingers in the process, so I don't think he can make seals or throw shuriken. If we all get poofed, you'd better be around to defend Tazuna and Keji."

"You're pulling a Geezer, being so calm with this… this…" Naruto croaked out laughter hysterically. He slipped into wet, uneven breaths for a time as the clone trembled from the force of the emotions it was receiving from the original. "You sound smart. It's not fair. How come all I could do was… was…?" He glanced down and groaned. "Neechan… Neechan's gonna… What do I tell her?"

"Come on, Boss. It'll be okay." Naruto didn't even have to make the clone go poof to know that it was lying for his benefit. He giggled at how he was comforting himself as the clone led the way across the wreckage of the bridge, holding his hand the whole way.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Three Tainted Cups

Kakashi glanced around the lobby of the "hospital," his face not revealing just how unimpressed he was. Some panic was permitted given just how many casualties there were, but this… There was no way the doctors in this "hospital" were competent enough to treat the severe cases here. They certainly didn't have enough beds for everyone or enough bandages. There didn't seem to be a surgeon around with enough skill to put Sasuke's shattered finger bones back together, and that worried Kakashi. Uchiha-san would not be pleased if Sasuke's hand was crippled due to his sensei's inability to find adequate medical care for him. Sakura still couldn't move as well.

He sought out Tazuna, who was hovering anxiously outside the ward where the mildly qualified surgeon was trying to salvage the mess of Keji's thigh. Inari-kun and Tsunami were nearby, pale and covered in grit. "Tazuna-san, what are your plans now? If you plan to continue construction, I will stay, but I must move two of my students to Fire to receive proper treatment. Considering the crowding, it would be wise that the severest cases follow them once they are stabilized. Migiri Port Town is not far south of here and boasts a fine hospital."

Tazuna twitched, gulped, and nodded, but the glazed look in his eyes told Kakashi that he didn't comprehend anything.

"Tazuna-san, will you complete the bridge? Does the mission continue?"

Tazuna cast a bereft and angry look his way. "Can't this wait?"

"No. If you call off the mission, I will take my students back to Konoha where medic ninja can assure their full recovery. If you decide to continue, we will be here for months yet—"

"Grandpa, build it again," Inari growled, moving to cling to his grandfather's thigh. "Finish it."

Tazuna choked a laugh. "If you're finally on board, sure. Sorry, Kakashi-san, it looks like you'll be here a while longer."

Resigned, Kakashi left his client with a clone and slipped into the ward where his trio had collapsed. Sakura was staring at the ceiling, unable to do more than blink. He was worried that there would be lingering nerve damage if she did manage to regain mobility. He'd need to interrogate that Haku boy about how best to proceed and what to expect, if the boy survived his gunshot wound. If not, hopefully that Zabuza would be willing to talk.

Sasuke had passed out, his hand wrapped and splinted. Paler than usual, he had been stewing in his guilt over injuring Keji. Kakashi would have to reprimand him later. Sasuke would never get over it unless he was punished. Better yet, he would have Keji assist him in coming up with the punishment.

Naruto though… He would be physically fine by tomorrow; that much was clear. Mentally, the less said the better. He was curled in a ball beside the clone that had retrieved him, chattering about shared memories that seemed to ground him. No one else in the room made the slightest impression on his bubble. Kakashi couldn't have that.

"Naruto." Neither clone nor original twitched. "Naruto!" He got a tortured half glance from the clone, but no more. He supposed that would have to be enough. "Sasuke, Sakura, I'm sending you two to the hospital in Migiri. Naruto and I will be staying behind. As much as I would like to permit you to remain in the hospital until you are voluntarily released, with the mission, I cannot. You will recuperate until you are fit for duty, no more, before returning. Aim for two weeks. Spend your idle time figuring out how to compensate for your injuries."

The moment Sasuke and Sakura left the room with two of Kakashi's clones, Kakashi turned to Naruto. "Release the jutsu," he ordered. Resonating with the clone was going to do Naruto more harm than good given how he was blocking everyone else out. The moment the clone dispersed, Kakashi stepped out of the room to give Naruto the illusion of privacy he needed to heal.

* * *

Sakura was barely better when the two weeks were up. Her limbs were still mostly unresponsive, and she had spent hours in the darkened foreign hospital ward fighting off terror at her inability to even sit up unassisted. The only thing keeping her from turning into a sobbing mess was Sensei's insistence that the medics back in Konoha would definitely be able to do something the moment the mission was over even if the fancy doctors in Migiri couldn't. Sasuke ran alongside Sensei's clone as she jolted uncomfortably on his back, no longer able to summon the muscle control to hang on.

When they arrived at the point where the bridge touched Fire, Sakura was astounded. She had seen the blasted ruins during the short boat ride over to Fire's shores on the way to Migiri. The repair progress was considerable. Most of supports and pilings had been salvaged and the decking was well under way. Piles of people buzzed over and around the structure, some working from the deck of boats, and a cacophony of tools in use rang in her ears. She hadn't seen so many people in her whole time in Wave. Where had they all come from?

Sensei and Sasuke wove through the chaos, jumping from scared supports where the decking had yet to reach, ignoring startled shouts from the crews. Suddenly, out of the sea of faces, a shout and shock of golden hair snagged her eyes.

"You guys are finally back!" Naruto's grin split his face. It was a little fake, or maybe she was just too used to the henge he had worn for so long. Kaka-sensei must have deemed the situation normal since it was absent. That or Naruto had dropped it like an idiot again.

"No, duh, Moron," Sasuke said, slugging Naruto's shoulder with his left fist.

"Bastard! Geez, I don't know why on earth I missed you at all."

"Because you don't know what do without us."

Naruto ignored Sasuke's remark to better study her. "Can you move now, Sakura-chan?"

She flapped her hand at him slowly. "A little."

"Ah, don't worry! I'll make Tsunade-baachan fix you up good when we get back. You guys wanna stay out here with me? I've got a seat on that pile of sandbags that's pretty comfy. Tazuna's being bossy near there. Keji's still at the hospital. Kaka-sensei's keeping an eye on him and the nukenin duo. Tsunami should be at home though if you guys wanna snooze or something."

"I'll stay," Sakura volunteered. She had been trapped in a bed all alone in a ward for far too long.

Sasuke nodded and let the grinning Naruto lead the way. Sensei's clone dispersed after Sakura had been safely deposited and Naruto and Sasuke had both been warned to keep an eye on her.

"Do you think we'll still get paid?" asked Naruto out of the blue a couple minutes later. He ducked his head after seeing their nonplussed looks. "I mean, with Zabuza and Haku having turned around and helped us and we're being let go early. The bridge won't be finished for another couple months, but Tazuna is letting us go home in a week."

Sakura grumbled under her breath and wished she had the strength to swat him upside the head.

"Yes, Moron," said Sasuke, shaking his head as he glanced out at the waves.

"How're they paying everyone?" she asked.

"Hah, that's the best part of this whole mess. Wave's Daimyo nabbed all of Gatou's money and stuff in recompense for damages. His company in Fire's fighting the ruling, but Wave's not dropping it. His company will have to take it court. Kaka-sensei doesn't think we'll get called on to speak in court, but he says that Old Man will probably have us write up sworn statements anyway. He's not too happy because he doesn't like 'meddling in nation autonomy' like this. Good for Tazuna though. The Daimyo's paying for everything now, so that Jun-san doesn't have claim on the bridge."

"Gatou ends up paying for the bridge. Good." A vengeful smirk twisted Sasuke's lips. She'd been getting used to his less than pleasant expressions; he'd come and sat in her ward during the days he hadn't been undergoing surgery. More often than not, he'd ignored her in favour of a scroll he had brought, but she'd begun to feel smothered just the same. She hadn't been able complain or cry to the nurse when he had been in the room. She'd been relieved that merely the mention of the washroom from the nurse had driven him from the ward by the time Kaka-sensei's clone had announced that time was up.

"How's Keji-san?" she asked because she knew Sasuke wouldn't even though he was probably dying to know. She'd seen his preoccupied face suffused with guilt every now and then while he'd read.

"Meh, he's doing okay. He's pissed about not being able to help out. He and Kaka-sensei are plotting some divine punishment for you, Bastard."

Sasuke grunted. "Kohan?"

Naruto's animated face went blank. "Ah, he didn't make it. I sent a clone north with his things a while ago. That skeeter sister of his…" Naruto grimaced. "She punched me good and cried and cried. I couldn't get her to calm down for hours. When she did, she sent me on a goose chase to find Otsu. She didn't cry at all." He shook his head. "She dropped the pot she was carrying and snatched the necklace from me. Then she just sat down and squeezed it. She didn't even move when I left." Naruto rubbed his shoulder and looked away. "It was horrible," he whispered. "I never want to do that again."

"What are you going to miss when we go?" asked Sakura, desperately trying to find some topic to lighten the mood.

"Hah, teasing that bratty Inari about _The Adventures of Hiroji_, definitely. Tsunami makes good pan-fried fish. Have you smelled it?"

"Moron, we're not nose dead."

"Geez, I'm just checking. Half the time, you miss sounds. How am I supposed to know if you miss smells too? What about you, Bastard?"

"No garbage to pick up here."

"That's true; no dog poop either. Thank goodness Kaka-sensei's toilet trained."

Wide-eyed, Sakura glanced around to make sure their sensei wasn't around to hear that blaspheme. "Naruto!"

"Don't worry! He's nowhere near here. I'm not that stupid. What about you, Sakura-chan?"

"The sound of the ocean."

"Huh. That's a good one. What won't you miss, then?"

Sakura pursed her lips and lifted her arm a little. "Being helpless," she whispered, not meaning to be heard, but Naruto nodded anyway. At least Sasuke hadn't heard.

"Bastard?"

"You and Inari."

"Hah, I, on the other hand, will be sad to lose my partner in teasing you about Hiroji. Honestly, you're such a pansy about it. Who's gonna care you read it? Why do you have to keep stealing my copies? Go take it out on your own, you ass."

Sasuke glowered and grunted.

"I'm not looking forward to going back to Konoha though. Here… I could go running here on the main street."

Sakura studied the canvas sandbags as she grimaced. What could she say to that?

"Worse though, I'm gonna have to get out of the habit of swearing or Neechan's gonna tear off my ear!"

"Moron. You're gonna tell her about what…happened, right?" asked Sasuke quietly.

Naruto grimaced. "Yeah; I'm not looking forward to that either."

* * *

Sasuke, on a rare break from the unnecessary duty of guarding Tazuna, headed to the hospital to visit the one the moron was avoiding like the plague, dragging said moron along with him. The idiot actually seemed to be afraid to face the one he had almost killed without a thought. Sasuke figured it was fuelled by guilt and lingering fear that seeing Haku would set him off again. Sasuke, never one to let the idiot continue being an idiot simply because such idiocy had to be infectious and was annoying as hell, was going to force this meeting if only to put an end to the agonizing bitching and moaning the idiot was doing under his breath whenever he wasn't occupied. Listing to him argue with himself out loud was twice as annoying as watching him fight with one of his clones and not nearly as amusing. This aggravation needed to end now or Sasuke would not be responsible for the kunai pinning the idiot's mouth shut.

"Where are we going, Bastard?" Naruto bitched for the sixth time since Sasuke had shoved him out the door.

As usual, Sasuke kept the answer to himself. Fighting Naruto this early on was not something he had any intention of doing if it could be avoided, especially since keeping him in the dark was so easy.

"Come on! Why won't you tell me where we're going? I'm gonna sit right down right here if you don't spill!"

"Just come on."

"You think this is funny or something?"

"Hurry up."

"Frigging closed-mouthed asshole…"

"Idiot, turn here."

"Wait a sec—"

"Keep walking."

"Oh no, there's no way I'm going in here, dattebayo!"

"Haul ass, idiot. I haven't got all day."

"What the hell, Bastard!"

Sasuke smirked and kicked the idiot through the door despite the way Naruto was trying to brace himself against such a motion by holding onto the doorframe. Fortunately, the idiot's arms were a little short for such an action to be effective. Naruto sprawled on the hospital foyer floor, glaring back at him fit to burn his head off, but Sasuke paid him no mind. Both of them ignored the startled glances of the other visitors lingering in the cramped room.

"We're here now. You might as well say hello. Of course, you could just stay on the floor all day since we're not going back until you do."

Grumbling obscenities with his usual amount of subtlety, Naruto stomped over to the reception desk and crossed his arms, clearly willing to make Sasuke's life difficult by making him do all the talking. Suppressing a sigh, Sasuke inquired after the ward number. Upon receiving an answer, he frogmarched the sullen idiot towards the stairs.

"Just say hello," Sasuke grunted when they got to the door. "Don't try to escape out the window. We both know I'm faster than you."

"Why are you my friend again?"

"Because you're an idiot. Hurry up."

Hissing insults in a stream that would have made a cat envious, Naruto hesitantly knocked on the ward door, his face rather pale. When the call permitting entry came, Sasuke felt sorry enough for the idiot that he slunk in behind him, though he would deny such soft feelings as sympathy on his deathbed. Shinobi couldn't have time for compassion.

Haku was lying back on the thin hospital bed, still looking rather worse for wear. The lower left side of his face was still covered in gauze where Naruto's punch had slammed porcelain fragments deep into the flesh like shrapnel. At least he was smiling softly despite the way the facial lacerations had to pain him. Various other cuts were bandaged, and the bullet wound in Haku's right shoulder was covered with tape and gauze.

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, I am surprised to see you here."

Sasuke didn't bother with much more than a nod of acknowledgement for that loaded statement before sitting unobtrusively in a chair opposite the bed that was somewhat behind the moron. If he did act up, Sasuke was in a good position to pin him down. What he would do after that was a subject that the Uchiha wasn't very interested in thinking about.

"Hey," Naruto managed after a while, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Sasuke had to roll his eyes at this display of typical Naruto behaviour. The idiot still had no clue how to conceal his emotions from anyone. "How're you doing?"

"I am well enough," Haku replied, gesturing with the least injured arm at his patched up torso. "The doctors here were very quick about repairing the damage to my lungs and face. My broken arm will take longer to heal, but this is expected. Travelling with such an injury is difficult, but not impossible."

"You're leaving then?" asked Naruto, grasping at that topic with all the subtlety of a drowning man thrashing towards a flotation device. Sasuke resisted the urge to bury his face in his palms.

Fortunately, Haku didn't seem to mind. In fact, he seemed a little amused. "Yes, Zabuza-san is eager to be away from here. Kirigakure will notice eventually that the ANBU member has not reported in and they will begin searching for a reason. It is better for us, all of us, to be well away from here when that happens."

Sasuke made a mental note to pass this information along to Kakashi, but he had the feeling that the jounin already knew this. The man seemed quite eager for them to be on their way, though Sasuke was sure that other factors were encouraging this in his sensei. Kakashi had not seemed all that impressed with Wave's medical care for the various stab wounds and slices that he had picked up during his fights. Sasuke swore that he had heard him mutter something about mud fever and gangrene while changing the bandages on his left hand once.

"So you're running away again." Naruto was a master of tact. "Where are you going to go?"

"That is up to Zabuza-san. Where he goes, I will follow as long as I can be of use to him."

"You're not very useful right now," Sasuke muttered, glancing at the broken arm pointedly.

Haku's smile became rather strained. "I am not very useful as I am, yes. My mind is keen though, and my eyes still work. Much of my work for Zabuza-san involves reconnaissance and evaluation of enemy abilities. I was able to work out a counter strategy against Kakashi-san's Sharingan after observing his tactics during the first fight."

"You know how to counter the Sharingan?" Sasuke growled, leaning forward slightly and narrowing his eyes.

"In a way, yes. If one cannot see, one cannot analyze and copy, yes?"

Sasuke mulled over that and remembered the mist that had filled the streets once Zabuza had entered the fight. _Of course…_ Sasuke's glare hardened. "It would not always work. The Sharingan cannot be completely foiled."

"Like any bloodline limit, it is merely a tool," Haku replied. "Putting too much faith in it creates a weakness. I may be able to manipulate water and wind to form ice, but if I come up against a high-level katon user, what good does that ability do me? Every tool can be disabled or broken somehow. No tool is perfect for every case. You would not use a spatula to drive a screw." Haku glanced out the window at the ocean, a passive expression keeping Sasuke's growing offence from hitting him.

Haku turned back to them with a smile. "In any case, my strategy for breaking Kakashi-san's attack ability wasn't useful. He turned out to be a specialist with ninja hounds, who rely on their noses. The mist hardly countered that attack at all."

This pseudo lecture sounded awfully familiar.

* * *

The bridge faded behind them, Inari still waving as he clutched the book Naruto had left him. The smiles and the warm words lingered though.

They had joked about naming the bridge after Naruto in thanks for him having done so much. Sakura's chest _ached_ at that. Naruto had done things. Naruto was walking around with that sunny smile while she sagged like a sack of rice on Sensei's back. They had told her it was nerve damage. The needles had hit something the wrong way or something. She didn't know. She didn't understand medical lingo.

Zabuza had been walking in a week though. It had been three.

Useless! Worse than rice because at least rice could be eaten; carbohydrates were energy food according to her mother. What had she contributed? Nothing. She hadn't even been able to fix Sasuke and Sensei up when they had fallen, had only kept Naruto focused. Couldn't fix them up, couldn't fix herself up—she was _nothing_ like her hero. Tsunade-sama was renown as the world's best medic-nin and as a powerful fighter. All Sakura was known for was learning quickly.

Sensei's back muscles tensed slightly. She could only tell because of her perch. Sasuke and Naruto walked along obliviously. "Sensei?" she whispered.

He shook his head slightly.

She frowned. This was to be a test for Naruto and Sasuke then? She glanced about, trying to locate the source of unease. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Naruto's step falter slightly. His gait became stiff with alertness. Sasuke responded almost immediately, reaching subtly for a shuriken in his pouch.

"Better," Sensei drawled, halting. "Only ten minutes late this time."

"Who is it?" Sasuke asked quietly.

"Come out!" Naruto and subtlety were still aliens to each other. "I can hear you."

Haku appeared before them on the road from a blur, still swathed in bandages with his arm trussed up in a sling. Zabuza appeared a second behind him, menacingly silent. Haku smiled the smile that had made Sakura relax up and around the herbalist. "Hello."

"Haku," Naruto said, "are you following us?"

"I follow Zabuza-san."

"Then, Zabuza, are you following us for a good reason?" asked Kakashi-sensei.

"Haku has some unfinished business with your student."

The boy's smile became tinged with remorse. "Yes, I have something for Sakura-san." He approached at Sensei's cautious nod. "I am afraid that your mobility is suffering because of the toxin I used. It's generally undetectable and lingers in the nerves it is injected into. Without the proper antidote, fatigue and lagging responses are typical, especially given that I injected it into your spinal cord." When he was close enough, he held out a sprig of some leafy plant.

She reached out weakly to grasp it after a glance at Sasuke to see what Sensei's face had told him. "Do I eat it?"

Haku's smile became amused. "No, in that form it would do you little good." He offered a vial filled with a transparent brown liquid. "This is the fortified essence. This you drink."

After another glance at Sasuke to see what Sensei thought, Sakura uncorked the bottle and, after subtly passing it near enough to Sensei's face that he could get a good look and a sniff, swallowed it down. It was difficult; the liquid was oily and viscous. She nearly gagged.

"As we are going the same way according to Zabuza-san, I will be able to provide you with doses as we travel. You should be able to walk within a week."

"The same way?" said Sensei in a hard tone.

"Might as well," Zabuza said casually, risking a glance at the still lame Haku that spoke volumes to Sakura. "We plan to seek asylum in Konoha. Kiri will be on our trail now."

Sensei nodded, but his back didn't relax during the whole journey back.

* * *

Nariko readily admitted that she hated silence. She _hated_ it. But in this case, she needed it.

Mikoto had been right to reprimand her all those weeks ago, but it _stung_. She had quietly seethed over the Uchiha's presumption for days before she had let the suggestion smack her in the face with full value. She wanted to blame someone other than herself, and Hatake was a good target because he didn't care that she blamed him, or at least she had wanted him not to care. Mikoto apparently felt that he actually did though. This tug-of-war over Naruto's head wasn't good either. Eventually, he would be forced to choose between them. What terrified her was that she didn't actually know whose side he would pick. She wasn't willing to admit defeat either. She didn't want him to die or hurt. Was that so wrong?

The reeds swayed around her, framing the cloudy sky as the wind lipped at the mud on her clothes and the crusty patches on her arms and face. She let the silence isolate her from the world. She shouldn't have been out here; she had things to do back at home, and Naruto might return while she was away. It was impossible to properly weigh her worth when surrounded by unsuitable reference points though. She couldn't compare herself to Mikoto or any of the Konoha people she interacted with. She wasn't quite like them. The only standards she could hold herself up against were Matsuku's, and they were very different from the ones embraced by Konoha. Out here, interference died away and she was left alone with the blurry mirror of herself, the alter ego that was only too willing to embrace the bitch or the high and mighty priestess.

The question was about acceptance and forgiveness. It would have been easy for her father, but she wasn't quite like him.

_Hypocrite_, whispered some wiser part of herself, _you forgave _him.

That was true… Maybe this wouldn't be as hard as she had thought. She let the argument spiral out from under her inspection into oblivion and rubbed at the scar on her cheek, an old reminder of her inability to pay attention to her surroundings. She had hurtled full tilt into a glass door when escaping Shiro's teasing. She had never blamed him even when she had ended up with fourteen stitches and a discoloured, puckered scar to distort the flesh over her cheekbone. It struck her as rather ironic that she couldn't hold a grudge against Shiro, yet she readily blamed Hatake for passing her brother.

She obviously had some serious judgement issues to work on.

She laughed as the wind picked up, making the reeds wail, heralding the coming of fall, which was impatient for August to pass them by.

The cranes would be here soon.

* * *

Sarutobi-sama grimaced. "Kakashi, I've no doubt that if you suspect an ulterior motive, Zabuza-san has one. He would hardly risk running to a village that has a bounty on his head otherwise. Still, such a risk speaks of desperation. He also possesses a relatively recent understanding of the situation in Kiri, which we have been in the dark about for far too long." The Hokage let a plume of smoke loose. "I'll bind him, have no doubt. I can only hope that the use he sees in Konoha will be one that benefits us as well, for his sake and the boy's. Intel will discover it for us if he does not tell me himself. He strikes me as very straightforward when backed into a corner."

"Of course, Hokage-sama."

"Go get some rest. You've done well."

Kakashi was surprised to find his team waiting for him outside the main office when he returned with a blank mission report to fill in. They had all been debriefed by the Hokage half an hour ago after a hospital visit, and his students had been free to go. It seemed that there was some problem. A moment of studying each face told him it was Naruto with the problem. He waited quietly for an explanation.

"Um, Kaka-sensei, would you mind coming home with me?"

Kakashi refrained from teasing Naruto about his awkward wording. The boy was nervous and wouldn't appreciate it. Wait… That had never stopped him before… "I don't know, Naruto; aren't you a little young for that?"

Naruto blushed and sputtered like a kettle boiling over on a burner. Sasuke snickered, but Sakura, still in need of support and thus relying on her two teammates, growled at him menacingly. Kakashi smiled at how much she was like Tsunade.

"Kaka-sensei, why do you always do that? It's so annoying, dattebayo!" whined Naruto, losing his nervousness. "I was asking if you would help me explain things to Neechan."

"Explain things to Matsuku-san?" Kakashi repeated. _What needed explaining to that woman?_

"Yeah, I need to tell her about what happened in town. You know, when I lost control. She's my sister, so I need to tell her, but it's hard for me to remember. Sasuke-bastard here wasn't watching either, because he was guarding Tazuna-san. Can you please come?"

Kakashi thought it over, weighing his student's need against a desire to avoid Matsuku Nariko. The woman was altogether too angry with him for reasons she had yet to confirm and a danger to his book. Uchiha and Matsuku's running joke about his supposed virginity was annoying too. The less time he spent in her presence, the better. However, duty called. He sighed and nodded. "Sure."

The next time he saw Snake, he was going to be severely tempted to give her a piece of his mind. _Oh yes, go on, go be a jounin sensei_, she had said in not so many words, _being a sensei is so much easier than being in ANBU_._ You're so much saner than I am, so you should do it while that lasts._ _That's right, go put yourself in the line of fire of overprotective relatives_. If it weren't so likely that she would completely ignore him, he would have ranted at her. Blackmailing her would have been preferable considering her rank within ANBU, but extortion was a one-way ticket to hell. She wasn't one to laugh things off until _after_ she finished decapitating the person that had aggravated her. She didn't have much of a sense of humour.

Ten minutes later, he was in front of the door to Naruto's home. Kakashi watched as Naruto fiddled with the lock and froze.

"What's wrong, Moron?"

"Something smells wrong."

"Probably you," Sakura complained, clamping a hand over her nose.

Naruto scowled at her as he opened the door. The source of the odd scent immediately became apparent: there was a man sleeping on the couch. Kakashi didn't recognize him, and Naruto obviously didn't either because he halted in the doorway and stared.

The tall man wasn't sleeping on the couch so much as trying very hard not to fall off of it at either end. Detecting no traces of ninja training in the man—he would have woken up by now—Kakashi relaxed slightly and did a less mechanical assessment. Dark hair was cropped just to the man's jaw and the shadow of stubble told Kakashi that this man was intent on being careless about his appearance, or at least seeming that way. Maybe around his mid-thirties, the tall man looked horribly feminine with those delicate features. Poor sot, no wonder he kept the stubble. There were deep shadows under those eyes and a faint whiff of alcohol lingered. A unique set of calluses on the right hand told Kakashi that this man used scissors a lot and the tough quality of the pad of the thumb and first finger indicated that those two digits were often in contact with an implement. The lack of a matching callus on the side of the second or third fingers ruled out the implement being a pencil. Perhaps a needle?

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house!" Naruto hollered, pointing menacingly at the loafer, who started awake and stared around wildly.

"Holy lights, kid," the man wailed, clutching at his ears, "tone it down! How's an honest craftsman to get any sleep with random people barging in on his vacation time?"

"Random people?" Naruto said, incensed.

"Have you no respect for men with hangovers? Here I am, come all the way to Konoha to see my beloved little niece, and her home is invaded by strangers wearing metal plates on their heads. What is the world coming to?"

Naruto looked about ready to howl again despite the way the floor was shaking as the neighbour downstairs walloped it with a stick of some sort, but Kakashi clapped a hand over his student's mouth. "Your niece?"

"Yes, little Raimei-chan."

An ominous presence that was currently content if the pace was to be trusted approached from the stairwell and made Kakashi drop his hand away from Naruto's frowning maw. He wasn't a moment too soon. The antagonistic one was back. Any hopes of escaping this dangerous conversation died a painful death.

"I thought I told you to drop that horrible synonym," an irate voice grumbled from the doorway. The rapid shift from contentedness to ill-concealed sourness told Kakashi that she was _not_ happy to see him in her house; she refused to look at him. "You must have intentionally forgotten that request. Why are you being deliberately obtuse?"

"What else am I supposed to do, Mei?" the man complained as a mud-splattered Matsuku-san trudged in the door and kicked off her hiking boots. "Three heavily armed males waltz into your apartment with an injured female and scare the salt out of me. What would you have me do?"

"Tell the truth?" she suggested wearily as she dropped her pack, ruffled Naruto's hair sluggishly, and made to sit on the man's chest until he hurriedly sat upright and made to hug her. "No mud on my furniture," she griped, backing away from him before turning to Team 7. "I'm sorry; he's incorrigible. Being the youngest of seven siblings made him a compulsive liar and a hedging expert. This is my uncle, Hotaka. Hotaka-baka, this is Naruto and his team: his sensei Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura. Don't kill each other while I clean up."

She was clearly disappointed in this meeting because she rubbed at her temples, the grit all over her hands and under her nails leaving streaks across her sweaty skin. Twenty ryou in Kakashi's pocket and his next paycheque said that she had been terrorizing birds again. She shot Naruto a warning look, grabbed her grubby bundle off the floor, and disappeared down the hallway, leaving awkward silence in her wake.

"Hello to you too," Hotaka shouted after her, looking rather put out. "I don't see you for seven years and this is the greeting I get? What happened to family love, huh? Did the ninja beat it out of you? Thanks for sending me the key, by the way! It was ever so nice of you to decide to be away the only weekend I can come visit you."

Kakashi placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, but that didn't stop the boy from sputtering insults at the yawning man.

"I had something thinking to do, and I couldn't do it here. You should have just come in last night. I'm sure you were more than glad to stay in my flat and eat my food without me around to scold you!" Matsuku called from her bedroom. "You know as well as I do that it was a wonderful opportunity for you to go be licentious in the most notorious village in Fire Country. I'm sure you were just itching for the chance and… What on earth did you do to my guest room? You are helping me clean this up later. There is no way I'm going to touch those! Don't you know what a garbage can or an incinerator is for?"

"You have a problem with a poor guy getting some honest sex or something?" Hotaka yelled back, sounding amused.

The slam of a door was the only reply.

Kakashi glanced down at his students, watching the various shades of red that they had gone. Hmm, he sensed a kindred spirit in this man… He obviously liked making people uncomfortable just as much as Kakashi did. His degree of success in pissing off the nun was laudable.

Matsuku-san obviously didn't agree because she soon reappeared with a bland look on her face. "When you get married, as we both know you will just because you hate breaking tradition, I have no doubt your children will be so horribly embarrassed by you that they will hide away in shame."

Hotaka laughed at her and stood up to embrace her. "I love you too, Mei. Are you quite finished?"

"For now." She sighed and hugged him briskly. Before smiling at them in a strained manner, she ran a hand through her newly washed hair. "I'm sorry about that," she said as her uncle snorted and went back to feigning sleep. "I'm really glad you guys are back, though I wish you had dallied a couple more minutes if only to have prevented this." She made a sweeping gesture with her hand, encompassing the seething Naruto, the flushed Sakura, the peeved Sasuke, and her smirking uncle, whom she favoured with an exasperated look.

Naruto's silent state expired. "He's related to you?" he nearly screeched, pointing at the man in question as he stared at his sister with wide eyes. "Really related, not just adopted the way Mikoto-obachan and Iruka-sensei are?"

"Umm, yes? He's my mother's youngest brother."

Said uncle rolled off the couch, miraculously landing on his feet, and headed down the hall. Matsuku-san let him retreat intact, and Kakashi wished that he had a similar immunity.

"He looks like a girl," Naruto said, crossing his arms. Kakashi wondered if he should be cringing. Insulting relatives never led to happy endings.

Matsuku-san seemed to enjoy defying his logic: she laughed. "Yes, he does. A couple of my male relatives turned out rather feminine looking to both of my grandmothers' never-ending shame. There's a saying: 'If it's pretty, it's a boy; if it's got a temper once a moon, it's a girl.' Hotaka-ojisan rarely gets angry, so at least we know for certain he really is a man under that pretty face."

Now Naruto snickered.

"I heard that!" Hotaka called from the disaster zone that he had apparently created in Matsuku-san's guestroom. "I'm going to tell Shiro you quoted that, Ugly-mei!"

Matsuku-san's lips tightened into a white line for a moment. "Don't eavesdrop!"

"Don't have conversations behind my back, darling niece!" Hotaka yelled down the hall.

She spun around and clenched her fists before plastering a menacing smile on her face. "Uncle-sama, do you want to do me a favour? I've been away all weekend, and I think you drank all my tea with your 'date' last night. Would you please go out and buy me some more? It would be ever so nice…"

The man cocked an eyebrow, resembling her so much that any doubts that they were close kin disappeared. "When you put it like that…" He grinned, ambling down the hall with his hands in his pockets. "It'll be my housewarming gift to you."

"Thank you, Hotaka-ojisama," she crooned, waving as he winked and disappeared out the door. The moment the latch caught, her sickeningly sweet smile faded. "Great gods," she grumbled, rubbing at her forehead with frustration before disappearing into the kitchen. "Sit down. It looks like you four want to talk to me about something. We might as well eat while we're at it."

They picked their way through the various planters and trellises that Naruto had set up everywhere. Once Sakura was safely settled at the table, Naruto scurried into the kitchen to fill a cup with water around the motions of his sister's tea preparation. The cup's contents doused the soil of the tree set up in the middle of the table, which was as odd looking as Kakashi remembered.

"Start at the beginning," she said after setting the kettle on to boil, crunching her tall frame up in her chair.

The three genin traded glances, silently arguing about who would start. Apparently, Naruto had some new dirt on Sasuke because Kakashi's darkest student glared and started describing the journey from the village in clipped tones. Matsuku-san listened quietly as weeks' worth of travel was condensed into something she could almost comprehend. Just how understandable the narrative was varied depending on how much the three genin argued over the details. They often talked over of each other and gainsaid one another until the storyline was snarled into one gigantic contradiction. Matsuku-san was apparently used to this sort of narrative because she managed to get things straight more often than not.

"Okay, so Kohan-san didn't really make you eat a frog. What next?" she said when a huge argument broke out between Sakura and Naruto over one particular meal during the weeks working on the bridge before Zabuza had attacked them.

Somehow, having an adult decide what had happened settled the matter while Matsuku-san did what she could with what little tea there was. She dropped a cup when they talked about how Sakura had died, the girl in question blushing and staring at the table so she wouldn't have to meet Matsuku-san's worried look. Naruto's sister set steaming tea in front of them just as they got to the part Naruto and Kakashi had both been dreading. She seemed to sense this because she glanced at them all nervously and sat down, her hands propped on the table in a way that probably reassured her about the stability of the earth.

"I was so angry," whispered Naruto, not daring to glance at Sakura, who hadn't heard this tale to as far as Kakashi knew. "Gatou _kicked_ her when she was down; it wasn't right at all and Haku had done it…" Naruto tried to meet his sister's eyes, but couldn't quite do it. The muffled disappointment and horror was probably too much for him, so Kakashi cleared his throat and took over.

"I saw some of it, but I was occupied with my own fight. Naruto's hold over the seal apparently loosened in a manner that allowed Kyuubi to feed him chakra and override his normal sense of reality."

"I didn't feel like me anymore," Naruto muttered, staring down at the table. "I wanted to eat Haku or something."

Sakura was watching Naruto, horrified, but Kakashi knew that her faith in authority was such that she would accept his explanation. Matsuku-san was not so gullible though. She would question. She stood up and indicated that Naruto was to follow her with a hand gesture within his field of vision. Pale, the normally indomitable blonde followed her into the hallway. All who remained eavesdropped shamelessly.

"He reached out and took hold of you then?" Kakashi heard her whisper uncertainly. Naruto's response must have been affirmative because she sighed sadly. "Oh, Naruto, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry it happened like that. I'm horribly sorry that it happened at all. You're here though, right? You're safe here with us now?"

"Yeah."

"What was it like, really?"

"Strange, when I finally got back from wherever I went. He made me say things… Haku asked me what I would do with a broken tool. He made me say that I would burn it. I wouldn't say something like that; you can't burn broken kunai."

"Of course. So he let you go?"

"No, it was more like he couldn't grab me when I wasn't really angry. He couldn't keep making me do things or say things when I calmed down."

"Then we both know what that means. It's okay, you know. I know you can do it. I trust you."

A moment of silence was probably filled with a nod of gratitude. "They're listening, you know. They're too quiet."

"Of course they're listening. They've got nothing better to do."

"You hear that, Bastard? You've got nothing better to do, so you eavesdrop like an old granny."

Sasuke scowled at his teacup, obviously struggling with the desire to shout back an insult and the knowledge that doing so would give him away. Habit won. "Shove it, Moron."

"Hah, Bastard, you're a busybody! Wait 'til I tell the dragon girl—"

"Shut it, idiot. She'd never believe you."

Kakashi stifled a groan and pulled out his book, intent on getting some reading done while things escalated into a shouting match and finally into the usual standoff. Unfortunately, he forgot just whose table he was sitting at for one moment too long.

Matsuku-san's palm smacked hard against said table, rattling the china. His students jumped and looked around wildly. She didn't even glance his way as she gathered all the tea things, but the message was clear enough. _Her house, her rules._ He nonchalantly shut his precious book and slipped it back into his pouch.

"Will you finish your story now?" she asked as she stalked into the kitchen.

Trading worried looks, the genin quickly wrapped up their convoluted tale, almost running all over each other's narratives in the hurry to be done now instead of out of a desire to be the most correct. Sasuke and Sakura apparently knew that it was about time to abandon ship. Naruto looked almost miserable, as though he was regretting asking Kakashi along. Considering that he would be stuck dealing with his upset sister for the rest of the day, Kakashi couldn't really find it in himself to blame him.

Once the storytelling was finally done, Matsuku-san was only too willing to let Sasuke and Sakura say their goodbyes and head home, the latter requiring the help of the former as a brace to keep her upright. Sasuke, obviously displeased with this dependence and proximity, scowled at Naruto, who was gleeful about his escape, and bore it with a huff. Naruto disappeared into his room to check on his other plants, and Kakashi was just about to escape behind Sasuke and Sakura when suddenly Matsuku-san pinned him in his chair with a glare that clearly said he was to stay put.

_Damn_.

Though instinct screamed that he needed to escape, the duty of the jounin sensei demanded that he bear through whatever hell she put him through if this was about Naruto. She let the silence grow as she washed dishes, obviously needing the simple task to help her focus.

"You're not making this easy," she grumbled at last. At a loss as to what she was talking about, he stayed quiet, cringing when she chucked the dishcloth into the sink and dried her hands curtly. He was a little startled when she stalked forward and extended her right hand to him. "I'm sorry," she said, each word obviously costing her a great deal. "I have treated you wrongly ever since you passed Naruto. I unjustly took out my anger on you and for that I apologize."

He blinked at her hand, wondering if she was going to claw him or something, but she held steady in the face of the possibility that he would reject her peace offering. It was obvious that she was doing this for her brother and out of a sense of guilt. Whether he was ready to accept this or not was another thing though. If she would stop butting in and pestering him, then by all means… "You'll let me do my job without question?"

She smiled slightly and shook her head. "I was raised to question. That is asking too much. I will simply cease to be so petty in my opposition. If I have a problem, I will confront you with it rather than undermining you from the sidelines."

That was something. He shook with her on it, relief at having overcome one obstacle in this twisted road of being a teacher lightening the task that had been stupidly self-assigned.

Her smile gained a bit of authenticity. "I'm glad," she said, some weight visibly dropping off her shoulders as she pulled her hand back. "Just please don't turn my brother into a heartless soldier."

"That's more his choice than mine," he said, leaning back in his chair with feigned easiness. He could tell that this point of contention wasn't going to go away.

"You guide him. You show him the path. I don't want him to turn out like you."

He really wasn't in the mood to grin in the face of her criticism, and he was a little too worn out to just let it slide right off him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You and Itachi…" she said, frowning out the window since she didn't seem to want to frown at him, "you two are very alike in some ways."

Kakashi had been called many things in his lifetime, but being compared to a kin slayer was taking it a bit far. The accusation in her posture didn't help at all. Used to reading people in such a way, her manipulation of every muscle to project the emotion only made it worse.

"You both didn't have much of a childhood. It shows sometimes."

_Why had Uchiha-san insisted on taking this civilian under her wing? Why teach this annoying woman, who obviously was severely lacking something if she felt the need to constantly butt into other people's business, how to read people deeply enough to become even more of a threat?_

"You both wear masks I can't see through, sort of like Mikoto, but hers isn't quite the same. Hers is to protect some secret that applies now. Yours isn't. It's almost as permanent as Itachi's seemed to be, but I think you've learned how to take it off a little."

"Maa, is that all?" he asked her, forcing himself to smile politely.

Her puzzlement with his lack of reaction to her statements was evident. It took the wind out of her sails, and she actually took a step back when he stood up.

Settling this issue with one fell strike seemed the best option, so he summoned the appropriate words. "No student becomes the sensei. The student chooses to become himself and picks his own way of the shinobi. Naruto is hardly going to become me unless he decides to. The question isn't what I will make him into, but what will he make himself into."

Only too eager to get home and get some sleep before visiting the KIA monument in the morning, he flipped the lock on the glass door and leapt onto the balcony railing, pulling his book out of his pouch as he went.

"That's all then," she agreed belatedly, looking slightly pissed off and mostly baffled with how swiftly he had stymied her criticism.

"Good," he chirped, forcing one last smile before waving absently over his shoulder, already buried in his book. "Another time, Matsuku-san."

He had the feeling that she didn't have a reply. He had to wonder if subtle enmity was better than this outright arguing. Maybe he shouldn't have accepted her apology if she was just going to end up verbally slaughtering him every time he showed his face…

* * *

"Lovers' quarrel?" Hotaka drawled, slipping in with an evil smile; he had been listening for a while.

Nariko rolled her eyes at him and shoved the sliding door shut with as much anger as she could inflict upon the glass without breaking it. "Hardly."

Hotaka's eyebrows rose at her lack of witty retort.

"He's Naruto's teacher," she reminded him, obviously remembering how bad he was with names and faces.

"Yes, I suppose that would be crossing a line," Hotaka agreed, not quite sure how to act around her since she wasn't quite the person he remembered. "You gave up too easily."

"He didn't give me much of a choice." She went back to washing dishes as he stashed the tea in the cupboard. "I don't know what else to do. I can insult him as much as I want, but Naruto will still think the world of him and try to emulate him."

Laughing apprehensively and wondering what the heck was going on, Hotaka patted her shoulder, dried the dishes in the rack, and put them away, letting her vent quietly.

"It's bad enough that Naruto goes out there and nearly gets killed, but he nearly killed someone too…"

Hotaka kept his mouth shut, stashing that comment away.

"This isn't just a visit, is it?" she whispered, glancing over at Naruto's door warily. "You're here to check up on me. The council sent you because they thought I wouldn't connect you with them."

"Now, come on, Raimei-chan; you don't really think I'm such a slave to your father's family, do you?"

She stared at him levelly, daring him to lie and say no. "I know enough to think that you're here to listen to what I say and see how I'm doing."

"You've got to admit that your letters have changed tone quite a bit."

"People change!"

"Sure, people change. What the council wants to know is if you've changed in unimportant ways." Hotaka's placating tone didn't quite do its job.

"I hold the values and the vows above all else!" She gripped the edge of the sink tightly enough that her knuckles went white.

Grimacing at just how quickly her temper had gotten out of hand, he smoothed her wet hair absently and tried to think of something to say that would reassure her. "It's not as if they would throw you out of the family…"

"You know full well what they would do!" She pushed his hand away and scrubbed at her face with wrinkled fingers.

"And I'm telling you it isn't that bad," he insisted, spinning her around to face him, and held her in place with hands on her shoulders. "You're living here anyway, and you haven't mentioned moving home in a definite sense in years. It's not as if you won't be able to live in Kaijin on your own terms."

"Being axed from the core of the clan is not what I would call 'minor'. Knowing I can retreat there if it ever gets to be too much here keeps me steady. It's my lifeline here. The letters—"

"Won't stop coming just because you've been cast out. You know they'd never abandon you completely, and _our_ clan doesn't care about anything except blood. You'd always be welcome among us even if you did lose your standing in Matsuku."

Her desire to indulge her nervous habit of rubbing the scar on her cheek was obvious.

Hotaka sighed and shook his head. "You worry too much. Getting on the clan council is hardly everything. You'd still be part of the family."

"Fallen though—it wouldn't be the same."

He rolled his eyes at her. "How so? Those two pansies would still call you sister along with everyone else in your chain. Your father and my sister would hardly stop calling you 'daughter' just because you had a value shift."

"But I haven't!"

"But you're not the same anymore. I'm not here to decide that. I'm merely here to see you."

"And watch me and spy on me and interrogate me and…"

He shook her, forcing her to pay attention. "I haven't asked you any personal questions, so don't jump to conclusions. I'm here to see Naruto."

Her protective nature ignited. "Naruto?"

He let the wry smile creep across his face. Ah, she was so much like Takara it was scary.

"Why would the clan want to know about Naruto? I tell them enough about him to write a book."

"_I_ want to know about him. I want to meet this nephew of mine that you've brought into the family. It's a crime that you've kept him out of my claws for this long." He laughed at her wary expression and the way her eyes darted towards Naruto's door. "You think I'm going to poison him or something?"

"You ask me that after what crud you left on the floor of my guestroom?"

"What's a couple condoms?" he asked, brushing off her indignation and disgust with a diffident wave of his hand. His niece was so funny sometimes. "It's not like that kid won't find out about them in a couple years." He had to laugh at the uncomfortable look that crept onto her features.

"You're still a slob. He's only twelve," she hissed, frantic.

"You're one to talk. He's going on thirteen in how many months?"

"In October, so three."

"Three months plus two or so years—"

"_Fifteen_?" She choked, terrified.

He laughed. "Itsuki," he reminded her mercilessly. "How old were you, or are you letting that traditional aunt of yours influence you?"

"Itsuki was—"

"Fifteen going on sixteen."

"It's not the same," she said desperately. "Naruto is—"

"A boy." She threw up her hands, turning away from him to avoid how right he was. "You didn't answer my other question."

She glared. "I'm not discussing that topic with you, Hotaka-_ojisan_."

"Shiro's gonna be disappointed. You're a prude after all."

"Be quiet if you don't have anything nice to say," she snarled with earnestness she would have replaced with mocking sarcasm before, and he laughed at her hypocrisy. The sound of a door opening spared her from his retort.

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Naruto, watching them suspiciously, as Hotaka studied the forest beyond the door.

The kid really must have loved the woods because his room practically passed for one. It could have had its own designation on a map. Saplings flourished in large pots all around and shrubs had spread from their planters all over the floor while vines attempted to strangle makeshift trellises and support sticks that brushed the ceiling. The only plant Hotaka recognized with any certainty was bamboo, which was also occupying a planter behind the couch in the living room and framing the entrance to the hallway along with a myriad of other plants. Honestly, the first time he had shoved the door open, he had been certain that some sort of strange ninja technique had transported him out of Konoha because the lock and key hadn't recognized the oil of his skin.

"Haruka-san would love you, kid," Hotaka informed him, willing to let the screaming incident from earlier in the afternoon slide. When the kid's confusion became obvious, Hotaka shot his niece an incredulous look. "You didn't have him memorize your family tree? I thought it was just a fluke that he didn't know who I was."

"It hardly seemed appropriate to force him to know who everyone in my family is when I just barely know the names of his parents. There are so many of us—"

"Bullshit!" He frowned at her. "He should at least know who Haruka is. She'd love him just because he's got a green arm. If she ever finds out about this, she'll kidnap him and enlist him as her apprentice."

"Who'd kidnap me?" Naruto looked rather offended. "I'm an awesome ninja! There's no way some lady's gonna kidnap me!"

"She'll drug your cookies," Hotaka enlightened him gravely as Raimei-chan begged the heavens for patience with her eyes. She had obviously become a lot more religious since her leave-taking. Naruto looked supremely wary and sceptical. "She's this little old biddy with a gardening obsession big enough to drive her husband crazy. Honestly, she actually filled up her entire house again recently. Masaru-san caved a bought her five new greenhouses when she refused to clear out the bathroom because the plants would die during the winter. She goes overboard all the time, but the kids think it's hilarious."

So began Naruto's crash course in the Matsuku family tree. The kid seemed to know who two people were definitely: Shiro was known as the crazy older cousin that always got in trouble with Neechan, and Itsuki was referred to as Neechan's younger brother/cousin that liked to use weird words just to be difficult. The kid knew that Itsuki was a poet, but not that he was also a musician. "Carving the statues that Neechan used to let me play with," was Naruto's exact description of Shiro's job, which wasn't exactly an expert at manipulating wood into beautiful furniture the guy charged small fortunes for. Shooting Nariko an exasperated look for neglecting this area of Naruto's education, he had her jot down an entire family tree, which quickly spread over eight pieces of paper to cover just the scions of the lines living in the compound.

"You've got a _big_ family," Naruto muttered with something like awe as he stared down as Nariko's cramped script. "So your dad, Yasu, has a brother and three sisters?"

"Yes. Shiro and Kiku are the children of Uncle Hibiki. Itsuki is Haruka-basan and Masaru-ojisan's son. Emi-obasan is too old to have children now, and Suzu-basan has a daughter, Okano-chan. Okano-chan is Itsuki's ward, just like he was mine and I was Shiro's." The ward business was obviously something Naruto only vaguely understood.

"Who was Shiro the ward of?" he asked after glaring at the page for a couple moments.

Hotaka glanced nervously at his niece, but she took the question in stride, pointing out another family line.

"My great-grandfather's younger brother," she traced his family line with the tip of her pencil until she reached Michi, "married a…foreigner, Yuuyake. They had a daughter, Risa. Risa-obasan's husband was the one that I heard had died while we were getting Tsunade-sama. Risa and Susumu had two children: Risako was the first."

Naruto blinked at the scratched off characters that formed the name. "She's dead?"

"Yes," Nariko said, shrugging easily, as shockingly comfortable with this topic as Hotaka remembered. He would never understand how those people did it. "She was never very strong." Hotaka let that simplistic explanation go. "Risako was Shiro's guardian."

"Who was her guardian?"

This quizzing of links went on for some time until Hotaka got sick of not knowing half as much about his own family tree, especially when Naruto made Nariko trace out her mother's line. "Okay, that's enough family in one day," he said, gathering up the pieces of paper and hiding them under the table. "Let's make do with what we have at hand. Who's up for poker?"

* * *

"Pretty eyes!" Ryuuka cooed, nearly poking Sasuke in said eye until he warily kept her fingers away and his face out of her reach. While Ryuuka's opinion was good, Mother's was slightly more important. He submitted to her intense scrutiny anxiously, worried about her verdict, barely remembering not to clench his right hand into a fist.

At last, she smiled fiercely down at him, radiating pride. "As expected of my son."

* * *

Sakura stared at her sensei, not believing what her ears said he was telling them in the most serious tone they had ever heard from him. From beside her, Naruto bellowed a negation and a challenge, but Sensei's eye didn't smile and give away the joke. Sasuke-kun, on Naruto's other side, made no noise or move at all. Terribly still, he was the only one not questioning the validity of what Kakashi was saying.

Sakura had the feeling that he knew, unlike her, that was perfectly possible for half of Team 5 to be dead. Part of her couldn't absorb the fact that Fuki would never sneer at her again or hum agreement with Ami. The rest of her, the part that knew that Sensei wouldn't lie about something like this, was horrified.

"What about the guys that survived?" asked Naruto, his face set in an expression Sakura had never seen upon it before.

"If they make it through debriefing and the new counselling requirement, they'll be sent back to the Academy for a season until the next genin test rolls around unless a jounin volunteers to take them right off the bat. Either way, someone else will end up in their cell or they'll be split up to join two new teams. Since they were working well together, it will probably be the first option."

"How did it happen?" she managed to force past the dryness of her mouth. She swore that Kaka-sensei grimaced.

"Clients don't always tell the truth about the rank of the mission," he explained and for once she wasn't insulted by what she had come to realize was an action that implied scorn about their intelligence. In this case, explaining outright was necessary. "Sometimes, they'll underrate it because they're cheap or because they honestly can't afford the fee for more dangerous missions. Because of this, missions that should have been handled by seasoned chuunin are given to genin not yet ready to face ninja. This is what happened to Team 5. They got mixed up in a mission that they weren't ready for. Their sensei attempted to cover for them when the client kept them in the dark and let the obstacles come, but he was double teamed and eliminated protecting his two remaining students."

Sobered by the knowledge that Team 5 could very easily have been them if Kakashi hadn't manipulated Tazuna and Keji into being forthcoming and hadn't been clever about keeping opponents they couldn't handle away for as long as possible, Sakura shivered.

Just how much their sensei was sheltering them drenched her with an icy bucket of fear. If Kakashi-sensei ever slipped up on a C-rank mission, what would happen? She was so occupied by this thought that the order about being on time for the funeral was ignored.

If she wanted to live and help her team if Kaka-sensei overused his Sharingan again, she needed to improve, fast.

* * *

Sakura had been searching unsuccessfully for hours when she finally stumbled across her quarry and the Sandaime, who were bound for the Academy if her mental map of Konoha's streets was right. Why on earth they were going there delayed her original purpose and was enough of a curiosity that she decided to follow.

It was not spying per se; it was reconnaissance on her prospective teacher, who she already knew was quite the alcoholic, had the worst luck ever, and had two people indentured to her: one as an apprentice and the other as a source of money. Considering the infamous temper, Sakura wasn't quite sure whom she pitied more: those people or herself for wanting to go through with this. She needed this though: she couldn't be shamed again when there were people relying on her contribution. She had no desire to be replaced by Naruto's clones, which were apparently hardier and more skilled than she was at staying alive, an insult of the worst kind since she could disperse one with a single blistering punch.

"Where are we going again, Geezer Sensei?" Tsunade grumbled, gesturing at their path with a ridiculously dangerous hand.

"Somewhere you can prove to me that you truly understand what I taught you," the old Hokage said around his pipe as Sakura jumped from one building to the next. She had the oddest feeling that even the wizened Hokage knew she was there despite the care she was taking to hide her presence. "I had thought you had forgotten entirely until I discovered that you had given Naruto the necklace despite how he lost the bet."

Sakura grew more and more puzzled when they reached the Academy yard. All the students were running around during the lunch break, trying to work out enough lethargy from being made to sit for hours so that they would last for the rest of the afternoon.

The old geezer waded through the myriad of students with a patient smile on his face even as Tsunade-sama recoiled when all the children crowded around her, pestering her with their opinions and questions and suddenly freezing completely when a little girl fell and scraped her knee. The sound of the child's pitiful cries made Sakura wince and waver between the cowardly desire to get away from being blamed and the girlish instinct to gathering the little girl up in her arms and coo at her, but Sandaime-sama beat her there, crouching down before the weeping six-year-old with a kind smile on his face. He rested a hand on her black hair, alleviating her distress to a degree before turning to Tsunade.

"What is the will of fire?" he asked her before standing aside to indicate that she was to do something about this.

Sakura blinked when Tsunade stayed frozen for a long moment, out of either fear of blood or fury with the Hokage's manipulation. She didn't quite understand why, but Hokage-sama smiled when Tsunade-sama knelt down and shakily inspected the simple scrape.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Four Chipped Mugs

Nariko was ducking into an alley after having secured some pork cuts and stewing tomatoes when she first noticed the interlopers. She was nearly immune to the strange appearance of ninja, with their bundles or apparel, but this particular duo stood out because their forehead protectors were not inscribed with the usual leaf. Instead, a series of vertical lines gouged the metal. Frowning, she eavesdropped to see if she could pick up where they hailed from.

"Disorganized place," one grumbled with an accent. His vowels were elongated and stressed, while he tripped over the consonants with as little emphasis as possible.

"The sun's nice though. Sensei did say that Konohagakure had more than its share of sun for all the tears it's made the world shed elsewhere." The second had a similar accent, so it wasn't just a personal quirk.

"Lucky bastards. My little sis is going to be so jealous when I tell her."

"Just make sure you survive the exam first, oh optimistic one."

So, they were here for this exam she had been hearing about. Mikoto had mentioned it to her, noting that it had been a few years since Konoha had last hosted and how she hoped that it went as well as last time. Nariko vaguely remembered last time. She hadn't had much to do with it simply because Naruto had been getting into heaps of trouble that spring. He had mentioned wanting to go watch, but had ended up pulling a massive prank and getting chased around the day of the final. She had heard enough about the deaths and the gore to be glad she hadn't gone with Mikoto.

Sighing, she pulled mail from her box; she was sure the letters were full of warnings from Shiro and Itsuki about how she would have to be extra careful now that Mother and Dad were on their way. Just what had Hotaka-baka said to her mother when he had returned home? Whatever it was, it had made Mother insist that they were coming up for a much delayed visit pronto. What was more worrying was that Dad had insisted too. Dad _never_ forced any issue unless it had to do with clan business. That Dad would be here for the Chuunin Exam made her intestines writhe.

"Neechan, did you see all the weird marks today?" Naruto called when he came in, coated in grit. Three guesses said he had been walking uncooperative dogs again.

"Yes, though I couldn't remember what villages they represented. Where's this one from?" She pulled the message notepad from beside the phone and scratched out the four lines.

"That's Hidden Rain; it's west-northwest of here. One of the ninja wars was fought there or something. I saw marks from Hidden Sand and even Hidden Cloud! I thought I spotted a Hidden Rock ninja hiding out on the rooftops above that arcade near the library, but she disappeared pretty quick. People are all kinda tense around Iwa and Kumo ninja."

"Because the last two ninja wars were against them. Kumo was an enemy about nine years ago, and Iwa only about four years before that. That's too short a time to forget."

"I guess so… They sure haven't forgotten about Kyuubi either."

Nariko scowled for a moment, though she nodded agreement. "There just hasn't been any action positive enough from any of these sources of grief to erase their resentment. The moment there's something more recent that provides a light enough comparison, most will turn a blind eye. People are funny that way: quick to jump onto the bandwagon once it builds up enough steam."

"Like with the Uchiha and Mikoto-obachan being so popular now?"

Nariko smirked grimly. "Exactly like that. You watch though; the moment the Uchiha cause any sort of trouble again, people will bring up Itachi or the supposed treachery from earlier."

Naruto nodded. "They mentioned Itachi behind Sasuke's back whenever he got in trouble at school."

"As much as I'd like to say that they don't mean to poke at that wound like that, people are fickle and can be quite nasty." She put a hand over her mouth and narrowed her eyes, remembering a time back in Kaijin when she had instead insisted that people truly couldn't mean to be so mean, that they had to just be teasing. No wonder Hotaka-ojisan had stared.

"Neechan?"

"It's nothing," she insisted, turning back to the pantry to scoop out some rice.

"Really? It didn't look like nothing. You looked that way at Akamaru when he peed all over the floor near your desk before Kiba potty trained him."

"Just remembering something."

"I got that much. What?"

"Just something I said once."

"Neechan, you're being so evasive! Come on, tell me!"

"Naruto."

"Tell me!"

"Oi, go have a shower. You stink."

"Neechan! I'm not going to stop bugging you about it until you tell me."

"Fine, brat. I just remembered how I said the exact opposite about people once and was thinking about how much I've changed since then. That good enough for you?"

"Sheesh, that's it? I thought it was something important." He laughed at her as he nabbed clean clothes from his room and headed into the shower, ignoring her glare.

"Maybe not important to you…"

He told her all about the stupid dogs he had had to deal with today and how tomorrow they were slotted to go outside of the village to assist a farm by doing odd jobs. "I've got Friday afternoon off though, as far as I know, so I can help you clean up like you wanted. You're parents aren't getting here until way later though, right?"

"They weren't sure. They're not into travelling, so asking them to judge arrival times is difficult. The last time they managed to phone, they were still about four days away. Still, we need to clean when you've got free time since I can't be sure you'll be able to closer to the day. Once it's clean, keep it that way, huh?"

Naruto scowled and mushed his rice. "Fine, fine, I got it. I don't know why you're so worried about this."

"You'll see when you meet my mother."

"Oi, this time, we should go watch the Final Exam. Your parents could come too; tickets aren't too expensive. Sasuke said his mom will invite you again to watch from the Uchiha box, so you might not even have to pay."

She froze, wondering how Naruto could have missed the many hints she was sure she had dropped about her family's attitude towards violence. This was Naruto though. He was beginning to take these things as a matter of course. She had the feeling he wasn't telling her everything about his more dangerous missions and was torn between resentment that he didn't trust her, relief that she didn't have to know, and fear that he had already gone too far. Every time the fear got too great to swallow around, she would open her mouth to ask him straight if he had killed someone yet, but another choking fear of _knowing_ kept the words unsaid. Keeping happy meant making blind assumptions that today's bruises were from tripping and training rather than another fight. Keeping calm meant only talking about D missions with him unless he was truly behaving off because if she asked, she knew he would tell her, sparing her no detail as though she was some sort of rock that could accept anything he said.

More and more as the day of her parents' arrival approached, she began to worry that he was right to think so.

* * *

Sakura stifled another yawn. Tsunade-sama was nothing if not punishing to train under. The mountains of scrolls and books the woman had insisted she read before she even considered teaching Sakura anything was keeping her up into the wee hours of the morning studying. Thank goodness Kaka-sensei believed in tardiness and not meeting up until "eight" (ten thirty). Thank heavens Naruto could be persuaded to leave her alone in the mornings so she didn't have to go on his morning runs no matter how much she wanted to see Sasuke or be seen as diligent by Uchiha-san.

She had been looking forward to Sunday as a light training day or perhaps even a day off, but Kaka-sensei had not been nearly as tardy as usual today, so something was up. The moment he handed a pass to the Chuunin Selection Exam to her, Sakura froze and stared. She hadn't given the exam a thought other than wondering if they would be able to watch the Final Exam since no new missions would be assigned that day.

"I thought you guys were ready to try," Kaka-sensei told them. "You have until tomorrow at three to decide. That's when the exam starts. The location is on your pass."

"I thought rookies weren't allowed in," whispered Sakura, not bother to hide her fear and exasperation with her sensei.

He shrugged, so unconcerned that she was tempted to slug him. "I wasn't the only one that thought their rookies were ready."

"Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei too?" The thought of Ino-pig going in left a bitter taste on her tongue.

"Really? So the others will be in it too?" Naruto was bouncing with excitement.

"If they choose to," Kakashi said. "Participation isn't mandatory."

Naruto obviously wasn't listening. "Sasuke, we'll finally get a chance to kick that mutt's ass in front of everybody!"

"If he doesn't chicken out."

"No way Kiba will chicken out. We'll go make sure. Come on, Sakura-chan. We can go bug Ino too!"

"Ah, wait!" Sakura glanced back at Sensei, but he had disappeared. Damn it. She had wanted to ask him more questions. Growling, she ran after Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto got side-tracked when he spotted Shino holding a familiar piece of paper.

"You too! Great, I was worried that maybe it hadn't been Kurenai-sensei. Then we couldn't have bugged the mutt."

"Sensei gave them to all of us," said Shino.

"Have you seen any members of Team 10?" asked Sakura, elbowing Naruto when he made to run right over her question. "Naruto didn't give Kakashi-sensei a chance to tell us if Asuma-sensei had put his squad forward."

"I have not."

Sakura waited a moment for him to say more, but Shino apparently wasn't feeling talkative, as usual. "Oh. Okay."

"Hey, does anyone know what goes on at the Chuunin Exam other than the Final Exam? I mean, there's gotta be other stuff that happens or else the finale wouldn't be so long after tomorrow. Your mom said it was scheduled to occur in over a month, right?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke nodded. "The local hotels are supposed to be full, so the number of participants must be in the hundreds. They must weed out more than half because last year only seven genin made it through to the finals."

"There are generally two exams prior to the final," Shino informed them.

"That's right; one of your cousins was promoted a couple years back." Naruto nodded thoughtfully. "Think we'd be able to ask him for more details?"

"He is out of the village on a mission with his four-man cell."

"Well damn." Naruto turned to Sasuke and opened his mouth, but, to Sakura's astonishment, he caught himself and shut it before turning to her. _What had that been about?_ "Who else could we ask?"

"Any of the chuunin might know. They're usually assigned to run the exam." She paused to think of chuunin they were on good terms with. The list was very short. "Iruka-sensei might know."

"Ah, that's true! We'll go pick his brain later then." Naruto turned back to Shino. "Do you know where Kiba is?"

"Going home for lunch. If you will meet with Iruka later, I will join you."

"Sure. We'll meet on the Academy roof at around… Eh, what's a good time?"

"There are no classes today," Sasuke noted.

"Iruka-sensei should be in to mark though," Sakura said. "It's almost eleven thirty now, so why not at three?"

"Sounds good. We'll see you at three, Shino. If you see anyone else we know, let them know."

Shino nodded, and Naruto dashed off again, this time in the direction of the kennels. Unfortunately, Ino spotted them before they spotted Kiba. "Sasuke-kun!" she squealed as Naruto and Sakura quickly formed a barrier between the blonde girl and the relatively terrified Sasuke. "Have you missed me? Is Forehead-girl boring you to death? I'm sure you're as strong as ever, Sasuke-kun, even with Forehead holding you back and—"

"Shut up, Pig!"

Naruto grimaced and held Ino's face away from himself. "Bastard, how come I always have to protect you from these crazies?" He moved to get the bickering Ino and Sakura out of his bubble.

Sasuke crossed his arms and turned away with a flick of his chin, making Ino and Sakura stare at him.

Naruto groaned and interposed himself between Sasuke and both girls. "Sorry, but he'll hack up a hairball if you try to touch him now."

He recovered from their glares as Sakura regained her composure and managed to convince Ino that meeting them on the Academy's roof was the best thing for her. Sasuke led the retreat this time, fleeing towards Kiba's with Sakura and Naruto on his heels as Ino choked on their dust.

Kiba was making a mess of the counter when Naruto barged into the Inuzuka kitchen without much more than an "I'm coming in, Mutt Boy!" Akamaru charged them and failed utterly at knocking them flat or tripping them up. "Your mom home?"

"Hah, you'd never come in like that if you'd heard her in here, huh? No, she's not here. Probably out training some pups. You guys will never guess what Kurenai-sensei gave us."

"Chuunin Exam passes."

Kiba's face fell. "Damn it, Sasuke. You guys got them too, huh?"

"Yup! You'd better not chicken out, Mutt Boy!"

"As if, you loser. I'm more worried that your lame sister won't let you enter."

Naruto froze and frowned. "She might not. She's been really worried and touchy lately, ever since Team 5… I'll bring her around though. It's on the way to becoming Hokage, so she won't stop me."

Sakura grimaced as she considered her own parents' probable reactions. Kiba was brought up to speed about the meeting on the roof and then left to his lunch as they went out in search of Shikamaru and Chouji, who Kiba had mentioned were probably eating at their usual BBQ restaurant. The pair was indeed there.

"Chouji's considering his funeral meal," Shikamaru informed them as he stared glumly at his pass.

"So you are joining in," Naruto gushed as he made Shikamaru make room for him on the vinyl seat.

"Ino will roast us if we don't," Chouji said around a mouthful of meat.

"Tch, so troublesome; she's all eager. It's your fault, Sasuke. If you told her you wouldn't enter, we wouldn't have to."

Sasuke restricted his answer to a sharp glare as he settled himself beside Chouji, leaving Sakura no choice but to sit beside Naruto on the decidedly more spacious bench. Naruto made to steal some meat, but Chouji fended him off. "Do you actually have any pocket money, Moron?"

"Bastard, Neechan doesn't take money from my missions unless she absolutely has to."

"She makes you put most of it in the bank though."

Naruto shoved a fistful of ryou into Sasuke's face. "See? I can go for ramen for three days."

"You're gonna spend it here then?"

Naruto glanced mournfully at the meat sizzling before his eyes and then out the window. Sakura had the feeling he was staring right at Ichiraku's despite how it was not visible at all. Naruto could navigate to Ichiraku's from anywhere. "No, I guess not. See you guys on the roof," he said as Sakura quickly got up so he could get out.

"Roof?" Chouji asked.

Sakura explained hurriedly as Sasuke got up and followed Naruto to the exit before chasing after them. She parted with them at the door, heading home to read some more over lunch. Naruto extracted a promise from her that she would phone Iruka-sensei and let him know when to meet them.

* * *

The August sun glared down at them as they scaled the warm walls of the Academy to find the seats they sought. Shikamaru settled back on a bench with a tired groan, lacing his fingers behind his head and studying the clouds as usual. Ino's scolding was ignored for the most part, as she in turn ignored Chouji's attempts to keep her off Shikamaru's lazy ass. There were times when Naruto was sure that Ino and Shikamaru's scary mom traded notes or something because they sounded _way_ too much alike.

"What's going on up here?" called a voice from the stairwell.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto crowed happily, running over to attempt to tackle him, but Iruka knew well enough that he needed to use chakra to root himself to the ground when Naruto used that greeting.

"Are all of you here?" the man asked bemusedly, his eyes sweeping over the disgusted looking Inuzuka, the petulant Uchiha, the silent Aburame, who had brought the quiet Hyuuga, and the enraged Haruno and Yamanaka, who were trading death glares. Naruto figured he must have missed some choice comments. Considering the expressions involved, one of Sakura's attempted insults must have fallen a little flat. It was surprising how such a smart girl couldn't summon properly stinging insults on the spot the way the bastard could. "Well, almost all of you," Iruka corrected himself sadly. "What's the occasion?"

"We all got passes to the Chuunin Exam," Naruto gushed.

Iruka-sensei didn't seem as proud as Naruto had hoped though. In fact, he looked kind of worried. "I heard. I was there when you were all nominated by your sensei."

"They nominated us?" Kiba asked, looking a little puzzled. "I thought they just sort of got passes and gave them to us."

"No, it's more regulated than that." Iruka chuckled, taking a seat on a bench while the rookies gathered around him. "All jounin sensei are asked according to how many years their teams have been in the field. The rookie sensei are asked first, and they usual wave off. Gai-san did last year to give his team more of a chance to gain skills, for example. Going into the exam is dangerous; people have died going through it. The tests are always difficult and the other competitors, especially the older ones, are eager to advance at the expense of others. Rookies usually wouldn't have a chance in that environment."

"Did you try to knock other competitors out of the exam when you participated, Iruka-sensei?" Kiba interrogated his old teacher in a manner very reminiscent to the man himself after having caught them napping or without the previous day's homework.

"Ah, well…" Naruto wasn't sure if Sensei was more embarrassed because he had or he hadn't, which would have proven him to be lacking proper shinobi cunning. "Well, Leaf prides itself on playing fair whenever possible and still winning. Sabotage is something that only the desperate resort to."

"I thought that the rules say we're supposed to exploit every weakness," Shikamaru grumbled.

Iruka-sensei blushed, and Naruto sniggered along with Kiba. "That can be done by taking advantage of your own strength." Naruto wasn't given the chance to comment on that feeble excuse because Iruka-sensei seemed to be on a roll now, intent on avoiding words from too knowing students. "For example, all of you have great strength when you stand together. You all have individual skill areas, but together, you cover every weakness except lack of experience. Sometimes, it's not who you sabotage, but who you team up with."

"Is that how you passed, Sensei?" Sakura asked, looking as though she needed some reassurance. Naruto had the oddest feeling that Sakura didn't want to participate, but was willing to be convinced at this point.

"Uh, part of the reason. Working with another team helped mine get through the first part of the exam. After that, you're on your own, but getting to that point is really the hardest part. Once you've made it to the finals, you have a shot at achieving the rank even if you don't pass the test."

Naruto stored this information away.

"You didn't sound like you agreed with Kakashi-sensei or Kurenai and Asuma-sensei," Sakura noted, wringing the hem of her clan robe.

Iruka-sensei grimaced. "Like I said, the exam is a harsh environment for rookies. Lots of older genin are canny enough to mark out rookies as easy targets."

"In other words, we'd be sacrificial lambs." Shikamaru sighed, so used to being made to clarifying things for the slow that saying the words before people could pester him for explanations took less effort on his part. Chouji gulped audibly, and Naruto suddenly felt a hell of a lot less confident and honoured. Kaka-sensei had to be insane if he thought that Naruto was going to take this lack of care in stride. Kaka-sensei was going to be very orange if Naruto had anything to say about this. Maybe he would even sic Neechan and Mikoto-obachan on him if things went badly…

"What skills do chuunin need?" Sakura asked.

"Lots of things." Iruka lectured, obviously happy to have moved away from the topic of his personal experiences, "information gathering, trap use, strategy development, good in-battle tactics, understanding of the codes, and the ability to lead even in impossible situations. The last one really separates a chuunin from a genin. Think of it this way: genin are like foot soldiers, the rank that gets all the dirty work and follows orders; chuunin are the captains that organize the squads based on the orders from the generals, the jounin and the Hokage. Chuunin need to be able to think up plans and effectively implement them. Chuunin get C and low B-rank missions as well and they can be assigned missions as high as A-rank under a jounin."

More money for ramen sounded very attractive, especially with Neechan still short on cash. Getting a step closer to Hokage was the primary attraction though.

"That settles it," Naruto said, pointing a finger at Iruka-sensei, who looked a little startled. "I'm going to take that exam and beat it to smithereens! There's no way I'm gonna let some prissy chuunin wannabes get me down! Who's with me?"

"There's no way you'll last, Moron." Sasuke crossed his arms to assume his classic "holier than thou" pose. If anything could have made Naruto even more determined to whip this Chuunin Exam, it was Sasuke's doubt. There was no turning back now.

"That's it, Bastard; you're on! Anybody else that wants to try should show up tomorrow somewhere we can all meet up and figure out how to beat this thing."

"Where's that, oh loud one," Kiba drawled, sounding a bit too much like Sasuke at his most mocking for Naruto's peace of mind.

"Umm… The test is on the third floor, right, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka looked rather torn. Naruto had the feeling that he really didn't want to tell them, so Naruto pulled out his pass and looked it over as Iruka grimaced. That action clued Naruto in to the fact that his favourite sensei really, really didn't like something about this exam and all their questions. Sasuke shrugged, but Sakura bit her lip and stared at the ground knowingly.

"Naruto, all of you, please listen for a moment before you decide," Iruka-sensei asked them in the gentlest of tones. All nine genin watched him worriedly as he rubbed the back of his neck and glanced out over Konoha. "While of course you should trust your sensei, maybe it would be a good idea to be cautious. I've told you what the exam is like. As your teacher, I know all of you fairly well and I am aware of your skills. While I don't want to discourage you about the progress I'm sure you have made, this exam isn't something that genin in their first year should be tackling. Eight missions of D-rank are hardly enough to prepare you all for what you will face. There is no shame in delaying a year until you are truly ready."

"Iruka-sensei," Naruto said firmly, staring at the official words on the form in front of him announcing that Kakashi, who was almost certainly insane and cool as hell and twice as annoying, thought he was ready for this, "we graduated months ago. We've improved a lot since then. Team 7 has completed two C-rank missions and enough D-rank missions to make me sick of dogs, cats, garbage, weeds, and ninja using the training grounds we have to clean up. I'm not gonna sit around and keep doing the same old stuff if there's a chance I can do some interesting missions for once. I'm no coward. What kind of Hokage would I be if I let myself get scared away from a challenge just because someone told me it was too dangerous? Anybody that agrees with me can meet me in 304 tomorrow."

* * *

Team 7 didn't bother entering the Academy doors. All three of them knew the layout of the building well enough to spot an open window to room 304. Someone must have beaten them there. Ignoring the catcalls of the other genin, Team 7 scaled the walls and slipped in the window.

"Hey, Ino, Mutt Boy. Surprised you two didn't chicken out." Naruto grinned brightly at the duo sitting on desks as Akamaru sniffed around the teacher's lectern.

"Shut it, you moron. I was sure you weren't going to show. Did your sis have a cow?"

Naruto grimaced as Sakura settled on a desk and pulled out a scroll, milky pale. "She was pissed. We had a screaming match over dinner. Old Bat downstairs was furious. We didn't talk this morning except that she said 'Don't do something stupid,'" he mimicked in a whiny falsetto. "Made me _so_ confident. Mikoto-obachan was way nicer about the whole thing. She just went on about how we should only trust people we're 100% certain about."

"She drilled us on chuunin codes," Sasuke added as he inspected his shuriken again.

"Ryuuka was almost as bad as Neechan; she kept bawling." Naruto made his way over to one of the doors and peeked down the hall at room 301. The sight made the queasy feeling in Naruto's abdomen expand at a rate he was sure Neechan would have said was exponential just because she liked to use mathematical terms he didn't know to goad him into learning about them, cruelly taking advantage of his curiosity. There were a lot of tough guys walking through that door: some sported some wicked scars and all of them had a hardened look about them that he had only seen around Kaka-sensei and Mikoto-obachan when they weren't really paying attention to him. It didn't reassure him at all, but they weren't going to be Hokage like he was.

Repeating that mantra in his head helped calm the wriggle worm Neechan must have slipped into his breakfast as punishment for agreeing to take this exam without talking to her about it first.

Ino took advantage of the silence to taught Sakura. "Ah, Forehead-girl, I was sure you would chicken out. After all, there's going to be a lot of fighting, and we know that isn't your forte."

"Shut it, Pig." Sakura was obviously going to pound something. Naruto was very glad that he was out of the "radius of destruction." Sasuke-bastard, who generally possessed immunity to Sakura's violent tendencies, didn't move from his desk. "You have no idea what I can do anymore. I've been training every day with my team, and a couple days ago I became an apprentice."

Sasuke and Naruto hadn't heard about this.

Sakura smirked. "I went to talk to Tsunade-sama and I managed to convince her to take me on for a couple weeks. I think that she's bored. She's really strong though; I had my first two lessons and I've learned so much already."

That sounded like bragging to Naruto… He had only heard her brag about Sasuke before. This was a step in the right direction, if she wasn't lying… Sakura had this way of rubbing her thumb and forefinger together when she was making things up, and she was doing it a little now.

Still, it wouldn't do to call her on whatever part she was fibbing about in front of Ino. "That's great, Sakura-chan!" Naruto was supremely happy for her if she had managed to apprentice under Tsunade-baachan, though he was sort of sorry for her as well. His words had the intended effect though: Sakura blushed and lost the grey look to her skin. Naruto grinned, feeling pretty proud of himself for figuring out the right thing to say for once. Getting Sakura out of her funk could only be a good thing.

"You sure you're up for this, Blondie?" Kiba said. "You're not exactly the type to let the chance to show off pass you by. Are you sure you can keep your cool in front of all those guys that want to rip us freshly weaned ones to shreds? You still have yet to come off the teat."

"Shut it, Mutt Boy!" Naruto had forgotten just how much Kiba liked to goad everyone within a forty-metre radius.

He had to wonder how Shino and that Hinata girl could stand it after all these months. Shino was pretty immune—it came from being as emotional as a plank of wood—so maybe the buggy guy was okay, but what about that Hinata girl, the weird one that always seemed to be looking at him even when she wasn't and always looked like she had a horrible fever when he looked anywhere near her?

He had meant to ask Neechan about it, but every time he had started hinting about it, she had started giggling in a very scary manner and had sent him knowing looks. That was about as discouraging as she could get and very weird, so he hadn't bothered again. He had almost asked Mikoto-obachan, but had fortunately stopped himself. Left in the dark, he had decided to label Hinata weird just to save himself confusion.

He had to wonder if those two were gonna back Kiba up. He figured that Shino would just because Shino, while not vocal about it, didn't like abandoning challenges.

"Aw, poor little puppy!" Kiba cooed, grinning.

Since Kiba was just asking for it, Naruto was more than happy to be polite and oblige him by launching himself at the mutt boy and knocking him off the desk. When Kiba's oddly sharp teeth clamped down on his jacket-covered arm, Naruto howled and yanked Kiba's sandaled foot so it bent his leg into a position that the human body wasn't supposed to be able to assume naturally. Now they were both howling, or attempting to around a mouthful of arm and cloth in Kiba's case.

"Can't you two stop for one second?" Sasuke grumbled, but the impact of a sandal against his oh so superior face got rid of that attitude pretty quickly and had him snarling and wading into the fray, good and ready to roast Naruto's ass for using the smelly power of Kiba's sandal against him, the odour of unshod foot almost too much for all of them. The girls retreated to the window, looking disgusted, and Akamaru was quick to follow them.

"You're one to talk," a familiar, whiny voice said.

Naruto somehow got enough leeway around Sasuke's headlock and found the laziest, most reluctant know-it-all in existence standing in the window frame. Shikamaru's attempt to convey scorn with his posture was ruined when Chouji knocked him off the sill with a grunt and a hasty apology that, despite its sincerity, didn't make up for the fact that Ino was screeching at Shikamaru for humiliating their team. Naruto, through the fog that Sasuke's headlock cutting of his air caused, felt sort of sorry for the lazy ass.

Kiba must not have taken kindly to Sasuke's elbow jabbing him in the solar plexus because air suddenly filled his lungs again, and Sasuke and Kiba spat curses at each other, attempting to yank the other's head off with a grip on hair alone. Figuring that they both needed educating about the values of teamwork since they were both asses, Naruto launched himself as high into the air as he could, and gravity unfailingly pulled him down on top of their fight.

Apparently, his shout of "Boo yah!" and his subsequent howl of anticipatory glee had alerted them to his attack. They shared a panicked glance for a split second before throwing themselves towards the far wall and out of Naruto's landing spot. His butt protested this relocation of cushioning fluently, and three desks clattered on about how much Kiba and Sasuke's barrelling into them had upset them as they tumbled over, one actually falling onto the struggling pair with a thud.

Sakura didn't take the desk's retaliatory strike well at all. "Sasuke, are you okay?" she said, completely ignoring the way Naruto's butt was threatening to kill him with pain for such abuse of its cushioning powers. Chouji's explanation that of course Naruto's butt couldn't handle such abuse when he didn't eat nearly enough bacon-flavoured chips didn't make Naruto feel any better oddly enough.

"K-Kiba-kun, are you all right?" stuttered a voice that Naruto didn't recognize right off the bat, a little preoccupied with rubbing his butt in an attempt to soothe the ache away. It wasn't working. _Damn fox was never around when he could have been useful…_

"Fighting before the exam will not help you pass it," Shino said in his usual stilted way, making Naruto less appreciative of Shino's odd ability to speak than usual. _Bug boy could go take his advice and shove it up his—_

"N-N-N-Naruto-kun, a-a-are y-you all right?" the voice he couldn't place said, and he glanced around, spotting Hinata righting the desks the bastard and the mutt had displaced. As usual, the moment he spotted her, she went from pale as rice to red as azuki beans. Since he didn't really know her, there was no way he was going to admit to stupidity in front of her, never mind that he had once had a "master plan" that involved looking like an idiot in front of _all_ of his classmates.

"Yeah, I'm good," he said as all assembled looked sceptical at this turnaround.

Sakura almost looked as though she was going to slug him until a nasty, sly look appeared on her face. Naruto suddenly had a _very bad feeling_. Whatever that idea was, he didn't want to know about it. Girls were insane after all.

Desperate to save himself from female insanity, Naruto changed the subject. "Hey, we're all here," he said with some surprise. He wasn't sure whom he had expected to skip out, but he had suspected that some wouldn't want to come. Since all were present, it looked as though he didn't know everyone as well as he had thought. Shrugging off that mildly unsettling thought, he grinned around at everyone and gingerly settled himself on a desk. "What are we gonna do?"

"This was your idea, Loser," Sasuke said, glaring down at the bruise the upset desk had inflicted upon him as he nastily sat on the guilty party as punishment.

"Sure, but…"

"Hurry up, Idiot." _Sasuke was such an encouraging bastard…_

"All right then, well, are we gonna work together or not? I mean, Iruka-sensei said we should if we want to pass."

"That eliminates all the known targets during the exam though," said Shikamaru. "Going up against unknowns is a lot harder than fighting someone you've fought before."

"Hah, lazy ass." Naruto laughed. "You think we haven't advanced or something? Keeping that plan will make it easier to pound your team into the dust."

"You think so, eh?" Kiba snarled and jammed his sandal back on his foot without a care for the drool Akamaru had left on it while carrying it over to his master. "You just proved that you're a prime target, Moron. Kurenai-sensei would hardly have let us into the exam if she hadn't thought we would pass. She's been teaching us tonnes of stuff."

"But Iruka-sensei said—!"

"Since when do you listen to Iruka-sensei?" Kiba asked.

"Mutt," Sasuke grumbled, "weren't you bragging about your nose yesterday?"

"Yeah, but what—"

"Sasuke's implying your head is in your ass," Shikamaru explained at his most unforgiving. "Iruka's been watching out for the idiot for years. That you didn't notice doesn't say anything good given that you've passed on warnings before for Iruka."

Cornered, Kiba growled, looking about two seconds away from walking out the door and leaving the other two teams to their sorry fates.

"What Naruto suggests is wise," Shino noted. Everyone turned to him, astonished he had broken his self-imposed silence. Naruto had the feeling that the eyes behind the glasses Naruto had never seen Shino without were focussed on Hinata, who was poking the tips of her pointer fingers together at an alarming rate and looking miserable.

"Who died and made you team leader?" Kiba snarled, but Shino didn't react to this very much other that pointedly looking in their last teammate's direction to help the slow Inuzuka along. All the rage seeped out of Kiba, and he hesitated, Akamaru whining miserably against his ankles.

Naruto blinked at this odd exchange, wondering just how their team could be so different. Team 7's unofficial "leader" was Sakura, who always managed the logistics of missions in that she always read the mission scroll and figured out the best way to get everything done and what needed to come with them in the way of supplies. She always deferred to Sasuke though, who couldn't be bothered to actually take over leading the team, and Naruto didn't challenge her simply because he liked his head. He knew that Ino was in charge of Team 10 in exactly the same way: Shikamaru couldn't be bothered, and Chouji didn't care too much about who was giving the orders.

It was kind of strange how Kiba, the mutt that wasn't the sharpest kunai in the set when compared with Shino, was the one giving the orders. Considering the passive personalities that Shino and Hinata seemed to have, Naruto guessed that this was to be expected. Hinata's whims, though it didn't seem like she expressed them often, seemed to be a big factor in the decision-making process though.

"We'll cooperate with you until the Final Exam," Ino declared, glancing at Sasuke in a way that made her motivations obvious to everyone, "but once we're there, you guys are free to fail on your own, right, Forehead?"

Sakura sputtered insults in response, but Naruto still celebrated that minor victory.

"How about you guys?" Naruto asked, turning to Kiba, who looked as though someone had shoved a lemon down his throat.

With a deep scowl etched onto his face, Kiba nodded, but not before tossing a glare Shino's way. The bug boy remained unfazed.

"Okay! This'll be a piece of cake with all of us in it together, dattebayo."

"Always overconfident, Moron," said Sasuke.

"I'm realistic, Bastard," Naruto growled back, crossing his arms and scowling at the pessimistic bum. Seriously, someone needed to give this bum happy pills or surgically remove his head from his ass. "You're a Sharingan bastard, I'm the awesome future Hokage, Sakura and Shikamaru are the know-it-alls, Kiba's the smelly tracker, Shino's the bug man who knows how to stop talk, Chouji's the cannonball of doom, Ino's the psychic of doom, and Hinata…" Now Naruto faltered, hoping that Sakura continued to manage to restrain herself: she hadn't taken her title well even though he had sort of meant it as a compliment. He didn't know much about Hinata or about what she could do—a fact that made him a little uncertain.

"She's all-seeing," Kiba supplied proudly.

"All-seeing?" asked Naruto. "What does that mean?"

"Clan skill," Kiba said blithely as Hinata went redder and fixed her creepy eyes on the floor.

"Okay then," Naruto said. "So, what do we actually know about this test other than that we're gonna beat the crap out of it with our awesome skills?" These words didn't seem to inspire much confidence in those assembled. In fact, many of them looked as though they were questioning his sanity and their own for listening to him. Deciding that such thoughts were dangerous, he quickly steered the conversation in a more profitable direction. "Iruka-sensei didn't tell us much about what the actual exam was like; he only talked about strategy for beating it."

"It's likely that there will be some sort of test on our knowledge, maybe written." Groans were widespread, but Sakura continued. "There's probably some sort of ability test, maybe matches. Other than that, I don't know. I do know for sure that the Final Exam is a series of one-on-one matches in that big arena. My dad used to bet on them."

Hinata spoke for the first time since teaming up had been decided. "Y-y-yes, my f-family has a special area reserved for them in the stands. T-they say that the Final Exam is marked b-b-by visiting dignitaries and by any Kage that choose t-t-to come."

"It's almost time," Sasuke warned them as he eyed the clock.

"Well, let's go." Naruto pumped his fist enthusiastically to rally team spirit, only to end up freaking everyone out with his indomitable obliviousness. He marched out the door, and the others shrugged and followed him.

Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai were waiting for them outside the doors to 301. Each team gathered around their sensei for a last minute pep talk. Team 7 was quite upset with Kakashi for keeping them in the dark when they learned that it was a very good thing all of them had shown up. Teams of three were required to participate. Sakura was suddenly very glad that she had come. Naruto and Sasuke would never have forgiven her if her absence had kept them from competing. After receiving praise from Kaka-sensei and best wishes, they entered the room with the other six rookies.

And skidded to a halt.

Lots of people, lots of _angry_, _older_ people, stared at them with obvious distaste. Naruto forced himself not to sway under the force of the ire directed at them by every hardened face in the room.

Maybe Neechan had a point about being worried about him coming home in one piece… Best not tell her.

"Yo, everybody!" he said with every bit of bravado he had been carefully saving up for his inauguration speech as Hokage.

He had come to realize that even at this moment of triumph he was likely to face quite a bit of hostility. When he had been younger, he had thought that all the hatred would magically disappear, but Neechan had unconsciously disabused him of that notion over the years just by being herself and being treated so badly. To counter this inevitable outburst of hatred and rage, he had decided to gather up every scrap of spare confidence. Standing in front of all these creeps and continuing his one-sided conversation with the masses dipped quite a bit into the fund that wasn't as bottomless as others believed.

However, for pigheadedness to raise its familiar head, he needed an obvious and appropriately defined challenge. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm not gonna lose to any of you stiffs!"

The rest of the rookies greeted this statement with the expected amount of horror, and Sakura did her thing: she pummelled him and nervously insisted that he was an idiot before dragging him off to the back corner, hissing dire threats as she went. Hostile stares followed them, but Naruto merely grinned. Now that everyone was clearly their enemy, no one would attempt to pretend to befriend them for any good reasons. The rest of the rookies were similarly isolated now. He always liked things when they were clear-cut rather than shades of grey. Mikoto-obachan and Neechan would flay him alive when they found out about this, especially if he failed. Since that was the case, it only gave him more incentive to make sure that any who might squeal on him passed as well so none of them would have a reason to. Satisfied that this exam was going to go according to his specifications—there would be no guilt for making any of his new enemies fail—Naruto weathered the storm of the rookies' anger as they waited for the stupid exam to start.

Chouji was the first to spot the approaching silver-haired genin. He tapped Shikamaru on the side, and soon the entire group knew. Despite the relatively pleasant expression on the genin's face, the rookies were reacting to him as though he was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"You guys are the rookies, huh?" Thoughts about sacrificial lambs ran through rookie minds and added to the panic. Glances traded around the group made Naruto only too aware that everyone wanted this dangerous guy to go away as quickly as possible since that almost friendly smirk was apparently synonymous to a wolf licking his chops.

"Who wants to know?" Naruto asked, folding his arms across his blue shirt.

"I'm Kabuto. I just wanted to see if it was true."

"If what was true?" Kiba apparently didn't like the superior smirk that had slipped over Kabuto's face, perhaps only too aware of what it meant when a wolf went from salivating at the sight of an easy meal to exposing his sharp fangs. The weaker wolf always reacted loudly when attempting to warn off a stronger opponent.

"Well, I heard that there was a bunch of clueless rookies entering this year. You guys don't seem like the right people at all; I was way more nervous my first time. I made a complete ass out of myself, though not quite as big as you did, Blondie," Kabuto said. Instead of lowering the tension as his comment had been designed to, the rookies became even more nervous.

"How many times have you written this exam?" Naruto asked, only too willing to drive the last nail into the coffin. Being called Blondie was getting old.

"This is my seventh time."

"Ah, that's nice," he said politely. There was no need to overdo it. He knew that if Sakura or, gods forbid, Sasuke-bastard heard and comprehended that thought, they would die of disbelief, but it was true. He had had to learn about limits or face the wrath of the pigheaded. However, just because he knew where these limits were, it didn't imply that he would sanely stick within them all the time, just this time. "It was nice of you to come over and talk to us, Kabuto-san. I'm sure you need to get back to your team now though; the exam's starting pretty quick."

"Don't you guys want to ask for some advice?" Kabuto asked, lingering. Naruto resisted the urge to snigger at the way this guy was totally making himself seem worse than nefarious with every word out of his mouth. Just watching how Sakura was edging towards total aggression made the beating she had given him worth it. "I have information on these cards on every ninja here…"

"That's pretty cool, man, but I think we'll be fine. We wouldn't want you to get in trouble." Smiling, Naruto managed to get Kabuto to realize that he wasn't wanted. He slunk off, and the rookies sighed.

"Who wants to bet that all of his info was bogus?" Sakura muttered as Sasuke and Shikamaru shot Naruto suspicious glances. Maybe shaking with laughter gave him away, though Shikamaru was smart enough that he probably had the entire thing figured out.

"What if it was genuine?" Sasuke asked, glaring at Naruto.

"We'll be fine without it," Naruto insisted. "It doesn't seem to have helped him any. Six times, he's failed this exam six times even with the help of those cards. There's no way that we'll need _his_ help."

Kiba blurted out, "If anything, he'll need ours!" and they all exploded into chuckles, united once more. Even Hinata looked more confident.

"All right, quiet down, you worthless bastards!" the scarred jounin in the centre of the ranks that had just used Shunshin no Jutsu to appear into the room shouted.

Those behind him in the clearing smoke were obviously chuunin rank. The sheer presence of the jounin and the combined authority of the chuunin was enough that even Naruto's resistant spirits dimmed under the collective critical gaze. If chuunin and jounin were selected for their ability to make genin feel like dust motes, then these guys were perfect for the rank.

"Thanks for waiting," he continued blandly, obviously laughing at what he considered a hilarious use of courtesy.

Naruto hardly appreciated this. Kakashi's perpetual tardiness made this "joke" even less funny. Sasuke and Sakura's grim scowls told him that they agreed. The way this jounin liked to cover himself with cloth wasn't helping the comparison: the only exposed bit of skin was his face; he went so far as to wear a bandana, thick black gloves, and a heavy trench coat over his uniform.

"I'm Morino Ibiki and I will be your first chuunin examiner this afternoon. Now listen; I'm going to explain some rules, and yes, these do apply to all of you. You will not be fighting without the express instruction of an examiner. If permission is given, killing your opponent will not be tolerated. Those pigs that disobey me will fail immediately. Have you got that? Now, you will draw your seat number and sit down. Once that's out of the way, we'll be handing out the test papers."

Test papers? It took a lot of self-control to keep from screaming and running out of the room. If Iruka-sensei was tricky, what were these guys going to do to him?

Maybe earning the enmity of every experienced person in the room hadn't been a good idea.

When it was his turn to dig through the jar of clay tablets to select his seat, he prayed with all his might to get the seat next to Sakura-chan so he could copy her. It seemed that even the Ramen God was upset with him for his manipulation of the situation because he got number one hundred twenty-three whereas Sakura had gotten number nine.

He was doomed!

Ten minutes later, Naruto found himself cut off from most of his peers. They were spread out around the room, but Sasuke was only a row ahead of him and couple seats to the right. Okay, so maybe the bastard would save him. Maybe…? He prayed to the Ramen God for mercy when Sasuke didn't turn back to look at him and instead focused on the board in his typical brooding pose. Naruto began to panic when the jounin began to lazily toss chalk from one hand to the other as the chuunin examiners efficiently swept through the room, setting papers upside-down in front of every participant.

Naruto glanced up at the icy woman who slammed his down in front of him so hard that he just _knew_ she was one of those mean people who knew who was sitting in his bellybutton and hated him for it. He regretted meeting her steely eyes: they were telling him that he was going to be her special target throughout the test.

Desperate for some kind of reassurance, Naruto's eyes sought Sakura in the front row. He wasn't worried about her; she took great pride in reminding him of her book smarts all the time. If anyone would ace this exam, it would the one that kept trying to interest him in strange jutsu like Daitoppa, which he had actually wanted to learn, but had never actually done simply because he apparently still hadn't learned the tact Neechan kept ranting on about. By the time he had realized he had wanted to learn the wind jutsu, he had managed to get into a fight with Sakura and she had held the technique over his head ever since because apologizing for insulting her favourite boy band was not something he was capable of. The library had failed him simply because Sakura kept renewing her loan on the only scroll that described it.

Feeling a lot less generous towards her at this reminder, he refused to reveal the extent of his panic when she shot them an encouraging smile as she sat down. Her smile at Sasuke was predictably filled with reverence and made the ball of dread threaten to climb out his mouth and foul his test paper. Ugh! All for keeping up appearances though, Naruto gave her a thumbs-up and grinned back.

The bastard finally turned his head and spotted him. It was a measure of Naruto's panic that he let just how unsettled he was show. Sasuke remained unmoved by puppy eyes and Pleading Lower Lip no Jutsu, so Naruto made threatening motions, which only served to amuse the ass. The bastard almost seemed to laugh at him before turning back around to face the chalkboard. Naruto walloped his head against his desk, ignoring the evil chuunin examiner's icy smirk.

He was screwed, dattebayo!

* * *

Sasuke glanced around the room, checking out the anxiety levels of all of those around him, looking for a good person to cheat off of if he got stuck. He located a guy with a bandana and glasses that seemed relatively relaxed two rows up. Satisfied that his success was assured, Sasuke tuned into the rules that the proctor was scribbling on the board.

Wrong answers lost you points, okay, that was standard. Why would cheating only cost two points through? In the Academy, cheating had always led to an instant zero. Sasuke made a mental note of that oddity. Since this was a team test, the idiot had better stop acting like one since he was so bound and determined to pass. One glance over his shoulder made Sasuke grimace; the moron was already at the point of panic. What a dunce. What part of being a proud ninja hadn't the idiot caught?

* * *

Meanwhile, the spiel about the rules had completely passed over Naruto's head other than the fact that the chuunin examiner apparently had more than enough power to make him fail. From the smirk on her face, he had no doubt that he would be out the moment he made any sort of suspicious movements, whether she actually caught him or not. This was going to be _hell_. Sasuke and Sakura were going to kill him if this chuunin got it through her head to simply be sadistic and axe him without provocation of any sort. Way too soon for comfort, the proctor smiled cruelly at them and indicated that they should turn over their papers.

Cryptography sucked royally. Not only were there complex bonds between all of the characters that decided which symbols chained to which letters, all logical sense according to Naruto was abandoned in favour of complex mathematical patterns he knew for a fact still baffled Neechan, who had to be the most mathematically minded person he knew. If she couldn't figure them out, there was no way he was going to be able to figure out even a simple problem without serious brain ache. Sucking on his cheek, he skipped over the problem to try the next one.

Finally, something he could do! Attack patterns were more Shikamaru's specialty, but how many different ways were there to really take down a bunch of guys within range of a shuriken? Honestly, there were hundreds of different options and it even described the range of the projectile. Projectile motion had been his favourite topic during those physics lessons Neechan had shoved down his throat. It had helped him figure out the best ways to accomplish his more complex pranks. Arc length and calculating curves were relatively simple formulas and dividing wasn't too hard, so figuring out a potential solution to this one wouldn't be too tough.

He set to work, slowly showing the tedious steps of long division since he wasn't a walking four-function calculator like Riko-nee. Math needed to be done on paper or else he got lost in all the evil numbers. Sine and cosine were trig functions from hell, but he could remember the values for the main five angles, sort of: sine went one way and cosine went the opposite way, all of the values were over two, and all the numerators (the numbers zero to four) were square rooted, evil as that was. If he just worked within the limits of those angles, then maybe he would be able to handle the calculations…

* * *

Sasuke scanned through his paper and grimaced. Typical. Only the question on codes made any sense and that was because Akio and his mother had decided he needed to know them early if he was going to be the heir. According to their reasoning, being able to communicate in all circumstances was an essential skill for a leader and since codes were part of communicating with ninja, those symbols and hand signs had been drilled into him until he had been sick to death of them.

He still had his eye on his target, but the guy wasn't moving yet. He was fiddling with his pencil and glancing around almost furtively… there. Sasuke, unwilling to waste any time, quickly siphoned chakra towards his eyes and grabbed what information he could from the stilted motions.

Half an hour later, he turned back to Naruto, who was completely lost in his own little world of terror again, and attempted to catch his eye, but the idiot was too far-gone. Sasuke had to wonder why, so he followed Naruto's almost frightened glance to the left. The chuunin at the end of the row was sitting neatly cross-legged on her chair with her clipboard professionally propped on her ankles. She glanced up and down the row every now and again, but most of the time her gaze remained fixed on Naruto. Oh, well, damn.

Since the idiot wasn't in the mood to stop panicking and glance around, Sasuke did it for him, searching for some other avenue of rescue. While it would normally be immensely satisfying to watch the idiot get his ass kicked for being one, there was a lot at stake this time. Sasuke had the answers Naruto needed, but had no way to get them to him. Sakura was too far away. The closest one to him from the other teams was Hinata, and he knew that her white eyes had no method for inserting much needed intelligence into Naruto's brain. After Hinata was Chouji, who actually looked rather calm…

That caught Sasuke's attention, so he created a slight genjutsu that made the sound of him crumpling the edge of his test paper sound like the crumbling of chips. The result was immediate: Chouji spun around and stared at him, raw menace beginning to rise up in the chubby boy until he failed to spot what he had expected to see. Sasuke shot him a look that clearly questioned his calm, and Chouji jerked his head towards the left corner of the room. Sasuke glanced over those seated there until he spotted Ino. Wait a second…

Full of ideas now, Sasuke attempted to convey to Chouji that he needed Ino's help, but the boy simply didn't get it and making more obvious motions was sure to get the chuunin at the end of his row to put a mark in his column. Grimacing, he was tempted to bury his forehead in his hands until suddenly he realized that he couldn't move. Familiar horror filled him when his hand began writing on its own.

"_What's the problem? S._"

Feeling a measure of control return to him, he let the hold linger to track his motions as he scribbled a reply. "_Naruto is an idiot. Snag him and tell him to look at me. I'll get him the answers._"

The feeling of helplessness returned, and it took more self-control not to fight it. "_Typical. Your team owes me. He's so much trouble. I'll pass along the word. Be ready._" The hold faded completely, and Sasuke worked hard not to give Shikamaru's game away by glancing at the floor as the stretched shadow tracked a direct path towards the idiot. A glance at the clock prevented that dangerous action, but it didn't reassure him. Only ten minutes left. Shikamaru needed to hurry if Naruto's answers were going to be legible at all. Finally, the moron glanced up.

Sasuke glanced around the room, as if checking on the status of those around him, and caught Naruto's eye for a split second in the process and put his teammate under the influence of a genjutsu that the Sharingan was perfect for. His mother had taught him it to confuse his enemies by making them see misinformation. Here, he would simply use it to give Naruto the answers. The relief all over the idiot's face surely would have given him away, but Sasuke was confident about the subtlety of the mechanism. That chuunin bitch could go suck on a lemon. He smirked as her frown deepened as Naruto flipped his test paper. One bitch down, only two bastards to go.

* * *

Sakura had been worried the moment she had turned over the test and had seen that only she and real chuunin would be capable of answering all of the questions correctly. She had only figured out that everyone was supposed to cheat after studying the rules again after figuring out the answer to the seventh question. Sighing at the risks the boys would be taking, she finished her test and was about to turn it over when she felt everything going black. Screaming internally at how familiar this was, she fought for consciousness, but a wave of nausea ripped through her and she was dragged kicking and screaming into sleep.

She woke when her forehead hit the desk with a painful thump. Rubbing the forming bruise, she scowled down at her test, which was mysteriously answer-side up again. She was sure she had turned it over… Frowning suspiciously, she flipped it over again, but not before she noticed the chuunin at the end of her row shooting a smirk at her, the motion wrinkling the bandage wrapped across his nose. His hand made a mark on the page, and she froze.

What the heck? She hadn't been cheating! The desire to get up and protest howled within her, but common sense held her in her chair, especially when a kunai thudded through the test paper of the genin three seats to her left. He was ordered from the room by the bandaged chuunin and was bodily hauled from his seat when he proved resistant to this order. Having no desire to be literally thrown kicking and screaming from the room, she settled for glaring at the back of her test and imagining the beating she would have given that chuunin if she had been capable. All around her, chuunin proctors shouted out the numbers of genin caught cheating five times and showed them out. The ranks were thinning rapidly.

* * *

At last, Ibiki stood up and began explaining all about the crucial tenth question. It seemed to be a dilemma question: a choice without a good answer. Naruto loved those questions, not! He was used to them though.

His entire life seemed to stumble from one unhappy question to another, from entering the Academy and picking between doing well and getting beaten up, fighting with Neechan or giving up his ninja dream, and cooperating with a former bona fide fangirl or failing the genin test. Most of his tough choices had worked out okay. They hadn't been without their consequences—pretending to be stupid seemed to have rubbed off on him in horrible ways, fighting with Neechan was never much fun simply because she was so good at making him feel guilty, and working with Sakura even now was painful—but he supposed that sticking with the tougher road was better in the long run.

The way Ibiki described things, it almost sounded as though he was going to be pitted against Mikoto-obachan for tripping Ryuuka. Running away wouldn't save him from her wrath, but sticking it out and hoping that he would live long enough to set Neechan out to guilt trip Mikoto sounded better. Convinced by his reasoning, he crossed his arms and refused to be cowed by the prospect of remaining a genin forever. If necessary, he would blackmail Tsunade-baachan into promoting him. There was no way some scarred git would keep him from his dream even if he did fail the question. When Sasuke and Sakura glanced at him almost apprehensively, he assumed what he dubbed his classic stubborn old toad pose and set his chin. He would not budge. He would wait for the fly…

"Hurry up with the question already!" Naruto shouted, slamming his fist down on his desk when the guy kept on making evil comments that were obviously making Sakura feel horrible. If she broke and ran, they were all doomed. It had to be stopped before her lack of self-assurance destroyed them! "There's no way I'm gonna quit now, so just spit it out!"

He matched the proctor's almost amused smirk with a steady glare, daring the scarred ass to make his day. If the guy didn't spit out the tenth question in the next three seconds, Naruto would not be responsible for the mess the ball of dread still rolling around in his stomach made of the jounin's heavy coat.

"You sure you wanna do that, gaki?" Ibiki taunted him, and Naruto considered shouting some more, but habit won. Whenever he and Neechan got to an impasse, they would try to out-smile each other. Since Ibiki didn't look like he was gonna budge, Naruto let his most confident, blinding grin split his face until the scarred jounin barked a laugh and shook his head. "Very well, then, gaki, but don't forget that you asked for it." Despite those ominous words, no one in the room budged an inch. "Is no one else willing to save themselves from being a genin for good?"

Though some shook and sweated, everyone's hand remained down. There was determination there that Naruto hadn't spotted before. He had to wonder where it had come from. If his belligerence had infected everyone instead of just Sakura, Shikamaru and Sasuke would beat him up good for being stupid enough to inspire courage in their enemies. Undaunted even by the knowledge that being roasted by Sasuke was painful, Naruto bounced around when Ibiki grinned and announced that they had all passed, gloating loudly about his triumph even as their examiner began answering the questions of the confused genin. The complete personality change didn't even impinge on his awareness such was the degree of his jubilance. Iruka-sensei and Neechan were gonna be so surprised!

"You have made it through the entrance. The first test of the chuunin selection exam is now finished. I wish you guys luck."

Naruto was ready to do a victory dance on his desk at those words, but Sasuke shot him a warning glare. The promise of fire kept his butt glued to his seat, but he did boogie in his chair.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Chariot Overturned

Naruto had to say that Mitarashi-san was the creepiest woman he had ever met; he couldn't get over how much she seemed to adore violence.

Where Ibiki's exam had been tightly controlled and monitored, Anko seemed more interested in letting things fall apart and collecting whatever pieces survived the chaos. Normally, he was all for a little chaos, but dropping bloodthirsty ninja in a deadly forest and telling them to get on with this survival of the fittest test was taking things a little too far, especially given that _everyone_ and their rickety aunt was going to be after him simply because he and tact didn't seem to have a working relationship.

There was another thing bothering him too. After the crazy lady had cut his cheek with a kunai for telling her straight that she was nuts, this guy with an outrageously long tongue had returned it to her. Naruto was convinced that it wasn't physically possible to have a tongue that long. Where would the guy keep it when he wasn't trying to infect himself with tetanus? Sakura agreed that the Grass-nin was creepy if her pallid face and her wide eyes were any indication.

He had the feeling that they were going to be discussing that during their pseudo planning session the moment things got rolling. So far, Naruto's tentative plan included staying very far away from the snakelike tongue. He had seen watery ropes strangle and whip people around when in Snake's company and wires choke victims to deadly effect when being guarded by the guy Cat, and he had no intention of finding out if that tongue could do the same thing. It was simply a little too ominous when facing this forest.

Naruto had never heard of this training ground before. That spoke volumes about the place. Mikoto-obachan had booked a lot of different training grounds for them over the years just to keep things interesting and new, but she had never once brought them here. The tall fences and the warnings looked properly weather-beaten, so Naruto doubted that somebody had just tacked them up to terrify the genin.

This place assaulted him where he stood on many levels: smell, taste, sight, and hearing. Rotting vegetation, the sickly scent of rotting meat, and hundreds of other odours that _instinct_ was telling him weren't good for his general health emanated from the evil place. Normally, he liked the smells of forests, but this one just screamed_ bad place_. He could _taste_ the rotting, maggoty corpses that had to be decomposing in the foliage. He recognized some of the plants, but that didn't reassure him very much since an uncomfortable proportion of them were toxic in some form or another. His ears simply told him that there were living things in that place that weren't stationary.

Belligerence reared its stubborn head and insisted it was the first place he wanted to go, and he was more than willing to go along with it if it got him a step closer to Hokage.

Belligerence had to be insane or masochistic.

Maybe belligerence was related to Anko…

If he got infected because she had germs all over her tongue, he was going to make sure that she suffered somehow. How was licking someone after slicing him open with a kunai she had probably used to disembowel some dude sanitary?

When she revealed the release forms with a jovial flourish, even belligerence began to have serious doubts, but at least stick-up-his-ass Sasuke was around to be brusque and dismissive about the whole life-threatening thing. Naruto had to wonder just how much the lawyer that had come up with those release forms had been paid for coming up with something that Anko and the Geezer could hide behind if he died. Neechan would probably spontaneously combust if they managed to hold off her wrath with something they had only paid four hundred ryou for. He had to snicker a bit at the morbid image.

When Anko started blathering on about the Darwinist purpose of this exam, he ignored her in favour of the crude map she held up. Ye gods, Kaka-sensei got on his case for something three times as detailed! How was that fair? Still fuming and able to _feel_ the indignation coming off the bastard in waves, Naruto attempted to affix the image of the circular training ground in his mind. Where were they? Oh, there at the top: there were the gates. So the place was twenty kilometres from end to end… that meant about… hmm, thirty minutes of travel from one end to the other at his team's current ninja speed since civilians could run about fifteen kilometres an hour if they pushed it. Sasuke was faster—the bastard could probably clear the area in about ten minutes without hurting, but according to Kaka-sensei, a team was only as fast as its slowest member, so thirty minutes it was since Sakura wasn't much of a runner.

When Anko pulled out the scrolls they were supposed to fight over, he cocked an incredulous eyebrow. Why the hell would he want to chase after some stupid scroll…? Wait, he was undermining himself and his best jutsu after Rasengan's super cool destructiveness.

From the look on Sakura's face, something about this testing method worried her. The ass was a blank, as usual, but it was likely that he saw whatever Sakura did. Naruto doubted they had seen what he had though: the scrolls were written in slightly different hands. Some poor chuunin had probably gotten assigned all the earth scrolls while another sketched out the heaven ones. That meant that they would smell different. He grinned at the thought and considered whether to pass this tidbit of knowledge on to Kiba, the only person who would be good at using it.

"Half the teams will fail," Sakura murmured. Naruto blinked. There were fifty-seven people left, so that meant that there were… hmm, five minus three… three went into twenty-seven how many times…? Oh, nine: that meant that there were nineteen teams still around. That meant that at most, hmm, half of eighteen was nine, so only nine teams could pass at max since there would be an odd scroll out.

"You have five days to get your pair of scrolls and get to the tower. Any later and you're disqualified."

Naruto stared, appalled. _Five days!_ What the hell? It would take ten minutes to get from here to the tower; what did they need five days for…? Oh.

His stomach growled uncomfortably at him. He thought mournfully of all the instant ramen packets he had passed over while browsing through the pantry that morning. Why oh why had he assumed that he would get a good dinner when he knew that ninja were sadistic and that tests of any kind were evil?

He glanced mournfully at the forest again, trying to spot something edible. The only one that was more upset about this disturbing development than him had to be Chouji, who looked near tears as he clutched an empty chip bag.

Naruto considered stealing that chip bag and licking the salt and grease off of it until he re-established that it was indeed in Chouji's hands. Acting on his idea would be suicidal and then apparently his team would be disqualified because he had died. Hmm, this test seemed to be designed to pick off anybody that wasn't ruthless and woods wise or just plain lucky. He was afraid to look around and try to figure out whom to target. What if this exam set him off again and then what if he killed somebody? He shuddered and suppressed the temptation to wrap his arms around his middle in a pathetic attempt to cage the Kyuubi's influence more.

"You must not open the scrolls until you are within the tower or you are disqualified."

Anko dismissed them, and Naruto traded looks with Sasuke and Sakura. "You guys up for this?"

"Nervous, Loser?" said Sasuke.

Naruto grimaced at the ass and flipped him the bird while he waited for Sakura to gather her courage and speak.

He didn't think she was ready for this, training under Baachan for a couple days or no. She wasn't tough the way they were yet. She wasn't used to hardship, though she had gotten better during the Wave Country mission. He would do his best to keep her safe, but what if they got separated? He wasn't positive that she would be able to survive on her own. In a village, sure—she was better with grownups—but here, no, he wasn't certain.

If she dropped out—which she wasn't actually allowed to do once they were in the forest, so now was the only time—that was the end of it. Sasuke would hiss and spit like an angry cat because Naruto could tell that the cold bastard was raring to go, but it wasn't as if they would be able to do this again in six months. Retaking the test was a lot better than Sakura dying because they had been asses about listening to her.

She seemed to be struggling with the same questions because she was twisting the hem of her clan robe. At last, her pale green eyes met Sasuke's and his. "I'm game," she insisted with frail confidence.

Naruto urged them to fill the forms out quickly so they could be the first ones to get a scroll, making a silent promise that his team _would_ get through this exam alive.

The chuunin manning the station took their three forms with a cursory glance and glared suspiciously at Naruto when he inhaled deeply and tried to fix the scent of the earth scrolls in his mind as Sasuke furtively made their heaven scroll disappear. Pine, smoke, and rice—he memorized the peculiar blend of those aromas as Sakura pulled yet another clay tablet from a jar to select their gate number. She handed it over to the chuunin.

"Number seventeen, hmm? Well, you've got a couple minutes yet. You're almost all the way around the perimeter. I hope that you're up for a run."

Sasuke shot the ninja a hard glare for his weak attempt at hilarity. "We have five days to run. Twenty kilometres isn't going to make a difference."

Naruto stifled the urge to groan as he followed Sakura out of the lean-to shelter. Damn, the bastard was really into this. This was going to be messy. He was grateful for the distraction when Ino imperiously beckoned them over.

"Wait for us here," she said before stalking off with Shikamaru and Chouji straggling after her, looking as though they were tied to her apron strings. Sasuke and Sakura didn't look too pleased, but Naruto hardly minded since Kiba and Shino were heading their way, apparently having traded in their permission forms too.

"This is going to be a piece of cake," Kiba gloated, rubbing his palms together. "We'll come help you out if things get too messy for you one-jutsu types, huh?"

"Shut it, Mutt Boy." Naruto blinked at Sasuke, who usually simply stuck with glowering at Kiba. "Pray that you don't run into us or you'll find out how many jutsu we know now."

Sakura chuckled nervously and attempted to cover for her prey's sudden murderousness. "I'm sure Sasuke's simply eager to get going; right, Naruto?"

He winced as she squished his toes under her heel to secure his pained agreement. Kiba glowered at the glare master. Naruto wondered why Kiba had never learned to quit while he was ahead given how careful he was around his mother.

"They knew five jutsu when we last fought them," Shino said in his usual disconcerting way, effectively shutting Kiba up as the Hinata girl went red again and started poking her fingers together. Awkward silence prevailed until Ino dragged Team 10 back.

"I say that we try this on our own instead of banding together," she said, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder. "There's no need to rely on each other when our team can handle this just fine."

"Strong words, Pig."

"Can it, Forehead. Sasuke-kun may drag you and Naruto through it, but you're still just deadweight." If Ino hadn't been a scary psychic, Naruto would have given her a piece of his mind. Since she was, he had no doubt that she was being mentally assaulted by his barrage of furious thoughts. "What gate did you guys get?"

"Seventeen," Naruto said.

"Forty-one," Kiba said, crossing his arms. Apparently, Ino's manner ticked him off too.

"We got twenty-six, so we're all over the place. We probably won't even be able to find each other if you guys do manage to survive for twenty-four hours. I say that if we do agree not to attack each other, we team up _after_ we've all had a shot to prove who the losers are first."

"Do we agree not to attack each other though?" Naruto asked, bouncing impatiently from one foot to the other. Interrupting Ino's orders was dangerous, but letting her ramble was even worse. "Everyone's gonna be after us, so it would be good to have _someone_ out there not out to eat us."

He glanced around their circle, assessing Kiba's reluctance and the stubborn set of Sasuke's jaw. Beyond them, he could see Long Tongue eyeing them along with other dangerous individuals. White eyes like the Hinata girl's watched from a weasel-faced prettyboy. A boy who had been deluded into thinking green spandex was cool stood near him with a girl that had to have an unhealthy obsession with weapons if the way she was lovingly handling her kunai as she checked over her supplies was any indication.

Maybe this working together plan was a good one. No one was willing to be the first to say so though since it would be an act of desperation. Risking life and limb for the sake of the others' stubborn pride, he sidled over to Sasuke and elbowed him several times before the stubborn ass got the message.

"Hn." He grudgingly extended his hand with Naruto a second behind him. With the number one rookie willing, the others were quick to follow.

"Let's swear it in blood to be sure," Ino said, shooting challenging glances round the circle.

Reluctant agreement was sounded, kunai or shuriken were retrieved, fingers were slit, and blood was allowed to mingle as the simple promise was made. "We all agree not to attack each other until the fifth day and only then if there is no other option for getting a scroll. We meet up at that first bridge on the map on the second day if we haven't got anything. Anyone that does show up will have to help the others get their second scroll. If we do have something, we can choose not to show up." Promise made, they separated, wishing each other good luck.

"Gate seventeen, get over here!" shouted a chuunin, his arm upraised to get their attention. Sasuke led the way over. "We've got twenty minutes to get you to your gate. I'll let you through at the exact same time as everyone else; examiners' watches are all synced. Come on or we'll be late."

Naruto bounded after the muscled guy, passing a couple groups fortunate enough to have gates nearby. The tall chain link fence was the only constant: it remained a metallic blur as the ominous fringes of the forest reaching over the barrier changed ceaselessly. They forded the northern arm of the river—swift and running white over the rapids—before they finally found their gate. The examiner pulled out a key and unwound the chain keeping the unwary out or maybe something horrible in the training ground.

"They don't call it the Forest of Death for nothing," the chuunin said cheerfully, watching them squirm out of the corner of his eye as he glanced at his watch. "Gonna ask for some advice?"

"No," Sasuke said before Sakura could open her mouth.

"Good, 'cause nothing's gonna save you rookies. There be _nasty_ things in there."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at the leer. He stared through the flimsy barrier between him and chaos, trying to find something reassuring in the menacing trees that looked quite ready to swallow him whole.

The chuunin glanced at his watch again, nodded, and whipped the gate open. Gulping down nothing but air since his mouth was dry, Naruto followed the bastard into the forest with Sakura cowering at his heels as some predator made a horrible howl. Laughing at their fear, the examiner chained the gate shut again, the clank of the links feeling like warning shots to Naruto's hyper alert senses.

"Have fun, kiddies!"

The Forest of Death didn't swallow them; it inhaled them.

* * *

Sasuke scanned the suffocating canopy, searching for any sign of motion or chakra with his Sharingan. The pair of wusses behind him was shaking in their standard-issue sandals, but he wasn't. He would keep them intact until they got their heads back, but they would have to hurry up. Three hundred and fourteen square kilometres wasn't enough space to keep ninja from crossing paths for long. A little under a kilometre and a half separated them from the gates to either side, if they had been picked. Nineteen teams to forty-four gates left lots to spare. He couldn't count on luck though.

"Sakura, what's the plan?" he asked, needing them out of their funk _now_.

"I-I…"

"The plan, Sakura. We need one now. What is the best way to use the terrain to our advantage? We're in the middle of the peninsula between the arms of the river. The tower is ten kilometres northwest. We can target sixteen other teams, but less than half of them potentially have what we want. What is the best strategy for this situation?"

His ploy worked. She needed a test question to deal with. He gave it to her, and she answered.

"We're a target as we are. We know that most teams will target us. Every team we passed on the way here knows that we're south of them. We need to get out of here, and we need a distraction… Naruto, do what you did in Wave. We need time, and clones will give it to us."

This was what Sasuke had bid on. Now Naruto, glad to be able to _do_ something, snapped out of his rut, quickly created thirty clones, and made two-thirds of them assume a henge. The clones efficiently saluted Naruto (Sasuke thought that even the image of himself saluting the loser was blaspheme) and disappeared into the canopy.

"We should head farther in. We're going to need food, water, and shelter if we can find it. Naruto, how many clones can you handle?"

"Another twenty's no problem, dattebayo!"

"You can create another two groups every three kilometres to keep people off our trail. Can your clones do the same thing?"

Now Naruto looked a little worried: he had a lot of chakra, but it wasn't an infinite well. Thirty clones weren't too hard on Naruto, but sixty would put him near the edge of exhaustion unless they got attacked. For some reason—probably the fox—Naruto always had enough chakra when there was the immediate possibility that he would die.

Sakura blinked at Naruto's uncharacteristic hesitation and quickly got the message. "It's probably necessary because you made everyone hate us."

Grimacing, Naruto nodded. "I can do it. The clones' clones won't last long though."

"They just need to mess up our trail."

Nodding with satisfaction, Sasuke looked over his team. "Let's go."

He launched himself into the murky depths of the canopy and landed on a bough thicker than Chouji's waist that was covered with slick, grey-green lichen. Behind him, Naruto shimmied up a thick vine while Sakura scrabbled, ungainly, up a moist tree trunk. Shaking his head at their ineptitude, he darted to the next likely branch, keeping the pace slow enough that they could keep up and get their bearings.

Naruto quickly caught up and ricocheted higher into the web of tree limbs and leaves, defying gravity's pull upon his projectile motion by countering with necessary force and speed. Walking in the trees required more speed than most realized simply because they got caught up in the automatic motions. Sakura wasn't that competent yet: every jump took her too much thought. Sasuke wouldn't help her though: she would figure this out herself the way he had been forced to. To make her understand the urgency, he darted up to where Naruto was trying to get a glimpse of the sky.

When the idiot greeted him with an open grin and "Sasuke, you've got to see this," Sasuke pummelled him mercilessly, threw him towards the forest floor with every bit of strength he could muster, and glared when this fool saved himself by hooking a branch on the way down.

Sakura gasped and started to ask him why as Sasuke arrowed down through the maze, his fingers already slipping through the familiar handseals even as the cuts the whip-like branches inflicted on him stung.

"Find the idiot," he ordered before he sucked in a breath and let the fireball fall ahead of him even as he reached out and snagged some horizontal momentum by roughly pushing off the sturdiest branch in range to intercept the fool's escape attempt and to dodge the shuriken and kunai headed his way.

Sasuke's kick caught his thigh simply because fine adjustments were impossible without using more branches for course corrections. With force transferred to his target, Sasuke was now in gravity's grip, but he quickly grabbed another branch—chakra augmenting friction—and yanked himself around to face this fool again, shuriken in hand. Instead, kunai peppered the genin that was stupid enough to attempt to give the idiot manners his sister hadn't managed to pound into the blonde's head.

Smoke and Sakura's warning assaulted his senses, and he quickly backtracked, zipping from one springboard to the next in order to be ready if the exploding tag didn't do its job. A good portion of the tree exploded; charred fragments whizzed through the air around him as the wet wood smoked. The weakened upper portion of the tree teetered and crashed to the forest floor with a groan, snapping off at the trunk with a loud series of cracks. Sky was now visible, but Sasuke had no time to appreciate it.

"Geez, Ass!" Naruto yelled as he rubbed at the raw marks on his wrists and pulled out a kunai. "I swear that we haven't even been in here ten minutes and we've already been picked on. I say we kick ass, dattebayo!"

"Hurry up then, Moron," Sasuke called back, rigging wires as he ran. No smell of burnt flesh meant there was a live genin. "Sakura, hurry up."

When she jumped easily to his position, he suppressed the desire to roll his eyes and casually moved closer. She hadn't even blushed.

Without a second thought, he activated his eyes and slammed the kunai in hand into her thigh before darting away. She screamed, but it melted into a ragged snarl as a Waterfall genin clutched at his leg, futilely trying to stop the bleeding. Sure now, Sasuke struck from the other side as Naruto ganged up on the one that had tied him up. Sasuke's punch to Sakura's impostor's temple rendered him unconscious, and he limply slid off the branch.

Grimacing at the trouble, Sasuke pushed off after him and pulled the muscles in his right arm unbearably when he managed to catch the heavier boy, the wires Sasuke suspended from merciless upon his fingers. Damn, that was the last time he saved an enemy from dying! Blood made the metal sticky, and, gritting his teeth against the pain, Sasuke managed to lower the deadweight to a nearby branch and quickly tied him up with the damn wires as Naruto and the newly found Sakura made a ruckus about ten metres above his head. Sasuke searched the older boy and spat on his jacket when he came up clean.

Dammit!

Furious about his injury and the waste of time, Sasuke dove into the fray above his head, spitting fire with enough accuracy to stink up an entire section of this crazy place as the burnt genin screamed.

Naruto landed a mercy punch that sent the roasted would-be attacker into oblivion. He would be in a world on pain when he woke up, but this wasn't the time for sympathy. The others must have agreed or been too scared to say anything because they kept quiet. Sakura plugged her nose against the scent of cooked human, but Sasuke gritted his teeth and bore it as he tied up this attacker as well and searched him with Naruto's help: no scroll again. What was this?

"There's got to be another one around," Naruto said as he backed away from the charred and bleeding guy.

"No kidding, Loser."

"Ass, you're bleeding. Didn't your mom tell you not to mess with those wires without gloves?"

"Shut it, Idiot. You got nabbed."

"So what? Sakura did too! They were damn fast. I barely had time to figure out that she got switched after she lobbed that kunai."

"Guys…"

"You still got nabbed, Idiot. Don't lecture me about wires when I was the one that—"

"Guys!" Sakura stepped between them as Naruto glared. "Let's go already! We're too loud!"

Naruto swayed suddenly, and Sakura and Sasuke reached out to steady him.

"How many clones are dead, Moron?" asked Sasuke, shaking the woozy idiot.

"Way too many, but the ones that are left are sucking me dry to keep up the numbers. We need to get out of here right now."

Grimacing at how he wouldn't even have time to hunt for the last team member who had to have the scroll, Sasuke slung Naruto's arm over his shoulder while Sakura propped him up on the other side. Sasuke hoped she would be up for keeping pace because this was going to be very awkward otherwise. The first leap left a swooping sensation in his gut when Sakura's force didn't match his. Even Naruto's weak effort outstripped hers.

"Sakura, put more into it."

"Right," she stuttered.

He wasn't too happy himself, but for different reasons. They had only been here twenty minutes, Naruto was already suffering from severe chakra drag, and Sasuke was injured. They had no food and no safe place to retreat to. This was not good. At least Sakura's next jump was better. Maybe she would finally get the hang of this with them forcing her along.

About two kilometres from the battle site, they came across a downed team, whimpering and moaning from semi-serious injuries. They headed south of them before stopping again. Naruto had recovered enough chakra by then to create six clones and send them on their merry way with orders investigate the downed team and to find the last Waterfall genin. Through Naruto, clones reported that the injured team had already lost their scroll. Grumbling under his breath of how there were no breaks to be had, Sasuke urged them to take the southern path to keep people from guessing which group they were. Roundabout was good.

What should have been a twenty-minute run to where the river branched if they had been cautious turned into a three-hour affair. Naruto would grimace every time dying clones' memories hit him, but he would only tell them which direction was a better idea.

Darkness gathered slowly, rendering the gloomy forest even murkier. The sound of running water, which should have filled them with joy, made them warier. Everyone would end up at the river sooner or later, animals included. Sasuke had no doubt that this place was teaming with predators of all sorts. He scanned the riverbank for any sign of a likely shelter, but geography wasn't willing to cooperate. There were two options: an overhang of the bank or a narrow "gorge" and that was only if it didn't rain, in which case the trees would be a better option, hunting cats or no. He had heard the tell-tale snarls of the hungry beasts. Fighting off ninja was hard enough. Fighting off the cats wouldn't be much fun unless they got to eat them.

"Why didn't I bring ramen?" Naruto wailed.

"Where would you have stashed a pot, Moron?"

"He could wear it as a hat," Sakura supplied with muffled humour, the audible growl of her stomach giving away her reasons. Her pale face darkened because of a blush, and she grimaced when Naruto's stomach echoed agreement. When Sasuke's stomach betrayed him, the other two chuckled at his shame.

"I'm going hunting," he said, checking his kunai.

"We're coming, we're coming!" Naruto grumbled, hauling himself upright without help and snagging a kunai from his pouch.

"No rabbits," Sakura insisted, but Sasuke didn't bother replying. If bunnies were the first things they came across, they were dead bunnies. It had been too long since breakfast.

* * *

Nariko heard the knock on her door and rose as though in a trance from the couch where she had been reading to push away the worry for Naruto that threatened to overwhelm her. She knew the pattern of the knock well. Every morning it had roused her in childhood. She turned the lock and swung the door open. "Father, Mother, welcome."

Father smiled at her, his hair greyer than she remembered and his face more gnarled, but filled with the same kindness and compassion. Mother's stern frown was replaced by a small wry smile for once. "Thank you." The distance that had been tearing her apart with agonizing slowness suddenly closed as she was wrapped in the warmth of her parents' arms.

"Thank you for coming," she whispered over and over again as she squeezed them as tightly as she dared with her father feeling so frail beneath her hand.

Mother was the first to draw back and bullied her into letting go of Dad so they could take their shoes off. Nariko ran into the kitchen to make a fresh pot of tea, feeling like some gangly youth welcoming her parents back from some short trip. As soon as the kettle was set to boil, she ran back to drag their bags into the guestroom as they laughed at her enthusiasm and settled wearily upon the couch. She brought out cups for them as she set the leaves to steep. "What do you want to eat? How hungry are you?"

"Calm down, oh young and energetic one. We are a little hungry, yes. Some biscuits will do us with the tea. Dumplings if you have them ready. Otherwise, tea will do us quite well." Her father laughed at her and shook his head as her mother snorted.

"You'd think you hardly get visitors," her mother complained, glancing around the room curiously.

Nariko pressed her lips together. "Other than Uchiha-san and Naruto's friends, not many."

"Hmm, then you truly haven't been in a position to do much while here."

She poured for them and settled into her favourite chair. "No, not at all. I was unwise in my earliest actions, as I told you. It was almost as if the Sandaime knew what I was about and set to making sure I wouldn't be able to exert any influence at all," she joked.

Her parents didn't laugh. "There may be some merit in that. I have worried since you mentioned that he knew your name and us the first time you met with him," her mother said.

She glanced between them, not quite sure whether to believe them. "Yes, he is the Hokage, and yes, the clan has never been one to hide its intentions but…"

"He would have known, Raimei-chan, make no mistake," her father assured her. "Our cousins in Wind had been quite active for years and had met with considerable success in creating that lobby group to appeal to Wind's Daimyo. The cuts the lobby group managed to have imposed on Sunagakure in response to their various grievances over the disruption of trade definitely would have been noted. Swaying a daimyo to favour merchants over the military is something all the Hidden Villages would pay very close attention to. Your Sandaime would have known of their connection to us."

"I'm certain they have been watching all of us carefully," her mother said tartly, "not that there has been much of anything to see."

"We are slower for good reason, Takara-chan," her father protested. "What danger might have come to Riko-chan if we had pressed forward without cementing our position and allies first?"

"You know as well as I do that our branch of Matsuku has been criticized by the other branches for being the most entrenched and accomplishing the least. Action was the only reason I allowed Nariko to move here to follow work. She was perfectly placed to listen if nothing else."

"I was not," she protested, frowning at her mother. "I hear very little. Shinobi are more closemouthed than you know. Any mishaps that occur are reported to the administration during debriefing and then they are never mentioned again except by the most careless."

"Raimei, I would not have brought forward anything you alone brought me. It would have put you in too much danger." Father silenced Mother's protests with a sigh. "In any case, I bring more good news. The Wind Daimyo has recently imposed even further cuts. He is having Suna direct their business elsewhere in many cases. Earth's Daimyo has begun listening as well."

"What of Lightning and Water?"

"Lightning stands firm as of yet, but our cousins there have garnered much support for their cause. Water has been out of contact. I do not know if any of our kin still live there." Her father shook his head sadly. "As always, it saddens me that we must forward our cause by siding with greed."

"Not all of them are greedy," Nariko protested quietly. "Some are merely canny."

"Enough are not. I am glad that dealing with them is left to Hibiki-nii and his group."

"As am I," her mother retorted, "you would drive them all so far from greed to render them useless."

"What of the smaller hidden villages?" Nariko asked.

"They are dying out on their own as demand for their services decreases. Some cousins encourage the process in their smaller countries, but little action is required. Peace always starves those who live to make war. If we can maintain this stability in our own way, ninja will die out without the need for our interference." Her father smiled softly at the possibility. "A small step towards Shinobu-sama's dream, but a vital one."

"Crushing the manufacture and trade of weapons will be more difficult," her mother warned. "That will have to be left to your generation, Nariko-chan."

Nariko bowed her head. "We will shoulder the task with honour." She sipped her tea and smiled wryly. "Naruto will hate us all if Konoha falls before he can become Hokage."

"He will hate us more if it falls while he is Hokage," her mother said. "You should have sent him to a proper school."

"He has learned many skills that will serve him well in peace."

"Many more to serve in war though."

Nariko couldn't deny that.

"Child soldiers," her mother spat, "a disgusting practice."

Nariko nodded, keeping her face downcast.

"I can't believe you stood aside and let it happen—!"

"Takara-chan, stop. She hurts enough without your censure." Her father lifted her chin with two fingers. "I forgive you, Nariko-chan. I understand. It hurts very much to deny a child his dream. I will bear this burden with you for it will also be my doing that destroys the way of life he has chosen."

"May he forgive us," Nariko whispered.

* * *

They ended up taking down a deer. Sasuke swooped on it and nailed it through the back of its skull before it could get three steps. They had been tempted to just skin, slice, and dice the carcass there, but the ominous feeling of watchfulness from the gloom convinced them to find territory they could safely say was theirs.

They ended up staggering back to the gorge, which was more a deep gouge in the steep riverside cliff that Sasuke had noticed earlier, with the deer rigged up in a sort of sling that Naruto and Sasuke strung between them while Sakura held up the rear. It only compounded the feeling of uselessness that had been haunting her, but the boys didn't give her an opportunity to wallow. She was assigned to skin the kill since she had the most experience while Naruto created a couple clones, did a perimeter check, and gathered what firewood he could without making too much noise.

Sasuke scraped the scree on the ravine floor as deep in the back of the crack as he could and made a fire pit. Using kunai, sticks, and wire that had cut him so badly, he assembled a crude rotisserie and skewered the hunks of bloody flesh she presented him. When Naruto and his clones got back, Sasuke lit a fire, trusting the admittedly not too tall walls of the gorge to keep the firelight from attracting too much attention.

They fanned around the fire, facing the crack's opening out onto the river one at a time while dinner cooked. Naruto dozed against the western wall, shuddering every now and then, skimming through memories for information. Sasuke gritted his teeth, braced against the eastern wall, cleaning out his cuts with water and wrapping them with bandages from his pouch.

Sakura gnawed on her venison skewer and nibbled on the berries Naruto had sworn up, down, and sideways were okay to eat if not very tasty while the rest of the meat "smoked" so it would be good for something tomorrow. They were burning smelly vegetation Naruto had grabbed to cover the smell of the meat. Behind her, Sasuke and Naruto huddled against opposing walls of gorge and attempted to get some sleep. It was a good thing that it was summer: in the winter, their stubborn pride would have gotten them frozen. The banked fire radiated heat at her back and the forest noises infected her awareness. Any shrieks of birds or hunting animals made adrenaline surge.

"Naruto," she whispered, too jumpy to bear the silence any longer.

"Hmm?"

"How many clones are still alive out there?"

"None of the original fifty exist anymore. They made clones, I think, but I can't get much from them until they go poof. When they die, I get caught up."

"What have they told you?"

"That we're screwed, dattebayo," he said cheerfully. Sasuke snorted slightly, revealing that he was listening. "We've got at least four teams after us. Remember the tongue dude? Well, that creepy Grass-nin went after 'us.' He tried to bite 'you,' Sasuke. Whatever he was trying to inject into you destroyed my clone pretty painfully right in front of the dude. He wasn't so pleased that 'you' were a bunshin. He's probably still hunting us."

Sakura frowned before forcibly smoothing her face. "That's pretty good that your clones were 'real' enough to fool a dangerous ninja like him, Naruto."

"Yeah, I guess so. Thanks a bunch, Sakura-chan! Anyway, 'we' got attacked again, this time by Rain-nin. My clones managed to rig a trap for them though, so they must not have been very strong. We probably don't have to worry about them: they'll be orange for the next three days."

Sakura snickered, glad something good had happened. She winced when Naruto swore loudly at the starry sky and slammed his fists on the rocky ground of their hiding spot.

"What is it, Moron?" Sasuke grunted. "Quit making so much noise."

"I almost had it! It was right there in front of me! Dammit!"

"What was?" asked Sakura.

"A scroll from that Waterfall team that attacked us! The last guy, the one we never saw, he had it! I finally found him, but the snake—!"

"Snake?"

"This huge-ass snake, bigger around than that tree there," Naruto insisted, stabbing a finger at a huge willow perched on the riverbank to greedily suck at the stream. "It swallowed him whole! Just when my clone was about to nab the scroll off his unconscious body…! Damn!"

Sakura kept quiet as Naruto raged. What else could she do? A day in here and they were already in this much trouble. They would need to hide somewhere. Everyone seemed to be hunting them. She wished lying low until the situation calmed down was an option.

Sasuke held up a hand, shutting Naruto up. "Next time, Moron, keep it down. We've got visitors because you can't keep your damn mouth shut."

"I wanted to get some sleep…" whined Sakura, but she did it under her breath. Sasuke and Naruto were both short of patience. Setting either of them off would have dire consequences, even for her. Further quiet complaints were cut off by a kunai where her head had been.

It looked like sleep would be a precious commodity tonight.

* * *

"Fricking hell… of all the people he could have sent, he gives me the one that actually wants Orochimaru to win," Anko hissed under her breath as the ANBU squad and the pair of solo agents the Hokage had sent to investigate the potential Orochimaru sighting approached. Most of them were good people, but that blocky one was trouble; _old_ trouble, which made things worse because the old hag would hold her age over Anko like the bitch she was just for the hell of it. "Why couldn't that bastard have kept his nose out of this just until she got sent out again?"

"Ah, a coat; is it that likely to be cold in here, Anko-san?"

Anko's eye twitched, but she let Snake-28's baiting go. The old biddy had never gotten any and never would; she was just jealous. Instead, she grated out her orders. Thankfully, even Snake-28 would obey this set.

* * *

So, the little whore's sensei had come back. Wonderful.

Snake-28 hoped somebody else found him before she did. It would be a pain in the ass to let him win. She had the feeling he was here to kill the geezer. If he did, by Apathy, she would sing his praises to the skies. If he was here for something else though… Orochimaru never did things for a single reason.

Konoha's destruction was probably on the list. Snake wasn't too bothered. Having her stomping grounds flattened would be embarrassing, but the irony would be so sweet. All the lies would seep out of the ground at last.

On the other hand, if the snake were here for the fox brat, she would need to step in. The kid was the key to getting some juicy revenge, for herself and for Mikoto. It was better if he survived Orochimaru's visit.

What of the connection between Orochimaru and Danzou though? She knew it existed (it had been privy to ANBU's highest circles during the deliberation over what needed to be done with Root), but no one was certain as to its nature. Should she let it go if a meeting took place? No, perhaps not. That Danzou had too many pieces arrayed against Mikoto. Snake definitely wanted Mikoto unhindered right now.

Mikoto… Uchiha… Orochimaru had always been fascinated by the Sharingan. Fool. Where was the fun when you could see where your opponent was going? That defeated the purpose of the game. There was no rush when victory was assured to such a degree. However, his obsession was useful.

_Where was that Uchiha brat?_ Mundane methods and the help of deadweight were unfortunately required. "Snake-28 requesting information on the whereabouts of Uchiha Sasuke from base," she grunted into her transmitter.

"There's an exam going on," protested the chuunin manning tower communications as his counterpart kept an eye on the multitude of cameras recording all events within the training ground.

"Let me rephrase that. I _demand_ the whereabouts of Uchiha Sasuke and Team 7 of Konoha. Failure to comply—"

"Section G6!" squeaked the chuunin. "But he's actually all over the place. Team 7 seems to be using clones. G6 is the most likely to be him."

"Keep him under surveillance."

"Got suspicions there, Snake-senpai?" broke in Tiger-19.

"A hunch."

"I'm closer. I'll intercept."

"Negative, I—"

"Snake-28, you are approaching reckless insubordination." Anko's voice was devoid of malicious glee for once. Perhaps the whore was more uptight about her old sensei's presence than her manner had indicated. She had managed to keep from touching the old curse mark, so Snake had supposed all was well. She had obviously supposed wrong. "Tiger, get over there. I'll be right behind you. Don't interfere with the exam unless Orochimaru does. Let the newbies fail."

Snake smirked. That was a given. The newbies would be slaughtered by wolves forged by merciless years of experience in the real shinobi world. It would be the wakeup call of their naïve little lives.

She chuckled before sprinting southwest.

They had arrived a little too late: the Uchiha was twitching and a nasty mark had formed on his shoulder where he had probably been bitten by the snake freak. His teammates were currently dragging him away as the ANBU ignored them.

Snake was not impressed. Anko was still pissing and moaning on about how ill her sensei had used her. _Grow up already_. That snake bastard hadn't even dissected her a little bit and she was this screwed up? Apathy, no wonder she was only good for sexing targets to death.

"Just kill the bastard already," she grumbled, rolling her eyes as she leaned back against the tree trunk. Tiger was itching to get into the fight, but Anko had idiotically demanded that she be allowed glorious sacrificial suicide "for the sake of the past." Idiots, she was _surrounded_ by them. Who gave a flying fuck who killed the target or how so long as it was good and dead? It wasn't as if Sarutobi was going to be bothered if Orochimaru kicked the bucket from a needle coated in neurotoxin or from "glorious death by boa constrictor with Anko." The latter was just as waste of a fighter and thousands of ryou's worth of training and therapy.

Snake nearly retched with disgust when the ANBU squad arrived and the captain _hunkered down to watch too_. What was this crap?

"Where are you going?" demanded Tiger-19, appalled.

"As far away from this stench as I can. Tell her to kill him already. Redemption isn't what we're here for. Slit his throat, and let's drag him to the morgue in a body bag already. I've got better things to do than watch this."

"Sempai, that was too cold. Rite of passage," insisted Tiger.

"Shit," Snake replied. "Same difference." Anko spat in the background as the squad cursed. "Oh, look! He got away. How unexpected! Can I track him down _again_ and actually get a kunai in his jugular this time?" She sighed when everyone left without coming up with an adequate reply to her unamused levity, not that there was one.

It really was a wonder that Konoha's "Will of Fire" had lasted this long. Damned if she was going to be a party to this stupidity. "Base, put me through to HQ."

"What?"

"_Now_."

"HQ here."

"Tell the geezer that he's not paying me enough to hunt with this group."

"Dragon-1 reminds you that—"

"Sarutobi can clean up _his_ mess without me. I demand another job. Out of the village. I'm feeling _unstable_."

"… See Dragon-6 at the desk. You have fifteen minutes to get out of here."

"My pleasure," she whispered to the dead line. She ignored the frightened genin's stares as she strolled out of Training Ground 44.

* * *

"She's still as creepy as hell," Naruto muttered as he reviewed the memories of the second set of clones that creepy grass-nin had caught up with.

"Who is?" whispered Sakura from where she was crouched against the dome of roots of a tree that was too big to be legal.

"Snake, one of the ANBU agents that watched out for me. I thought she was going to kill Tiger for a couple minutes there just because they were bickering over the creepy lady's fight with that tongue freak Grass-nin, who bit 'you' again, by the way, Bastard."

"Did they get him?"

"Nah, he got away. Snake was pissed. She abandoned the hunt."

"That's pretty irresponsible of her," growled Sakura. "Tsunade-sama would never walk out on a mission like that. How's she still ANBU?"

"Who knows? She's good at killing people, so I guess they need her." Sakura didn't look convinced, and Naruto had to agree. Snake was nuts: angry with everyone, not interested in anyone's safety really, and willing to decapitate anybody. Why would Old Man keep her on? Just thinking about the sort of missions she probably needed to keep content made Naruto uncomfortable. The Konoha the Academy had grilled into his head didn't do things like that unless threatened… right?

"Enough about them, we've got bigger problems," said Sasuke.

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. This place gave him the creeps. He would never say it out loud, but he was feeling rather uncertain about their chances of surviving the second day. Sasuke and Sakura had huge bags under their eyes and were covered in bruises, Sakura more so than Sasuke. They had only managed to escape from their attackers last night by the skin of their teeth, and Naruto was pretty sure they were being hunted still. The Stone-nin had been only too capable in the dark, unlike them. With sixty clones draining him, Naruto had been almost useless. He had been tempted to disperse their decoys to get at what was left of their chakra, but Sasuke had managed to come through again. He didn't look like he would again though.

"We need to get to the meeting spot," Sakura whispered fiercely. "With Team 8 and 10, we should be able to pass."

Naruto hid a grimace. This was bad. Sakura was so discouraged that she only thought that they would triumph with outside help. Sasuke-bastard wasn't going to be pleased.

"Hn. We need to get there first though."

Naruto gulped. Sasuke was out of gusto too? They were screwed. Another trio of deaths hit him, and he doubled over, dry heaves wracking him as images from the terrified clones' last moments assaulted his sanity. When the world was firm around him again, both Sasuke and Sakura had comforting hands pressed against his back.

He glanced back at the bastard, who was pale even in this dank, dark nest of roots. Sasuke's eyes were resigned, his hair full of slime, and his clothes best not mentioned. He looked beaten. Sakura was no better. Her hair was a matted mass of tangles that no comb would ever force into submission and plastered with mud. She noticed his gaze and blushed, raising a hand to attempt to finger comb her hair.

"Here." Sasuke held out a kunai. "You're going to get caught in a branch just when we need to flee like that."

Sakura paled. For a moment, Naruto was certain she was going to slap Sasuke's hand away, but instead she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and turned around. Naruto and Sasuke traded weighty glances before Sasuke handed over the kunai and went to watch the entrance. Gulping, Naruto shuffled forward on his knees and awkwardly began sawing away at hanks of Sakura's pride.

He did his best in the poor light, but most of his efforts went into not beheading Sakura. There were no mirrors here, so he was safe enough until they passed. If they died instead, well, that would only make him safer.

Sasuke gave her a cursory glance when they approached his post and nodded approvingly. "Let's go. We can't be late to meet up with the others."

* * *

"We should go south of the tower!" Sakura scowled at Naruto, who had become navigator simply because his clones gave him a sense of where not to go.

"We always deviate south! Let's do something revolutionary and go north for once, dattebayo!"

"I'd rather meet up with Team 10 early than Team 8," Sakura admitted. "You and Kiba will fight and nothing will get done."

"Ino's on Team 10 though." Sasuke glanced sideways at Sakura, wondering what she was thinking. If she thought that Naruto and Kiba were bad, perhaps she was delusional if she thought that she and Ino were any better. They always undermined each other and apparently hated the air the other breathed. He had the feeling that their enmity was his fault, but denying this was better for his sanity. Fangirls were a disorder that acceptance did not cure.

"Yeah." A grimace twisted her dirty face, but it faded away beneath her set expression. "Shikamaru and Chouji work well with you guys though. You guys can get things done together."

Before any of them could comment on this ground-breaking gesture, Sakura spun on her heel and darted into the trees and zipped from one bough to the next with less trouble than yesterday. Trading surprised and resigned looks, Naruto and Sasuke leapt after her.

* * *

The not so extraordinary sound of screams echoed through the woods for the sixth time in two hours. It seemed that things were heating up. Keeping to the highest level of the canopy because anyone larger than them would have broken the weaker branches, Team 7 managed to get a bird's-eye view of the carnage. Far below, the dead could be found. A trio of corpses had been so badly mashed that Sakura had upchucked breakfast. Naruto didn't want to meet whoever had mangled those guys until they were simply bloody pulp with their bones… He halted his remembrances, not sure his stomach was capable of handling those images. He had enjoyed the "smoked" venison this morning: the last thing he wanted was for it to go to waste.

Currently, two teams could be seen scrapping. He recognized the only guy in the entire exam wearing spandex. The weasel boy and the weapon-loving girl darted around below with him as they fought with a group of Rain ninja. One of them used an umbrella in a manner too similar to Haku's mirror technique for comfort, but the needles weren't enough to keep the super-fast taijutsu user down.

Naruto was reluctantly amazed by the weasel guy too, who seemed to have a strange fascination with spinning in circles. Naruto had to wonder if he liked dancing and incorporated it into his fighting style on purpose. With the weapons mistress ducking and diving out of her teammates' patterns and peppering the unwary opponent with knives, Naruto didn't doubt that this team would come out on top eventually.

"We should nab one of them while they're fighting each other."

Naruto shared an exasperated glance with Sakura. "Bastard, I don't know about you, but I don't feel like being ganged up on. Let's just get to the bridge."

This was far easier said than done. The second bridge was not in the best place: the crossing was in the middle of a small delta with no trees for cover. Naruto had to wonder if any of them had really thought about this when they had taken a glance at Anko's crude map. The level of detail—he valiantly restrained bitter sniggers—had not indicated such a lack in their chosen meeting place. Considering how shitty their luck had been, Naruto couldn't really say he was surprised. With Sakura's pink hair, grungy and shorter though it was, anyone would be able to spot them lounging on the bridge for miles, but mentioning her hair was suicide now. Naruto, having died a hundred times over in the past two days, was not interested in actually kicking the can because of Sakura's Fist of Doom.

Instead, he let Sasuke do it.

"Sakura, put on a henge or someone will spot us."

Why was everything so damn simple for the bastard? He had no tact, his manners made Neechan grimace, and yet Sakura went down without a fight. This was the utter limit of unfair.

With a very grassy Sakura in tow, they pulled a rabbit and scampered across the open ground in sections, stopping every hundred metres to check for unfriendly characters or potential traps. Who knew who could have overheard them while they had been swearing before the exam?

"We shouldn't have come in person," Sakura muttered when they were a measly twenty metres from their goal. "We should have sent in clones."

"Freaking hell, Sakura! Why didn't you say that twenty minutes ago and save us all this run and cover our asses crap?" Naruto's attempt at levity wasn't appreciated.

"It's too late now." Sasuke jerked his chin at the northern horizon where a familiar team stood with varying degrees of confidence. Disguised under henge though they were, Team 8 didn't have any trouble picking them out despite how Team 7 was downwind. Naruto suspected Hinata. Kiba had said she was all-seeing. Naruto really wished that he knew more about those blind looking eyes.

"Ah, it's the one-trick wonders!" jeered Kiba once Akamaru clattered across the simple wooden bridge and wriggled around their ankles as though he hadn't seen them in months instead of just two days. "Come to get some help, huh?"

"Shut it, mutt!"

"Looks like I was right. How sweet, even Sasuke flame-breath couldn't save you guys! Unlike you losers, our team is all set to get to the tower. We used some local fauna against some hotshot foreigners."

"The snakes?" asked Naruto incredulously.

"Hell no, we got some leeches to do our work for us. What snakes are you guys talking about? The only ones we've seen are nothing to worry about."

"Geez, I've gotten killed forty times by these snakes bigger than those trees! You guys must be blind!" Naruto gestured almost hysterically at the trees towering in the south.

Hinata blinked at him, opening and closing her mouth as though she wanted to say something but couldn't quite find the words. Shino was blank, but Kiba snorted and shook his head until Sasuke nodded, backing up Naruto's words. It was the least the bastard could do.

"There's something not quite right here. Naruto's clones have found genin with skill equivalent to seasoned jounin."

Now even Shino looked a little worried.

"Team 10 is late," Sakura said and tore her eyes away from the woods to the south. "Ino wouldn't let them break the time she set up. Something must have happened to them."

"She just said we had to be here today," Naruto reminded her. "They've got until dark."


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Seven Lead Chalices

Twilight came.

Team 10 didn't.

Sakura battled with old loyalty and recent apathy. She and Ino had parted ways. She wasn't obligated to care anymore. If Ino were dead, that would mean that there would be no more competition for Sasuke, but Sakura couldn't bear to think of that possibility like that. Old gratitude screamed that debts had yet to be repaid, but new wariness warned against risking it. Ino had protected her when they had been younger. Ino had been the wonderful friend that had pulled her out from behind the screen of self-doubt. Sakura had held Ino up above all others that had come after until their point of contention had been openly stated between them.

She alternated between gnawing on her dirty nails and scolding herself for practicing such a disgusting habit.

Revolted with herself, she clenched her fists and turned away from the woods. Hinata, who sat across from her in the tall grass, tried a timid smile, but Sakura wasn't in the mood. She gulped down the meat she had been chewing and sat up. "We need to go find them. Now."

Sasuke didn't respond with anything other than a self-satisfied smirk, but Naruto's blinding, proud grin made her feel better. They would find them.

* * *

Byakugan was the only other doujutsu in the village and supposedly the precursor of his own bloodline; Sasuke wasn't predisposed to liking the heir to the rival clan very much. Hyuuga lived a stuffier lifestyle that his mother ridiculed behind closed doors. The fact that the usefulness of her technique outstripped his in this situation was beyond galling. She wasn't showing off though: in fact, she was just as timid as he remembered, if not more so. Sasuke made a point of keeping the loser from scaring her into useless nervousness because his presence seemed to do that to her.

Sakura noticed this and smirked. Sasuke had the feeling that the loser was going to be made to suffer her demented whims. Pity surged, both for himself since he would be made to bear this messy process and for Naruto since he had no idea what was coming. Pity did not imply that Sasuke intended to warn the idiot though.

Hinata jumped from branch to branch just behind Kiba, who was doing what he could with his nose while Naruto performed a similar function at the rear, his clones acting as scouts that swept the forest well east and west of their position. She warned them against stumbling upon several well-equipped teams and two very lean and desperate groups.

Sakura manoeuvred through the trees with a kunai in hand. She had never done that before. She usually left her weapons in her pouch until the fight was well underway. While still ungainly, there was a focus behind her motions that had never been there before. She had always struck him as being a rather wishy-washy shinobi since she seemed to be more interested in trying to get his attention than actually improving her technique. This resolve was good.

"Hold up!" shouted Naruto, tilting back and forth unsteadily when he followed his own advice too quickly. "I got a lead on them. We need to go that way!"

"West, Loser?"

"Yeah, that direction."

Sasuke resisted the urge to snort at how directionally challenged the idiot was. Without ramen to give him a northern star, the poor guy was completely lost. Still, Team 8 tagged along when Team 7 trusted Naruto's iffy directions.

"What exactly did you see?" asked Sakura.

"A chip bag."

"Hurry," Sasuke said, knowing as well as Naruto did that Chouji would not have let that last reminder of food go unless every bit of grease and salt was gone.

* * *

Naruto poked a finger in the corners of the chip bag and licked it. Salty.

"They're definitely in trouble."

He tucked the overcooked venison covered in lint from his pocket in the bag and stuffed the entire thing back in his pocket as Kiba and Akamaru prowled among the roots of the giant trees. Sasuke ricocheted up into a tree and studied the ground from above, searching for signs of a trail, as the Hinata girl formed some handseals and used her bulgy veins thingy again. Shino's bugs covered some areas, relaying strange information to their master. Sakura, the only one without some sort of special technique useful when it came to tracking, stood near Hinata and stared around the space with narrowed eyes before glancing up into the canopy. Naruto blinked at her when she jumped up into the maze of branches and squinted into the darkness.

He followed her, reluctant to get separated after what had happened last time. "What are you doing?"

"I know Ino. I sort of know how she thinks. She's the leader of Team 10, so I thought…" She paused, hopping down "a level" and poking at some lichen that looked as though somebody had decided to assault it.

Sasuke-bastard landed beside them and stared around with his creepy eyes before nodding. The bossy prick called Team 8 up to inspect the site.

"Flowers, deer musk, and strange spices, yup, Team 10 had been here," Kiba said, and Akamaru yipped agreement. Shino's bugs fanned out around the area until the stoic nodded.

"They went that way not long ago." He pointed into the gloom. "They were not alone here. How do I know? There are signs of passage slightly north of here."

Sakura was gone before Naruto had time to swear.

* * *

Sakura recognized the strange mark on the forehead protectors of the group that had decimated Team 10. She had seen it on that mission to convince Tsunade-sama. At least those chuunin had looked normal. This group… she didn't quite know how to describe this group other than as weird.

There were two rules when it came to what a weird appearance indicated in a ninja: either the ninja looked weird because he was powerful enough that it didn't matter, or he blended in because he was canny enough to hide just how strong he was. Sakura wasn't quite sure which group these guys belonged to, but she was betting the former given how bad Team 10 looked. Even so, she had faith that a group of six would be able to take them down, especially since Sasuke-kun was with them.

Chouji looked extremely banged up: blood dripped from his nose and dribbled out of the shell of his outer ear and onto the ground. Shikamaru didn't look much better. Ino… no, Ino's leg didn't look good at all. Sakura knew that an angle wasn't supposed to exist in the middle of her shin.

Beside her, Naruto crouched and exposed his odd teeth. Why had those Oto ninja done this? Why not just beat Team 10 and take their scroll? Unless… maybe they didn't even have a scroll at all, and these Oto-nin had simply taken out their frustration on them. An odd rumbling emitted from Naruto's throat, and Sakura gulped nervously and forced herself not to edge away from him. The whisker marks looked too dark.

"What could make ears bleed?" she wondered aloud.

Sasuke was readying wires and shuriken on Naruto's other side. Kiba was preparing to leap. Hinata looked frightened; Sakura had to wonder just what good this timid girl was other than as a scout. Veins bulged under that pale skin, and silvery eyes hardened into something almost menacing. Sakura felt as though Hinata was staring right through her despite how the girl appeared to be looking down at the group in the clearing.

"Ready." Naruto smiled bestially to her left.

"Set." Sasuke's red eyes were locked on target.

"Go!" Kiba shouted much too loudly for any element of surprise to remain.

Sakura snarled curses as the three fools darted out of the trees and glanced at Shino, who hadn't moved. "Why aren't you down there?"

Though he didn't move, she knew that his eyes were watching her behind those concealing glasses. "For the same reason you aren't: I don't know enough yet, and they are willing to be guinea pigs. Naruto and Sasuke are strong enough to bounce back from strong opposition, and Kiba will not feel the hurt."

He was proven right when Kiba's whirlwind of motion ended when his intended target (the girl keeping Naruto from getting Team 10 out of danger) decided that she didn't want to end up as a pile of bruised goo, so the dog ended up ploughing into the ground instead. The Inuzuka was back on his feet in moments, ignoring how his jacket was ripped open in several places and how he was bleeding from several scrapes.

"There are those that take chances and attack without preparation because their self-belief or pride is enough to see them through," Shino continued as Sasuke set to incinerating everything in the clearing the moment Naruto and a team of clones got Team 10 clear. Torrential heat surged up through the trunks, and Sakura raised her arms in front of her face to keep her eyebrows and eyelashes from getting singed away. Hinata did the same, shielding her face and closing her eyes, but Sakura still got the feeling that the Hyuuga was carefully studying the fight.

"Kiba-kun!" Hinata yelled. "Behind you! He has strange chakra in his arm!"

Kiba, who had been crouched on a branch high above the inferno, ducked out of the way of the strike from the mummy.

"And then there are those that study the patterns and find the opportune moment to give aid," Shino finished, nodding in Hinata's direction. "We find the rhythm. We analyze. We find what those that dive in headfirst miss. Our help is subtle, often underappreciated, but significant none the less. We step in when the heroes fall."

Shino nodded back to the fight where something Sakura had been sure was impossible was happening. Sasuke, indefatigable, unbeatable, was faltering. He reeled back from a strike from the mummy that hadn't actually connected, clutching his head, while the other boy's attack from the front had been avoided. The ears again…?

"Bastard?" shouted Naruto over the din of Kiba's triumphant howls as he managed to down the girl.

"Strange chakra in the arms of the one death on his uniform!" warned Hinata, but Naruto wasn't listening, as usual.

The battle began to crumble before Sakura's eyes. Naruto abandoned Team 10 to his clones and lunged towards Sasuke, ready to offer what backup he could since Sasuke's moment of weakness had been exploited by the mummy, who had belted Sasuke into a sturdy tree trunk with a sickening crack. Hinata's warning turned out to be only too apt: Naruto was thrown back, howling with pain, by what appeared to be a windy assault. Sakura's terror stopped threatening to drown her when Naruto dissolved into wisps of smoke. So, he hadn't stupidly risked himself.

Sasuke's tumble towards the ground was halted by another Naruto, definitely a clone because it shouted, "I've got him, Boss!" before it got destroyed by another blast from that mop-headed demon.

Sasuke clutched at his arm as he skidded backward from the force of the blast, which ripped up hunks of earth and sent them flying alongside him. Beside her, Shino disappeared only to reappear near Sasuke as Kiba and his dog landed on a branch above him. Behind their protection, Sasuke grimaced and curled around his arm in a way that made Sakura positive it was broken.

Two heroes were down, she thought with a glance at Ino. "Hinata, will you help me?"

The timid girl got to her feet and nodded hesitantly. "Which one?"

"The one Naruto's going after: the mummy."

The kunai hilt was warm in Sakura's hand, a reminder of the silent promise she had yet to fulfill. What made ears bleed? She really wished that Tsunade-sama had given in to her demands earlier so she could have started med-nin training. Maybe she would have understood then. As it was, she would have to reason it out. Something had to be assaulting the ear invisibly since that attack hadn't seemed to connect. What was it? What was essentially immaterial and undetectable?

She couldn't think of anything until Kiba howled something about tsuuga and dove at his opponent. Seriously, if he kept shouting so horribly and yet attacking so ineffectually, the worst he was going to do was make his opponents' ears… Oh. _Oh!_

"He uses sound at high frequencies. Sound is a wave, so to counter this you need to produce the opposite wave at the same amplitude and wavelength." When Hinata shot her a baffled and embarrassed look, Sakura shrugged. "I don't know how to do that either."

"We still have to try," Hinata mumbled as she dropped down onto the ground with Sakura right on her heels. When Sakura chucked exploding-tag-laden kunai into the mummy's immediate area, Hinata swung wide, making Sakura positive that this girl could see out the back of her head. Sakura released the pulse of chakra required to activate the notes and swung the opposite way, chucking smoke bombs as she went to conceal the exact direction of her attack.

"Let's pummel this bastard!" a Naruto called, and several throats roared agreement, Sakura's among them.

The sound of a clone exploding made Sakura backtrack a bit. She could hear the clatter of many Narutos homing in on the disturbance as well and the slight scuffle that was perhaps Hinata. Three clones that had been faster than her screamed and died. Sakura, mere metres behind them, was affected by whatever had killed them: her world swooped sickeningly, the smoke being ripped apart by the wave simply adding to her disorientation. She couldn't hear the sound, and yet she couldn't block it out. They needed to counter this somehow!

Think, dammit! She wracked her brain as she staggered back. Every memory associated with sound was scanned feverishly until she stumbled upon one where she and Ino had screamed at each other in her living room as high and loud as they could because they had been fascinated with how their voices sounded so strange when they mingled. Her mother had shouted them into silence and explained that they were cancelling each other out. What was chaotic enough to break the high-pitched sound's pattern? Chaos…

"Naruto, Rasengan!"

"On it!" a Naruto said, and suddenly the smoke was destroyed by the pressure and wind that accompanied a complete Rasengan. The deadly ball broke up the waves from the strange device on the mummy's arm. With the two waves of pressure and noise interfering with each other, Sakura felt safe enough charging after the retreating mummy.

The Hyuuga had slipped around in the fog; she appeared in the mummy's path of retreat, a stern expression on her pasty face. There was something deadly about her bare hands because a glancing blow made the mummy squint with pain.

The sounds of battle on the far side of the copse halted with a thud. Sakura snatched a brief glance at the other opponent and paled at the swarm of bugs covering him. The mummy must have noticed that and the crumpled form of his female teammate because he almost seemed to hesitate. Two things happened because of this: Sakura hurled her kunai into the meat of his thigh, and then two Narutos raced forward as Hinata was knocked away by a blow to the abdomen. Just before Rasengan slammed into the guy, Sakura spotted a black bug crawling over the bandages covering the lower half of the mummy's face. So that was what Shino had meant…

Naruto must have been wary of using Rasengan's full potential on a human because the damage inflicted on the mummy was nowhere near the level that Sakura had witnessed during training when used on trees or the ground. Still, the guy cracked his head hard against the tree he impacted with and crumpled in a heap. It took a couple seconds filled with the sound of panting for Sakura to realize that they had won against a much stronger team.

Her elation was short lived when Sasuke, grey with pain, got to his feet. She ran past Naruto, who was tying up the mummy while Kiba bound the other boy and Shino took care of the girl. The look of the break made her cringe: the lumps indicated that it was clean and now misaligned. She wished she had read up more on useful things like setting bones instead of about jutsu she wouldn't be able to use for years at her current rate of growth.

"Does anyone know how to align bones?" she asked hopefully. One by one, everyone still conscious shook their head until Hinata stepped forward, flushing under everyone's eyes.

"I know a little bit," she said and stooped down to grab a stick that she shakily shaved with the edge of a kunai. She handed the cleaned stick to Sasuke as he grudgingly sat down. "You m-might want to hold this in your teeth."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow at her, but complied.

"Have you done this before?" asked Sakura.

Hinata blushed and shook her head. "I broke my arm once," she admitted in a soft whisper. "I had to watch how the doctor set it. I can see how the bones align, so I can help you. Both ulna and radius have been broken, so both must be set."

"Naruto, go find long, straight sticks for a brace. Sasuke, we're going to have to use some of your wire and maybe some strips from our clothes to wrap it unless you have another roll of bandages."

His good hand fished through his pouch and brought out another roll. Sakura had to smile at this mercy. Wire would have cut off Sasuke's circulation. With no more reason to delay, she braced herself and glanced at Hinata as Sasuke snapped his eyes shut against the sudden wave of pain as Sakura got a firm hold on his arm.

It turned out to be a painstaking process. Hinata's eyes were invaluable: she was able to figure out what tiny rotations were needed to correctly align the pieces. Getting the halves to synch up was horrible because manipulating the bones individually was a trial and required more force than Sakura wanted to use, especially when Sasuke snapped Hinata's stick shortly after she began and Kiba had to whittle a replacement before they could continue. The rate the flesh around the break swelled up made her leery, but Hinata kept offering quavering encouragement as she steadied the upper half of the break.

When they finally wrapped Sasuke's realigned arm, the victim was pasty and covered in sweat. Sakura didn't have time to fawn over him though. "Now we need to fix Ino's leg."

Naruto's clones hauled down their next patient as Sakura chewed some overcooked venison to try to calm down. Hinata gulped when she glanced at Ino's leg. "It isn't good. W-we won't be able to d-d-do much for her. There are too many fragments."

They did the best they could and braced it, but Ino wouldn't be walking for a while. Shino stood behind them when they finished. He presented a study stick that Ino could use as a crutch and a heaven scroll.

"Shikamaru carries an earth scroll. Team 10 needs it, not like us," Shino said when Kiba finished ranting about how Team 8 had done most of the work. Sakura froze, wondering how Shino knew that until the memory of the bug on the mummy made her shiver.

"So we're the only ones who need a scroll now," Sakura said.

"Great, now we've got to hunt down another team, and it's hit or miss again!" Kiba waved his arms around to emphasize his disgust.

"Most will be moving toward the tower now, so the best hunting grounds will be there." Sasuke adjusted his new sling.

"We should stop by the river," Sakura said, glancing back down at Ino's shin. "We need to get the swelling to go down, and the river water should do that."

"We also need to get out of here." Kiba glared around as Akamaru huddled near his ankles. "There's something big coming."

They abandoned the Oto-nin to the huge thing slithering through the trees.

* * *

Dunking his arm in the river for hours on end numbed the pain considerably. Sasuke wished that they didn't have to leave at all, but the sun marched steadily across the sky, whittling down the hours they had left. Common sense said that they should hurry, but common sense didn't have a broken arm that had been set only hours ago by two girls with no training. He had the feeling that the Yamanaka, who was sitting on her butt in the shallows near the riverbank so her entire shin would be submersed, agreed.

Team 10 had woken up halfway to the bridge. Chouji had consumed the last of their poorly dried dear meat while Shikamaru had explained how the Oto team had nabbed them. According to him, they had wanted to lure the others into battle.

"They were after you, Sasuke," Shikamaru had told him bluntly. "They kept asking us questions about your techniques and talking about the best ways to kill you."

This unsettling thought echoed through him as Naruto splashed through the stream like a maniac, intent on eating fish for lunch. When the loser and the others managed to get a satisfactory catch, Sasuke grudgingly came away from the river to light the fire they wanted before going back.

"You're both going to go numb with cold or get sick if you do that too long," Sakura chided them when she arrived with a fish for him and Ino.

He kept his reply to a terse grunt while Ino rolled her eyes before digging into her lunch with relish.

"Eating like this makes me wonder why we didn't simply all team up at the beginning of the test," the blonde said as Sakura hunkered down on the bank near him. "We knew we were going to get picked on because we were rookies. We should have listened to Iruka-sensei sooner."

"You talk, Ino-pig," Sakura said. "You were the one that decided the day we would meet up. You're just lucky that Oto team had a heaven scroll."

Sasuke began to consider the wisdom of moving farther upstream when Ino glared, but for once, Naruto had good timing.

"Let's go already! We've been here for hours. Everyone's had a nap, so let's haul ass to that tower and get an earth scroll already!"

* * *

An exploding tag went off between Shikamaru and the approaching Mist-nin. Shikamaru crumpled right in front of her; Sakura screamed good and loud.

The cordon around the tower was far tighter than they'd anticipated. She couldn't believe that some of these people were still genin. These Mist-nin had to be poaching; there was no way they didn't already have their two scrolls.

Chaos dominated her scattered thoughts for a good long time.

_Hours._

_Days?_

_She's aching worse than she ever has before. The burns on her arms and face ooze and sting with every motion. She's lost almost two whole fingernails, the naked nail beds tender and bleeding._

_Gasp. Gasp. Clutch at Ino, who is whimpering as her nails dig into Sakura's arms._

_Oh, how she _hates_ snakes, the snakes that gobble Naruto and Sasuke. Snake guts rain on her hair amidst the smoke of Narutos ending. She will never be clean again._

_Sasuke is beyond waking._

_Another dead weight to drag._

"_Go." Sakura rises from the haze of terror to watch Naruto stand proud despite his exhaustion as the Sound team they thought they had gotten rid of blasts Chouji into the trees. "You have your two scrolls. Team 10 isn't getting far with Ino and Shikamaru down. I could take their scroll and go with you with Sakura and Sasuke, but Team 10 would die. Your team has the best chance to keep going, Mutt Boy. Only two hours left."_

"_N-Naruto-kun!"_

"_We'll hold these Oto bastards and the Mist team here. You break through."_

"_Got it," Kiba says._

_Shino nods._

_Hinata sobs quietly and runs after her teammates._

_Sakura's ears bleed. No more._

* * *

Mikoto was a little worried when the ANBU agent watching over her as she walked home from the market tapped her on the shoulder and gestured that she follow him. Something wasn't right. When they ended up in an empty warehouse, she _knew_ something wasn't right. She snatched for kunai hidden in her sleeves, but the ANBU agent was there, pressing a kunai against her throat and her temple. "What do you want?" she spat out as she cursed herself for being too trusting.

"Oh, Mikoto-chan, all I want is a few moments of your time," a voice she recognized insisted from the shadows.

Her eyes narrowed into slits, and she bared her teeth at the twisted snake that slithered closer. "Go die in a hole!" she growled even as the kunai above her temple pricked her through her long hair.

"Now, now, my dear, that's not very polite! What on earth would Koui-san think of you now? Your sensei would roll in his grave if he hadn't been blown to bits on that mission." Orochimaru strolled right up to her and smiled.

She spat at him and was quite satisfied to watch the spittle flow down his pasty countenance. She hardly cared that his snakelike eyes only laughed at her weak resistance. She had to live. She had things to do. "Speak of him again and I'll show you what courtesy is really made of," she snarled back as he pompously wiped away her spit.

"Now, dear child, is that how you want to speak to the one who can bring your family back to you?"

She froze and stared at him for a long moment. "You're bluffing."

He laughed vilely and waved aside her suggestion. "I wouldn't dare to attempt to bargain with the matriarch of the Uchiha clan with only false promises. No, I have a jutsu that can bring the dead back to the living. Imagine; you can have Fugaku back. Wouldn't it be wonderful for him to get a chance to meet his daughter and finally see how well his son has done? Just think of how happy you would be! You were always making calf eyes at him even before I took little Anko-chan on as a student. You could have your beloved husband back."

She continued to stare at him, at a loss for words. Scenes of what he had described played through her mind's eye. It was like something out of her most cherished dreams, but there had to be a catch.

"It could all go back to the way it had been before Itachi-kun took it upon himself to wipe out those dearest to you."

"Someone like _you_ would _hardly_ offer this for free."

"Oh, nearly for free. You see, payment is required for the jutsu to work; not just chakra this time, something else as well. I need sacrifices, living sacrifices, for Edo Tensei. They would have to come from somewhere, of course."

She didn't oblige him by asking the obvious question of where.

"Konoha is to be burned to the ground. Surely you would love to have a hand in finishing the job that your husband started?"

"And what if I say no?"

"Then I'm afraid I must judge you unfit to act as a mother."

The snake disappeared before she fought her way free of the cloaked ANBU. Her only comfort was that she saw the sheen of glass behind the eyeholes of the mask before he disappeared.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Bow to the Queen's Blade

Naruto went from blackness to greenery and warm blankets and warmth on his feet. His eyes stung with tears he refused to shed when he realized he was in his room and Neechan was passed out at the end of his futon, clutching at his hand. She was smiling contentedly in her sleep. He almost hated her for that.

Failed.

He gritted his teeth and screwed up his eyes. He must have made a noise despite his best efforts because his door opened. An old woman stepped in as though she had done so a million times before. She had a spine of steel and hair to match. Best of all, she had curry.

"Naruto-kun, it is good to meet you. Are you feeling better? You heal very quickly."

"I feel awful," he muttered, dipping his gaze towards the floor as her lilac slippers invaded his view.

"Takara," she said.

"Pardon?"

"You may call me Takara. I suppose I'm a little old to be 'okaasan' as I am to Raimei-chan, but perhaps 'grandmother,' if that's not too presumptuous?"

"Oh," he said, at a loss for a moment before remembering that Hotaka-ojisan had called his sister that weird name, "oh, you're Neechan's mom."

"Yes. Nice to meet you properly. It was a little disconcerting meeting you last night covered in blood, unconscious in some Umino-san's arms. Why she wouldn't let you go to the hospital, I don't know. Umino-san obviously understood why, since he claimed to have scooped you away from the medic ninja before they could install you in a ward. Raimei-chan was insistent that you stay here despite my protests over how injured you looked. She's been chewing her nails over you for the past three days though, so I suppose her idiosyncrasies are permissible."

Naruto didn't know what to say in reply.

"You said you felt awful. You look remarkably well though. Inside feelings then?"

He blinked at her. She was pushy for an old lady. "Yeah."

"Hmm." Something about the way she said told him she had something else she wanted to say, but she knew Tact too well. "Eat."

He accepted the hot ceramic bowl from her and clumsily handled the spoon.

"I didn't think that you would be up for more usual utensils, but I see that I am wrong. It's a waste to get chopsticks now that the spoon is dirty."

He managed to get a few mouthfuls down as she unabashedly studied him. He felt as though he were being graded far more thoroughly than Sensei or Iruka-sensei would ever dare. "Takara-obaasan, when did you get here?"

"On the first day of your exam, apparently. We made it through just before they shut the village gates, so it was quite late in the evening, I suppose. Raimei was so very excited; I thought she would break something in her enthusiasm." She glanced around his room. "You should sweep. Your air is stale. I'll open the window."

Naruto wanted to growl, to tell her that this was his room and it would smell however he wanted it to, but Takara-obaasan moved like a general—everything was expected to bow to her and anything that protested was regarded with disdainful surprise. The fresh air did smell nice though. Neechan's fingers twitched around his captive arm. Setting the spoon in the bowl beside his futon, he reached over to shake her shoulder. Maybe she would save him from Takara-obaasan. "Neechan."

"Guh?"

"Come on, Riko-nee. Up and at 'em!"

"Let her sleep," Neechan's mother said, but it was too late. "She hasn't been sleeping well since we got here. We've heard her across the hall."

"Mother, thank you for reserving those words for when I was awake to hear them."

Naruto blinked at her odd sarcasm. Neechan didn't do sarcasm much.

"I felt you should know about your night terrors. Such result from stress. Perhaps you would tell us?" Takara-obaasan needled with the delicacy of a rapier.

"Not now." Riko-nee turned to Naruto. "Iruka told me Team 10 and your teammates were installed in the hospital the moment the exam ended. They're being taken care of. Team 8 is involved in the preliminaries right now, if they're not over already. You should go visit them when you finish eating. We'll talk all about this when you get back, 'kay?"

And suddenly he was capable of smiling a little again and food tasted better than balls of dread. "'Kay."

* * *

When Izumo woke, it was with a splitting headache and a sting at the back of his neck. He would have groaned, but something about the room suggested he wasn't alone. Where was he again? Oh, watching over the film room of the tower to make sure all the cameras were located and collected by the volunteers. More importantly, why was he on the floor, and who was here? He nearly panicked at the thought of it being Orochimaru, so he snapped his eyes open and leaped into a defensive crouch despite his dizziness.

"Ah, so you are more resistant. Poisons are always so tricky. Everyone reacts to them differently. Too much of that one and I would have stopped your heart. That would have been annoying." The gravelly whisper nearly did the job despite her caution. The snake mask was illuminated by the glow of the monitors, which weren't showing current exterior shots. Instead, they were playing over recorded scenes.

"What are you doing?" Izumo asked. "As an ANBU agent, you only needed to ask."

Cracked laughter. "And let you see what was so interesting to me?" The monitors snapped back to the real-time signal.

"All the participants are all out of the training ground, if that's what you were sent to check. The dead were located and taken to the morgue this morning, or what was left of them."

Izumo was puzzled when she laughed again as she stood and made her way to the door. "No one ever gets out."

Uneasy and suspicious, he pulled up the hidden bus surveillance program to see which files she had been studying so carefully and flipped through them. Seeing how Uchiha Sasuke was in almost every shot, this could be legit, but he decided to run it by the Hokage just to be safe. The sound of someone swearing in the background over the line and ranting about how Snake-28 hadn't even been debriefed after her last mission made Izumo sure he had done the right thing. He hoped Snake never found out.

* * *

Sasuke awoke to the smell of stringent cleaners and a nagging ache in his arm and head. He didn't open his eyes, trusting his other senses instead. This felt like a hospital bed and the smell definitely backed that up. So, they had failed the second exam. He slowly let his wrath out in a long exhalation through his nose.

"There's always the exam in five months," his mother's voice told him.

He relaxed immediately and opened his eyes. His sister was curled upon on his mother's lap as she sat in a chair by his bedside. Two ANBU agents stood in the room. He tensed again. "What's with the guard?" This was far too much like how it had been after _that man_ had done the deed.

"Orochimaru escaped ANBU's attempts to pin him down during your exam. Cameras caught him biting clones of you. We were terrified he would manage to get you. He's still likely to be after you or any Uchiha since you've come under guard. The Hokage felt it was best not to take any risks and asked that we tolerate the security."

"Me too?"

"Kakashi should be enough when he gets here. He's checking on Sakura and some other things right now. Team 10 is here too. They'll pull through alright." Her voice was a little tight. He could tell she didn't like the ANBU any better than he did. "So, what did you do wrong?"

"Many things," he admitted after a long, angry pause.

"It's good that you know that. How about we go over everything?" His mother stood up and deposited Ryuuka by his side, careful not to bump the cast on his arm. "And when you're done, we'll figure out the best way to deal with Orochimaru, hmm?" She waved the ANBU off, and they slipped out of the room so their surveillance wasn't quite so obvious.

* * *

Mikoto sat on the back porch and watched Ryuuka play while the masked ones pretended not to watch everything within fifty metres. Ryuuka was happily oblivious, content to mash the mud into strange shapes, getting her dark clothes dirty. A bubble of isolation surrounded them, but Mikoto had yet to break it.

_The village that destroyed my clan… do I let them live?_

A sharp knock at the gate roused her from her stupor. "Ohayo, Koto," Riko said cheerfully as she nodded to the ANBU that evaluated her silently. "I figured that you could use some intelligent conversation since I _know_ how quiet ANBU are when they're on duty."

"Hey, Bachan! Naruto-niichan coming? Awake?"

"Yes, he's awake. He's visiting your brother. He'll see you later." Riko crouched down to greet the toddler's charge and let the girl give her a high-five despite the muck, which Riko casually wiped off on her similarly coloured pants. Maybe there was a method to Riko's lack of fashion sense.

"Candy?"

"Did I bring candy? What kind of question is that?" She reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a familiar box. "Don't tell Sasuke, okay? He doesn't like sweet things like Pocky, but growing kids need them. You'll show me that mud bowl when you're done, right?"

Ryuuka accepted the offering as though it was her due and nodded with a grin only a child could manage under these circumstances. Riko stood and rubbed at her ribs ruefully as the architect returned to her disaster zone.

"You get caught again today?" Mikoto asked as Riko sat down on the edge of the porch and pulled off her bag. "Or did you fall out a tree during your lunch break? People are going to start hating you for that next."

"I wasn't paying enough attention when I was figuring out what to bring her. It's my own fault." Riko shrugged and smiled over her shoulder before her face settled into a more serious expression. "Have you heard anything since? Are Kiba and Shino okay? Naruto hasn't told me anything yet. He needed to see the others."

"All Sasuke knew was that Naruto ordered Team 8 to go on without the rest of them when it became obvious that getting all of them to the tower in time was impossible. He told me about the kind of opposition they faced, and I'm not surprised at how it turned out. They were lucky to survive as long as they did. As far as I've heard, Team 8 got through to the prelims. Whether they got through the prelims is another matter."

"I've been hearing other things on the streets. There were whispers about genin from Grass with their faces ripped off in the cemetery of that Buddhist temple I visit sometimes. I'm so glad that I went to the shrine this month instead. Those poor children…"

"They weren't children. They were older genin. Someone is using their faces." Mikoto remained blank in the face of Riko's horror. "Henge can be risky because it's not real. A face is real and if preserved and attached correctly, would serve better, and it would satisfy the twisted sense of humour of the user. To use such a tactic is barbaric and forbidden in almost all nations hosting hidden villages. It stinks of nukenin."

"Fugitive ninja? How would they get in?"

"Very easily. Scaling the wall is not hard. There are protections against such intrusions, but monitoring them requires immense concentration. Heck, they could even get through the gate with all the traffic it has seen. One slip is all that is required and the wall is breeched. Perhaps there is even an insider giving him an in."

As Riko mulled over that, Mikoto weighed her options again. So much hatred could be washed away, undoing everything she was slowly working towards. Pride demanded that she spurn the offer. Common sense screamed that it was a lie. Yet, some emotional part of her couldn't give up the dream of having her husband back along with all of the family she struggled her way through honouring every fall.

_Fugaku, what would you have me do?_

* * *

Naruto had had to escape the house after visiting his team and Team 10. It had been hard to be there with Yasu-ojiisan and Takara-obaasan. They weren't put out by his failure, but he was put out feeling like a failure in front of them. Neechan would have been home soon and he would have had to face her relief. He didn't know if he would have been able to stave off anger with everything so fresh in his mind. Instead, he had run, run to this training ground that Mikoto-obachan had made them practice Henge no Jutsu in so long ago.

He only detected Snake's presence when she sniggered as he puked. He had been feeling fine at lunch, so where this sudden illness had come from was a mystery unless Takara-obaasan had unintentionally given him food poisoning.

"So even that _friend_ of yours takes a while to kick in," she said when his stomach settled. "Interesting. He did manage to delay the effects too."

"Are you saying you poisoned me or something?"

"That would be unprofessional." He hated her mask because he couldn't tell if she was smirking behind it as her tone indicated. _Creepy old bitch._ He wouldn't be surprised at all if she was behind those out of season bouts of flu. "Testing of poisons, especially lethal ones, is only to be done on animals with similar biology to humans, pigs for example. Testing on human populations is forbidden by Act 46.2, Section xii."

"That doesn't stop you."

"No laws stopped Orochimaru from human experimentation. He was allowed to escape by an old man's foolish pride."

"What?"

"For someone that claims to want to rule Konoha, you sure don't know a lot about its dirtier laundry. Lies within lies, all covered up by that Will of Fire crap. Ninja burning with village pride don't ask questions as they throw their lives away. You almost became one of those idiots. I saw how you failed the second exam."

The reminder of how humiliating his failure had been burned. He would have gone back to sulking, but there were questions that needed answering. "How? You were out on a mission by then."

"Clever boy, to listen so carefully with your clones. Pity you missed other things. Even that Uchiha brat didn't notice all the cameras."

"Cameras?" Naruto was flabbergasted.

"Examiners have to have some way of keeping an eye on the exam without interfering with the results. Also, Intelligence claims the recordings for future reference."

Dammit all! His humiliation was recorded for the world to uncover forever?

"Your failure was inevitable though, you know. You have only been a genin for a few months. You haven't a teaspoon of the experience the others have. You don't have the edge. You failed for one reason only: you idiotically failed to kill the Oto team when you had the chance."

"What!" Naruto said. "You expect me to kill other genin? Just because they're from Oto?"

"No, I expect you to eliminate complications. What is dead cannot come back twelve hours later to attack you again and cause your defeat. ANBU doesn't leave loose threads. Hokage can't either. The game is only ever over when one side's heart stops beating."

"We thought the snake would—"

"Invalid and foolish assumption. The snake was under orders not to attack allies."

Naruto stared. Blinked. Stared some more.

"I take it that summoning is a concept you're not very familiar with. Kakashi must be as sadistic as I am; he can't have possibly thought you actually had a chance at passing."

He ignored her snide comments and cut to the core of his beef with her. "You walked out on that mission to down that tongue guy—!"

"Orochimaru. The Snake Sannin. Once in line to be the Fourth Hokage."

"What!" The tongue dude had competed with his dad over the Hokage title? What the hell was he doing chasing genin during an exam then? Wait… hadn't she said Orochimaru had done human experimentation and had gotten away with it? He shook his head to get his thoughts back on track. "Never mind that! You walked away from a mission! What kind of crap is that? You're an ANBU agent. You're supposed to deal with those freaks."

"Why should I?"

Naruto sputtered with fury. "Because it's your duty!"

"Duty has never brought me any good. I prefer Apathy as my god. It keeps me from worrying about the multiple monsters running around Konoha at the moment."

"You mean there are more monsters like Orochimaru here right now?" What was the world coming to when beasts could get through the gates without comment?

"Of course. Orochimaru is simply much more worrying to Konoha than Gaara. A rather interesting executive decision considering how the Ichibi container killed six people in the course of the exam despite their promises to hand over their scrolls and disappear. His example is golden."

"Ichibi container…? You mean someone like—"

"_Don't say it, moron!_ Walls have ears, as do open spaces like these. The Chuunin Exam is only a farce for spying on the host nation. Since the entire event is really a pseudo-war with genin as the pawns, espionage is expected. The only reason you aren't being hunted internationally is because it's been kept quiet. _Don't ruin that_."

"But Gaara, how do you know about Gaara?"

"He isn't smart enough to keep the fact quiet. Though, he is deranged, so I suppose he figures that with the fact out there along with his love of bloodshed, anyone smart will stay well clear of him. He made it to the Final Exam without difficulty after all. Nearly killed his opponent in the prelims just this afternoon."

Fear for Team 8 made him ask who that opponent was.

"Your Inuzuka. His sensei interfered when it was clear Gaara had no intention of mercy. He's in the ICU at the hospital right now."

Naruto's mouth went dry. Kiba and Akamaru… What had everyone in Team 10 and Team 7 suffered for if those two had been knocked out of the running the prelims and had joined everyone else in the hospital?

"Life's just not fair is it? All those _honourable_, _dutiful_ sacrifices ended up meaning nothing. All that pain, all for _nothing_." He roared insults at her, but she just laughed hysterically until he ran out of breath. She came down to his level and ruffled his hair as he slammed his fist into the ground and cursed. _Where was Neechan's justice in this?_ "Every ninja learns that fair has nothing to do with the world. There's no balance, no justice, no gods. It's all just people crawling over each other to get on top of the pile. Some don't care who they step on. Some do, but they're rare. Gaara's not one of them."

"I am!"

"And that's why it will take you forever to get anywhere because you will have to find people you're willing to step on before you fall to the bottom of the pile. Unless you find people who are willing to bear you up as far as they can, but those people are even rarer still. I'm not one of them. I will step on you to get where I need to go, but before I do, I'm going to give you advice so you're a sturdier stepping stone."

Naruto snarled at her, but she continued, undaunted.

"Don't join ANBU. Ever. It will destroy your identity. You will be pressured to by some people. Don't do it. ANBU are tools, nothing more. A Hokage isn't ANBU; ANBU is the Hokage's hand."

"You know, I don't think I've ever heard of you talking this much." Naruto didn't like the sound of what she had said. What had ANBU done to Mikoto and Kaka-sensei if it was as bad as she had said?

"Ask your dog sensei. He knows that there are times I cannot be stopped despite his wishes to the contrary. Besides, if I don't take advantage of your sulking, there is no chance that I would get a word in edgewise. There's also no guarantee that I will survive my next mission or that I will be allowed to avoid capital punishment until that mission."

Naruto laughed, surprised that Snake had it in her to joke. She didn't join in, and he slowly realized that she wasn't kidding.

"It's rather obvious that at your current level of skill you'll never advance to chuunin this year."

"This is the last exam of the year. The next one isn't for another five months, so of course I'm not going to advance this year, stupid snake."

She shook her head. "The Chuunin Exam is a relatively new way of promoting genin. It started up after the war with Kumo ceased. Before then, chuunin were promoted based upon battlefield performance. If you work hard until the Final Exam, you might have a shot at getting an old-style promotion."

"Huh?"

Instead of answering, she leaped back and chucked a kunai at his head.

* * *

Sarutobi frowned as he watched Naruto barely manage to duck the projectile and scramble backwards, howling curses, as Snake continued to put him through "trial by fire," her favoured style of training in his crystal ball as he sat in his office. Snake wasn't gracious enough to go easy on someone with a small fraction of her skill. Naruto wasn't going to appreciate her intention to crush his ego and person.

It was worrying. Snake training with Mikoto was one thing, but Snake training Naruto without Kakashi's knowledge was quite another. She hated children, despised the Yondaime, and held Naruto's worldview in equivalence with excrement. If she was trying to destroy the positive worldview Sarutobi had carefully fostered in Naruto through the Matsuku mindset, she would have to be stopped. Naruto with Snake's "principles" was too frightening a prospect, especially if she managed to foster her hatred of Konoha in him. He regretted that her capability had made him put her on guard duty when Naruto was younger. If the bond had never been formed, Snake would have had a much harder time getting Naruto to listen to her.

Who could he supplant Snake with in teaching Naruto? Mikoto was equally suspect now. Kakashi was needed to monitor Sasuke. Ram? No, too inexperienced and there wasn't enough of a connection between her and Naruto. Jaguar was away monitoring the northern border with her squad. Tiger-19 was in Grass for a time. Regular jounin would be viewed as lesser replacements by Naruto. Tsunade was likely to kill him after prolonged exposure.

Sarutobi summoned his secretary. "Send a hawk after Jiraiya. Call him back to Konoha. Get Dragon-1 to find another mission for Snake-28. I want her out of the village as much as possible for the next three weeks. Make sure she is back at least five days before the Final Exam. I'm afraid we may need to use her then."

* * *

Hinata was numb.

The green chakra coating her right arm was so warm, but she couldn't feel it, not really. She could only stare into the middle distance, her breathing bordering on hyperventilation.

She could only twitch five fingers as the image of the club-like sword descending flashed in her mind again. The soft thud of flesh hitting the ground rang in her hears. _Kami-sama. Kami-sama. Kami-sama. Kami-sama…_

"Hinata-chan, it's going to be alright," the doctor, Shizune-san, said, but Hinata couldn't hear her. "Your hand though… We're going to try very hard to reattach it."

_Kami-sama. Kami-sama! Kami-sama…!_

_Thank you for not letting Naruto-kun see this._

* * *

Nariko poured her mother more tea, who smiled at her stern approval for the technique she had finally mastered. She took a sip of her own tea, feeling at peace with the world.

"It's nice that you'd make an acceptable wife now. You should work on finding some man to take you in."

Only her father's whacks to her back kept her to suffocating on her tea. Yasu laughed to cover her humiliation. "Takara, dear, do try not to kill our poor child out of shock. Some warning for this poor girl would have been wise."

Her mother sniffed and took a sip of tea to hide a smile Nariko resented. Damn them for finding her reaction amusing. "I have the right to worry when even Shiro, who we never thought would settle upon someone for more than a week, is preparing to enter his engagement."

"If Junko-san accepts him."

"Hah, she has him eating out of her palm. Why would she not? No, she is wiser than that. Once a woman can bend a man around her finger, there is no point in wasting all that effort by casting him aside."

Nariko and her father stared at Takara and then exchanged worried glances. "I… Tousan, I almost don't know if that was supposed to mean you too."

"Ah, well, I try not to think about it too much, my dear. See, your mother makes very good stir fry."

"Ah, so it is a love of the stomach." Nariko nodded wisely, attempting to ignore the way her mother was exuding a dangerous aura. "The best kind of love—the kind that cannot be broken by changes to foundations so long as the food stays good."

"Just so." Her father smiled happily, and she couldn't help but smile back as her mother seethed in the background.

"_Yasu-fukurou_…"

"Hmm, Takara-usagi?"

Owl? Rabbit? Nariko had to stifle a giggle. Whenever her parents argued, they would bring out these childish names.

"'A love of the stomach'?" her mother growled.

"Well, what can I say, dear? Would it be more proper to say we ended up marrying because you told me were going to? How would it sound better to say that you bullied me into it?"

"Eh? Takara-obaasan is a bully?"

Naruto had horrible timing, as usual. "Ah, Naruto, you stink! Go have a show—" When she caught sight of him, she couldn't finish her sentence. The table clattered and the china rattled as she lurched to her feet, old terror making her scramble towards him, her hands reaching for his face.

Every bit of him was covered in grit, bruises, or blood when he had recovered from those wounds from the exam just this morning.

"Wh-_Who did this to you?_"

He laughed, reaching to rub the back of his head before he aborted it with a grimace, nausea flitting across his features. She grabbed the hand before it fell back to his side. A few of his knuckles were swollen in her grip: they must have been jammed or worse. His laughter died in his throat as she examined the deep gash in his palm. "Neechan…"

"_Who_."

He sighed and looked away. "It wasn't what you think. There's no way the villagers could get me now."

"Who."

Naruto glanced guiltily past her at her parents, who were watching, more horrified than she was. "It was training…" She reeled back, feeling as though he had slapped her. _He was lying to her._ She could see it in his eyes. She couldn't believe it. "I mean, after how bad we did in the Chuunin Exam…"

"Hatake-san did this to you?" She was going to kill that dog man. She was going to rip out his guts and—

"Nah, not Kaka-sensei. One of the ANBU thought she'd help me out."

"_Help you out__!_"

"She was just too good. I couldn't get a hit on her. It was kind of frustrating." He grinned, but it was so phoney that she couldn't stomach it.

"Naruto." She couldn't look at him. "If you're going to lie, please just don't say anything at all. Please don't bring that kind of dishonesty into this house."

He flinched under her hands and looked away, blushing under the blood and bruises. "I'm not really lying," he whispered. "She's not good at training people the way Kaka-sensei or Iruka-sensei are. She doesn't know how to do it so the person she's training doesn't end up in the hospital. She doesn't believe in going easy on people."

"You won't train with her again?"

"I didn't really want to train with her in the first place. She sort of doesn't take no for an answer. But I definitely don't want to train under her again." He wasn't lying, but there was a worrying gleam in his eyes. This ANBU, she had threatened him. She had made Naruto aware of just how much better she was. Naruto wouldn't be able to take that sort of flagrant challenge and leave it at this. This ANBU had given him a target to beat out the grief of his failure against.

But Nariko kept this to herself. "Please go take a shower. I'll get the bandages."

* * *

Naruto pulled the senbon out of his arm and cringed. And he had thought the exam was bad. He had maybe five minutes before he started retching. If he were lucky, he wouldn't pass out before he found a hiding spot. Snake would stick him again if she caught him. She didn't stop hitting people when they went down.

He still wasn't sure why he had come back today despite his bruises, gashes, and feelings of general ill health from yesterday and the day before. Snake had promised to spend her time between missions improving his skills while his team recovered in the hospital and Kaka-sensei watched out for Sasuke. He hadn't learned anything the second day except that Snake knew how to make him suffer despite Kyuubi's help. He had been so injured that he had actually dragged himself to the hospital to get patched up before heading home so Neechan wouldn't panic again.

Snake wasn't so kind to him. Her training involved pushing him over the edge of wretchedness and panic until he was beyond rational thinking, beyond what she called "fucking foolish heroics." She hunted him through Training Ground 48 without mercy, and he fled when resistance proved futile. The only certainty had been that she wasn't going to kill him, but that was quickly fading. Only luck had kept her from breaking his leg an hour ago with crushing boulders.

His "break" was cut short when the muddy bank he was crouched on wrapped a tendril around his neck and began to pull him under the stream. Naruto fought desperately, slashing at the muck that reformed around his slices and straining with all his might, but the bank dislodged his arms, and he was held under as he thrashed.

She was going to kill him. She really was! His lungs were screaming. Something roared in him and blasted the water away from him for long enough that Naruto managed to draw breath before the water engulfed him again. Worse, Naruto could feel the effects of the poison creeping up on him. Heaves shook him, and he sucked in water by accident as his vision went black.

* * *

"You are dead," whispered a cold voice in his ear.

Every breath was painful and raw. His eyes ached and stung fiercely. His head was full of fog.

"Repeat after me: I am dead."

"I am dead," he wheezed.

"Dead because I am no better than a frightened animal. Dead because I cannot put the fear away and win. I am not competing. I am not in the game. I am a bit of background scenery because I cannot make the first move. I am dead because I cannot kill. I am dead because I am less than useless."

He didn't want to say it. It hurt too much.

She slugged him, hard. "Say it." She punched his kidney, and to his humiliation, he screamed. "Say it!"

He whimpered it to the best of his ability.

"Now you are ready to learn the rules of the game. You knew nothing. You never did. You now know there is a game. There has always been one. You were just too blind to see it before. This game is played with three currencies: pain, power, and life. Everything else is window dressing. The only goal is to avoid the first or deal it out, to collect the second, and to hoard the last by taking it from everyone else before they take it from you.

"Your first mistake is believing I won't kill you. If I need to, I will. However, right now, it would be too much trouble for me to. Too many people with holds on me would cause me harm if I killed you. That is one strategy for worms: make yourself indispensable to the powerful. Another strategy: inspire loyalty and suicidal devotion in followers and have them die in your place. That is the one you'll have to follow to rise to power. The last is mine: apathy so all the world's a target. No vanities, no bonds, no possessions. That is supposed to be the ninja road. It is the road described in the rulebook. Most who claim to adhere to it are hypocrites.

"You can choose later. Rule one: anyone may find a reason to kill you. Anyone." Naruto wanted to protest, but she dug a kunai into the small of his back. "It doesn't happen often, in the civilian world. In the ninja world, it is a rule without exception.

"Rule two: anyone can turn on you for personal gain. True in every world, no matter what the code of ethics is.

"Rule three: defence and offence are not interchangeable strategies. All-out defence is simply keeping others from killing you if you're lucky. You are not winning anything because your opponent is not going to conveniently die while you keep him from killing you.

"Rule four: there is always someone stronger. Train for it. I am that someone. You will never be safe from me: at home, with Kakashi, with the Sandaime, all those places are easy targets for me. I'll hit you when you think you're safe. The poison that I stick you with so easily could be lethal next time." She must have poisoned him again because he began trembling uncontrollably. "Unless," she whispered, "you get me first."

When his shaking stopped, she was gone.

The game was on again.

* * *

"Kakashi, I wish there were two of you," the Sandaime lamented.

"So that I could be late double the amount?" the jounin quipped back, trying to lighten the heavy mood that prevailed as they watched the midday bustle of the village from the roof of Admin while Sasuke signed some forms in the offices below.

"So there would be one of you to spare on Naruto. Jiraiya still has a day or two before he arrives. That Snake would worry me less if she wasn't so bitter. It's not near enough to November for her to be like this."

Kakashi kept his mouth shut. His lovely senpai beating up his loudest student wasn't something he was too keen on either, but they couldn't take any chances with Sasuke. Given how bitter the brat was about his failure, it was likely he would do something stupid. The kid needed the focus training would give him. Oddly enough, he trusted Uchiha-san and Matsuku-san to manage Naruto. "I could drop hints to Uchiha-san that Naruto might be suffering. She tends to be almost as protective of him as her own children."

"I would say yes, but she and Snake are old friends from ANBU. Mikoto latched onto her when she told her that she had orders to kill her if Mikoto showed any signs of Uchiha treachery, oddly enough."

Kakashi wasn't sure there was a reply to that. Sarutobi-sama had begun more and more to bring up old stories without any sort of discretion in the past few years. Perhaps the old man enjoyed watching people be uncomfortable too. "I'll tell Uchiha-san and Sakura to check in with him. Why not send Snake-28 out though?"

"She's resisting, but I should have her gone in a couple days."

Kakashi, who knew Snake well enough to know that a couple days was enough time for her to slaughter an entire drug ring in Grass Country, made sure to tell Sakura to keep an eye on Naruto.

* * *

When Naruto and Snake spoke next, she was in full ANBU uniform, hunkered down on the chain-link fence of Training Ground 48.

"You are grim. Your sister noticed. She worries at this change." That was her way of telling him that she had been in a position to kill him during breakfast this morning.

She had put him a hairsbreadth from death thirty-seven times after that time she had drowned him over the past two days. Earth and water control made her very nasty to face. He would never look at the soil in his planters or the water in the shower the same way—both had very nearly suffocated him. Her tendency to use knives in close combat had given Kyuubi plenty of work. Only his insistence that this was all a training game was keeping Neechan and her parents from panicking. He hated lying to them.

"It's your fault, you old bitch," he grumbled, roughened from lack of sleep. "You had a meeting with the Hokage this morning."

"Incorrect. I had a meeting at Admin though, so you get half a point. You're a sloppy tail, losing me two blocks from the entrance."

"You're too fast, and you poisoned me again."

"Your own fault. ANBU has found a way to get me away from you. I have a mission, but don't sleep too easily. They know I work quickly, but I've been lazy enough to fool them. I may be back before they find another mission that I can't refuse."

"You refused one to train me, didn't you?"

"I did. I claimed holidays that I hadn't taken for ten years. Sandaime isn't letting this slide anymore though. He finally believes I might kill you instead of just prejudicing you against this fucking village."

Naruto allowed himself a moment of sweet relief before the obvious hit him. "Who's gonna train me then?"

He swore she hissed with distaste. "Jiraiya." He sensed history there. Maybe she was still sore about Ero-Sennin's peeping and subsequent disgusted reaction. So much for no vanity… Well, at least Ero-Sennin would probably help him improve upon Rasengan and wouldn't kill him.

"Can we spar before you go?"

"No. We're going to hunt someone down within the hour. Then I will leave."

"Who?"

"Sabaku no Gaara."

"Why him?"

"Because his country created him to kill people like you. The jinchuuriki fight one another for their countries, for supremacy. He is your enemy and your responsibility in the event of war. You should take his measure."

"So where is he?" He rolled his eyes when she shrugged. "Hunting assignment, I see."

"Assassins don't always know where their targets are. Sometimes I am only given a name and a brief description with the order to kill. You do it your way. I'll do it mine. Whoever finds him first—?"

"Is the winner, I get it." She was gone the moment he finished speaking. Naruto rolled his eyes and trotted back to town, assuming a henge as he did. Getting people to answer his questions required a more feminine face.

"I win, cross dresser," Snake whispered in his ear after he discovered Gaara on the hospital grounds almost an hour later.

"Shut it," he hissed back, dropped the henge. Without it, he never would have gotten that proctor to tell him that Gaara was a redhead. Damn Snake hadn't even given him the most basic description. He batted away a senbon just in time when she made to punish him for his rudeness. He was so damn tired of being a pincushion. "Now what?"

"Tail him."

"What?"

"Before you lose him in the hospital, preferably. He's not injured. None of the Suna delegation is injured. Therefore, he has no reason to be here at all."

_No reason to be here?_ Snake admired Gaara. If he were half as callous as her, then… "Kiba!"

"Oh, so you are learning. He is part of your little clique isn't he? Well, then this should be interesting. Two options: tail Gaara the usual way and get stuck outside Kiba's room to stay out of sight if he is going there, or place yourself there in advance, gambling on your prediction. You will lose precious time trying to find Gaara again if you are wrong—that is if you know where Kiba's room is."

Naruto cringed with shame. He hadn't seen Kiba since that visit in the ICU just after he had been injured. Snake hadn't given him time. Kiba had been moved to a different ward by now. Naruto sent a clone to the front desk under a henge of Mikoto-obachan while he circled the building. The clone dispersed itself, and Naruto found the right third floor window. Thank goodness, it was a half-empty double ward. Naruto quickly closed the curtains around the empty bed as though the occupant were sleeping as Kiba and Akamaru snoozed, oblivious, still very much worse for wear.

Fifteen minutes later, the ward door opened. Naruto, crouching under the empty bed, peered under the curtains to get a glimpse of feet. There were none. Instead, a strange shushing noise filled the room.

_What the hell?_

Naruto wished he had had time to go ask Shino or Hinata about what had happened at the prelims. Knowing just what sort of fighter Gaara was would have made this so much easier! Snake had kept him on the run though, never giving him a moment's peace, almost as though she was trying to distance him from everyone. He wouldn't put it past her. Time to jump in blind. He hoped Mikoto-obachan never found out.

Sand was coming in through the open door as if it was the most natural thing in the world. _Floating_ sand.

Creepy, though nowhere near as creepy as the malicious glee painted on the redhead's face. Naruto felt no hesitation in labelling Gaara a psychotic bastard on Snake's level of creepy, right up there with Orochimaru. Poor Kiba.

Gaara's empty eyes fastened on him. Poor him.

No help coming from Snake. She had said she was leaving.

"Kiba, you dumb mutt, you owe me big!" Naruto howled as he drew a pair of kunai.

Akamaru must have been woken because he started yipping and snarling.

Once, Old Man had told Naruto that there were other people like him. Gaara had been the example. Naruto had vaguely thought that maybe someday he could meet this guy and experience the belonging people felt with their families. He had thought that Gaara would see the same in him. Looking into this guy's empty eyes now though, Naruto could see that a wall separated them as effectively as putting them on different planets, a wall of cruelty and apathy.

It was like looking in Snake's eyes, but worse, much worse. Snake hid behind her mask, perhaps ashamed on some level. Gaara shoved every bit of malice out there for everyone to see, as though he was perversely proud of how gaunt and haunted he was. He sucked all the light out of the room.

"You're Gaara," Naruto said quietly, trying to stall so he could figure out how to fight sand.

Gaara just stared at him, blank. Naruto felt like a bug. Then the sand rushed him.

* * *

"Kiba, you dumb mutt, you owe me big!"

Snake pursed her lips at the idiocy she was witnessing. So much for the advantage of surprise. Why had she bothered with this brat? He would never be intelligent enough to be useful.

"You're Gaara." Just how much awe, longing, and disappointment present in that statement made her sure that this was not going to go well. Naruto had forgotten the game and all the rules.

She leaned against the wall just beyond the window, listened to the rush of sand and Naruto's panicked shouts, and wondered whether letting the brat die was in her best interest after her investment and the loss of her holiday. Naruto gave a pained grunt, and she heard a rib crack.

"Sabaku—"

Seconds now. Decision time if she was going to save this child. _Child_. Hah, let him die.

Another rib cracked. She was just about to walk away when the flood of pressure made the scars on her scalp tingle. She had felt this pressure once before, years ago.

_Fire_.

Shivering at "forgotten" memories, Snake fled to the sound of shattering glass.

* * *

Naruto wasn't quite sure what was going on, but he did know that those burns from the drooping, ropy liquid glass stung like hell. Energy such as he had never known made him want to twitch and run along the ceiling. He was panting with the effort of not zipping away. Smell and sound flooded him and made him want to run away and cower in a corner at the same time as he struggled not to attack the strange sources, like the buzzing fluorescent bulbs that he normally didn't notice.

At first, he thought that Gaara was the one growling, but it was his own throat producing the strange noise.

Gaara was just staring at him, his shadowed eyes wide.

Something in Naruto flared with _hatred_ and _malicious glee_ towards the boy.

And that was when Naruto realized what the hell was going on. Unfortunately, Kyuubi had too good a hold on him to throw off. It wasn't that Naruto was angry; it was that Kyuubi was. Rage seemed to give Kyuubi enough of a boost to usurp some control.

_How dare this insignificant tanuki threaten __**me**__?_ Naruto was certain that wasn't his thought. Gaara in no way resembled a tanuki, unless you counted those shadowed eyes. For one, his sac was nowhere near prominent enough.

Naruto was forced back into the real world by the realization that Gaara's throat was in_ his_ clawed hand and that he had the redhead up against a wall. Worse still, his mouth was spewing out words.

"Long time no see, you drunken ball sac. Feeling reckless now that you're not trapped in a kettle?"

The blankness of Gaara's eyes flickered towards fear and wrath. Inside him, Naruto could feel Kyuubi smirk even as his own face reflected the expression for Gaara's benefit. Naruto could tell this was going to end messily and there was nothing he could do but—!

"N-Naruto?"

Kyuubi's hold flickered just enough at Kiba's exclamation that Naruto managed to wrestle control from him. With arms that weren't trembling from poisons for once, Naruto hauled Gaara past Kiba, who was gaping rudely, to the window. "You owe me one, Mutt Boy," Naruto informed Kiba shakily as he clambered out the window with Gaara, who was just beginning to resist.

Now on the grass, Naruto was at a loss. He had just gotten into a fight he was sure he wouldn't be able to win without Kyuubi, and he couldn't call upon that fox-bastard. Snake was nowhere in sight, not that she would have been any help. He had realized over the past few days that Snake only appeared as strong as she did because of her judicious use of poison to undermine her opponents. Her needles weren't likely to get through that shield of sand he had felt between his hand and Gaara's throat. Besides, she had told him Gaara was his problem.

When in doubt, bluff. "Geez, you're so insecure you need to go kill your wounded, beaten former opponents? Kurenai-sensei kept you from killing him in the prelims. That's gotta tell you something."

"He is valued."

Naruto hadn't expected that response or the horrible tone it was grated out in. Was that… envy? He had succeeded in making Gaara angrier though. When bluffing fails to cow the opponent, run. It went against the grain, but Mikoto-obachan had insisted that he wasn't fleeing, that instead he was making the opponent move to a location that worked against him. The problem was Naruto wasn't quite sure where that location was. The old adage of childhood hit him: when in doubt, hide in Admin. As he fled, he could only pray that this old logic would not fail this time.

"Only psychos aren't," Naruto taunted with a wide grin to keep Gaara on his tail as a spear of sand rocketed towards him. "And slowpokes," he threw over his shoulder as he found his way to the rooftop of a nearby shop.

Gaara was not speedy, but Naruto didn't dare outrun him so he could go back and finish Kiba. The sand was much faster than the user, so Naruto began putting some distance between them.

_Where to go? Who to go to? Where to go…?_

What if Gaara blasted Admin? The thought brought him to an abrupt halt, but he shook his head and winced as a sandy claw raked a gash in the roof he had been perched on. That only made him more certain that taking this bastard to Admin wasn't a plan. _Where to go?_

_Obachan?_ He skidded to a halt just before careening into her. She was dressed for shopping, and two ANBU flanked her. "Naruto, what are you—?"

Gaara appeared, or rather his attack struck and then he appeared on the far end of the roof. One of the ANBU blasted the sandy tendril away with a spray of water. "Um, he was going after Kiba and…"

"I see. I had heard that my old captain was giving you grief, but now I see the proof, old fool that she is." Mikoto-obachan sighed and pushed Naruto behind her. "You, Suna-nin."

Gaara glared.

Naruto, leaning forward and craning his neck, watched Mikoto-obachan do the same. Her red eyes always made that expression so much more menacing.

"You are an Uchiha." Gaara's voice grated on Naruto's ears just as it had the first time.

"And you are a container with tainted chakra. A poor container, since it seems you have no control over your beast." Obachan said that so nonchalantly that Naruto had to twitch. "You are in Konoha, Suna-nin. Keep out of trouble, or I will see that you are expelled from the village before the Final Exam rolls around. I'm sure you have training to do elsewhere. The Hyuuga you'll face in the first round is no pushover."

Gaara's eyes narrowed, but he took in the ANBU and disappeared in a spray of sand.

"Inform the Hokage of the incident and see that watchers are posted in the hospital. Make sure Inuzuka Tsume is aware of the danger as well as Yuuhi-san. Naruto, what possessed you?"

"Snake said—"

"And you believed her." Mikoto-obachan sighed. "Come with me. Your sister has been out of her mind with worry, and now I understand why. I thought Kakashi-san was kidding."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't think you were foolish enough to actually train with her when they told me she had offered. Naruto, she enjoys killing people. I thought you knew that. I'm surprised you're still alive. She despised your father. Your mother, well, I guess it was fortunate they never met."

Naruto blinked. Mikoto-obachan had never mentioned his parents before. He sputtered as much, but Obachan ignored him and took hold of his wrist.

"Here I was thinking that you would snap back from your failure better than Sasuke because you're more optimistic. So much for that. Come, you can help me shop, and then we're going to sit down and talk about this since Kakashi-san doesn't seem to want to."

* * *

When they arrived at the door, Naruto finally thought to wonder where Ryuuka was since Sasuke probably wasn't home. Obachan wouldn't have left the girl alone.

"Naruto-niichan?" called a high-pitched voice from the kitchen. "Niichan's here?" The three-year-old girl's much lighter tread echoed through the hall as she ran for the door. Naruto winced as she skidded on the hardwood floor and almost face-planted because she was wearing socks on the slippery surface. Jaguar appeared and righted the girl. Naruto crouched down and let her smack his head. "Bad Naruto-niichan!" she scolded, her dark brown eyes flashing with childish rage and her father's brown hair swaying as she shook her head at him. "You didn't come and see me like you said you would!"

"Aw, come on, dragon girl! I had the exam and—"

"No! I won't forgive you!" She crossed her arms and copied her brother's favourite sulking stance, causing Mikoto's and Naruto's lips to twitch.

"Even if I give you a piggyback ride?"

"No!"

"How about I snitch one of Riko's figurines for you? You like the rabbit one—"

"No! Riko-bachan would get mad! You have to take me to the park later and push me on the swing. If you do that, maybe I'll forgive you." She smiled and clapped her hands, satisfied with her idea of punishment.

Naruto groaned. "But, dragon girl, you're so _heavy_! How am I going to push a dragon as big as you on the tiny swings?"

"Oniitama can!" she protested. "He must be stronger than you then!"

"Definitely." Ryuuka grinned up at Jaguar, who earned a glare from Naruto. "Naruto's just being silly."

"Nii_chan_!" she whined, planting her tiny fists on her hips. "I'm a small dragon with a loud roar! Kaasan says so! Push me on the swings!"

Naruto grinned and messed up her hair and laughed as she indignantly tried to slap it flat again. "All right, dragon girl, we'll go to the park later. Then will I be forgiven?"

"Maybe!" She skittered back into the kitchen with Jaguar close on her heels, making sure she wouldn't careen into any walls again. Mikoto smirked at him and let him in so he could put the rice in the kitchen.

Much later, after he had chopped vegetables for their lunch, Mikoto gestured that he sit down at the table as she called a reminder down the hall not to shriek in the house to Ryuuka, who hadn't been willing to stop pestering Naruto until Sasuke had come back from training with Kakashi. His sensei was actually sitting there now, having been essentially ordered to stay for lunch by Obachan.

"So, you slipped from Snake's coils," his sensei said as he flipped to the next page of porn.

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe. She said that she would probably be back early enough to get me again."

"You tell me if she does. She's not supposed to." Kaka-sensei looked a little pleased at the prospect of having dirt on Snake. "What was she teaching you?"

Naruto grimaced. "She basically taught me how to be beat up and suffocated a lot."

"Snake-28 believes that knowing yourself when under the influence of fear is important," Mikoto said as she stirred the soup. "She was pushing you into fear and trying to make you realize how to handle yourself effectively. Or at least that's the excuse I've come up with."

"She sadistic," Kaka-sensei said.

"That too, but she has a point. Too many shinobi in these times only know how to operate under controlled circumstances. When pushed, many flounder. Our generations—Kakashi-san's, mine, and Snake's—were forged by war. We grew up fighting while terrified. Your generation looks soft to us because you did not participate in the last war. I prefer to think that this is a good thing, but I am not certain considering the unrest I've been hearing whispers about. Either way, we are going to discuss how you handled the second exam after we eat." She pulled some bowls out of the cupboard. "Sasuke, Ryuuka! Lunch!"

* * *

After Ryuuka disappeared petulantly into the depths of the house to watch a movie, Naruto blabbed out his version of events, with Sasuke occasionally reminding him of details he would have rather forgotten and then moved on to give a more detailed account of what he and Snake-28 had done. "She said I should have killed the Oto team…"

"She's right."

Naruto stared at Obachan.

"I told you that being a ninja was a dirty business. I had already made more than one kill by the time I was your age. If you had killed the Sound team, they wouldn't have been able to double-team you with that Mist group. You would have had a better chance of nabbing a scroll and passing. In future, what will you do instead?"

Naruto glared at her. Snake's "game rules" came back to him, but he pushed them away. "I don't want to kill them."

"Then you will not live very long," Obachan hissed at him. "You will not become Hokage. You will have wasted my time."

Sasuke glanced between them while Kaka-sensei kept his eye on his book. "Loser, maybe—"

"Bastard, I'm not going to kill people just because they get in my way. I'm not going to kill people if I can help it. I became a ninja to protect people, not to spill their guts all over the place when they make things difficult." _Neechan would hate me._

"Then problems are always going to be coming back to bite you," Obachan said. "Always. What is dead is food for worms, not food for worried thought. The dead cannot come back—" And here she wore a strange look: longing, confusion, and dread. "Usually."

Naruto noticed Kaka-sensei's eye flick to take in that expression before going back to his book.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37: The Bronze Dagger

Kakashi took in Uchiha-san's troubled face and wondered whether the emotion was genuine. Then he wondered why she had let him see it. She was too good to become unguarded in his presence. What was she hinting at? Why hint at it at all?

Fortunately, Naruto caught on to the "Usually" and pursued it. "What do you mean, usually? Is there some sort of resurrection jutsu or something? You create zombies with it?"

Uchiha-san frowned. "The Nidaime was famous for reincarnating the dead temporarily. There was fear after he used it in battle that he would break his unspoken rule only to use the bodies of enemies to house the souls of his allies. Allied nations shied from sending men even to perform joint manoeuvres when there was any sort of possibility that the Nidaime would be present. One of my teammates once wondered where the test subjects had come from when the Nidaime had been developing the technique. No one develops or tests out something like that in the midst of battle."

Naruto looked uncomfortable. "The Nidaime wasn't like Orochimaru…"

Kakashi frowned, finally beginning to see what Uchiha-san might have been saying obliquely. Why she wouldn't say the warning openly was troubling though. "How like Orochimaru? What did you hear?"

Naruto scowled. "Snake told me that I didn't know about a lot of Konoha's dirtier laundry. She said that Orochimaru was in line to be Yondaime and that he experimented on humans and got away with it. She was lying, right?"

Uchiha-san's eyes narrowed. "No, unfortunately, she didn't have to lie."

Sasuke mimicked his mother's expression. Kakashi had wondered just how wide the schism between Uchiha and the village was, but his estimates had apparently fallen short. Sasuke and his younger sibling seemed very unaffected by it though. Uchiha-san had to be shielding them. That reassured him. She must be trying to start afresh. This bitterness she was spewing now though…

"Orochimaru was obsessed with immortality. How and why I do not know well enough to explain, but his desire to live forever led to him to abduct and experiment on many villagers: a disgusting thing that wasn't discovered until it was much too late. How he escaped, I don't know personally, as I was out of the village when it happened with my squad, but the details I dug up later indicated that the Sandaime did not act decisively enough to secure his student after discovering his workroom in the sewers.

"He was Sarutobi-sama's favourite student and the favoured candidate to become Hokage as the Yondaime was then very young, far too young for some people's tastes. Jiraiya-sama's pornographic leanings and inability to play politics also didn't aid his student's case. Orochimaru was slick, suave, and very powerful; he was also older. He was our model shinobi before the other villages. Sarutobi-sama was of course devastated. Only the loss of his wife just before Kyuubi's rampage overshadowed that as far as I know."

Naruto didn't seem to know what to say for the longest time. "So you're saying that Orochimaru was trying to live forever by killing other people?"

"Testing his theories out on them, investigating the nature of death, etc. He had ample supplies to practice the Nidaime's jutsu if he so chose."

Kakashi froze as her blatant hint clicked. Why did she know though? Orochimaru had gone after Sasuke: his sister did not have active eyes, the old men's eyes were failing, and Uchiha-san was probably too dangerous and wilful for Orochimaru to consider. So, having failed to capture Sasuke, what would Orochimaru have done that caused Mikoto-san to hint?

A jutsu that reincarnated the dead… Kakashi stared at his book, unseeing. The conversation shifted almost without his notice.

"Sasuke, I saw there was a sale on incense at the market today. We should go back tomorrow with everyone and buy supplies for this fall. Ryuuka can help us pick for Otousan this year."

The twinge of grief and rage over Sasuke's face and the discomfort that flickered across Naruto's went unnoticed. Kakashi could only stare at Uchiha-san and pray that her warning meant that she was siding with the village.

Uchiha-san only looked at Sasuke.

Naruto finally changed the topic. "Obachan, what should I do about Gaara?"

"What do you mean?"

"Snake said he's my responsibility."

"Hmph. She would say that. She's never had much luck against jinchuuriki except that she's survived every encounter."

"How?"

"She ran away when she realized she couldn't win, even if it meant abandoning her more stubborn teammates. She even left me once when I foolishly insisted I would be able to control the beast with my Sharingan. I got disabused of that notion very quickly." Uchiha-san smiled fondly and shook her head. "The Sanbi wasn't very impressed by my katon jutsu or my genjutsu. He and his host had a deal of sorts, so no illusion held them for long. I followed my senpai pretty quickly and took her smack upside the head without comment."

Naruto looked torn between interest in this newly discovered jinchuuriki, amusement at how Uchiha-san had screwed up, and peevishness at how his question had been avoided. "Obachan!"

"Naruto, this is up to you. Do you want to be responsible for him? He's likely been trained in his jinchuuriki powers; you haven't because Konoha refuses to acknowledge that you are one in a useful capacity. You are our dirty secret right now, not our secret weapon as you should have been according to tradition. This is because of how the Kyuubi came to attack Konoha. There is rampant fear among the highest circles that allowing you to be trained will increase the risk of the incident happening again. There is merit to this, but the idea shows a distinct lack of practicality. You've already snapped once on that mission to Wave, and that was just from rage. It will probably happen again because of the life you live. Best you know how to deal with it. Unfortunately, the person best qualified to teach you how to handle your burden died passing it on."

Kakashi narrowed his eye at Uchiha-san. She was saying far too much. She cast him a haughty glance that Naruto and Sasuke caught.

"Who was that?" Naruto asked.

"The previous Kyuubi container," Uchiha-san said defiantly as Kakashi snapped his book shut.

"Uchiha-san—"

"It is beyond ridiculous to keep this from him."

"It is policy."

"It is stupid. I will be speaking to the Sandaime and Jiraiya-sama about this. How is he to make any sort of informed decisions when he doesn't have the information necessary? This goes directly against my training."

"Sandaime-sama feels that Naruto is still too young—"

She cut Kakashi off. "Bull. He needs to be told now to have time to acclimatize. Yes, not all of it, but at least some of it. You tell Sandaime-sama that I will be telling him soon even if he doesn't give me permission. She was my friend. I will not see her memory and suffering disrespected like this."

"Oi!" Naruto said. "Tell me what?"

"Many things you should have been told a few years ago, like the fox. Not telling you about the fox was a piece of idiocy. What would have happened if you had lost hold earlier?"

Kakashi couldn't let this go on anymore. "The Sandaime felt it best that Naruto have as normal a childhood as possible."

Uchiha-san actually snorted. "Look how well that turned out. Raised by a Matsuku of all people, shunned by the very village he is protecting, and clueless as to why the higher-ups bicker over his every move behind his back."

"What's wrong with being raised by my sister?" Naruto demanded, frowning.

Kakashi kept his mouth shut.

It was too much to hope that Uchiha-san would do the same. "Your sister belongs to a clan that opposes the existence of ninja. You should know this much by now. Just how effective her clan is at dampening ninja action is varied, but it is there. I've done what I can to keep her from instilling too much of her hatred of our profession into you, and she has done her best to keep her attitude from being too blatant. It was our luck that she was young and tractable and willing to let you have your dream. She could have made things much more difficult than she did."

Kakashi was not sure what the heck Uchiha-san was pulling now. Having this conversation with Naruto was bad enough, but talking about this in front of him and Sasuke too? He bit down on his compulsion to defend the Sandaime's decision. He had been there. He knew more than the Uchiha Matriarch as to why Matsuku-san had been the best course at the time.

"Neechan doesn't bring it up. She said she'd help me be Hokage. Why would she do that if she hates ninja?"

"Because you are her brother, that's why. Family before everything—that is how family works for her and for me," Uchiha-san said. "She struggles, I know you've noticed, but she's been getting better. With her parents here though…"

"Why would it matter if Yasu-jiisan and Takara-obaasan are here?"

"Because they are family too and they are against ninja. She's going to be tense because she's being strung between you and them. The Chuunin Exam is one of the things that her clan hates most about ninja. It's a miracle for her that you didn't make it to the Final Exam. This business with Snake though… She came to me a couple times while you were pretending that nothing was wrong. She's terrified. Naruto, go home and explain this to her. Then tell me what you want to do about Gaara. But know this: Gaara already knows what he's going to do about you."

Kakashi smothered a grimace. He would have to mention this to the Sandaime. Maybe some ANBU could be spared to make sure Gaara didn't slaughter the Matsuku. The last thing the Matsuku in the south needed was a wakeup call to start their campaign against Konoha's budget.

* * *

Hinata stared at her ceiling and clenched the one fist that remained to her. She couldn't look at the other. There was still a hand there. She could feel it.

Father hadn't been by since just after Shizune-sensei had failed. Hanabi-chan had been with him. Their looks had been full of disappointment and scorn. What good was she now?

Maimed.

Jyuuken required two hands, not a hand and a stump. What good was she now?

Shino-kun had come by. He had passed into the Final Exam. She was so glad for him, or she tried to be. He told her that Kiba-kun was improving, which relieved her. He had told her that she was not finished yet. She hadn't had a reply for that.

She lifted her left hand so it blocked her view of the ceiling tiles. She clenched and unclenched her fist and felt the hand still against the blankets do the same thing. No rustle of flesh over cloth reached her ears.

Imaginary hands didn't make noise, but they clenched obediently.

Her view of the ceiling and her pale fingers became fuzzy. Her eyes stung, but her pillow didn't get wet. She refused. It was okay. Her hand was clenched there at her side as her other stretched fingers towards the ceiling. She could feel it.

"Hinata-chan?" Shizune-sensei was muffled by the door. "Can I come in?"

"Yes."

"I've brought someone who needs to see you. Can he come in too?"

"Yes."

The sound of a kunai cutting through the air made her activate Byakugan instinctively. She rolled once she placed its trajectory. It sank deep into her mattress as she slipped into a crouch, her imaginary hand going for a kunai pouch that wasn't there.

A fat man stood in her doorway, subjected to Shizune-sensei's scowl.

"Must you ruin the mattresses?"

"Don't fret, missy. We'll clean this up." The fat man grinned and stepped forward with a thunk. His leg was imaginary too, just a peg. "Hello, Hinata. Mind if I call you kitten? You look like you want to scratch me enough for it to suit. I'm Genkichi. I'm in charge of showing you that you're not useless. A useless person would have been hit by that kunai, kitten."

Hinata stared. "Genkichi-san? I-I-I—"

"You?"

"Kitten?"

"Yes, I think you need some distance from Hinata right now. Hinata still has a hand. Kitten doesn't. Kitten has a lovely, egg-like stump that she's going to learn to make as useful as any hand."

Kurenai-sensei poked her head in. She had been in the most out of anybody, always around to help with buttons and chopsticks. "Hinata, Sandaime-sama employs Genkichi-sensei as a ninja to assist ninja in figuring out how to adapt to the loss of limb functionality. He's going to be your part-time sensei until you're ready to be with Team 8 again fulltime."

"No," Genkichi interrupted with a stern look at Kurenai-sensei, "Kitten is going to be my student. Hinata still has you as her fulltime sensei. This is for the best right now. Later Hinata will split her time between us, but not now. Hinata is still whole right now. She will catch up with Kitten later."

Kurenai-sensei blinked, but nodded.

"I must ask that you leave, Kurenai-sensei. Kitten has never been your student, just Hinata."

Soon, Hinata was alone in the room with Genkichi. "Kitten?"

"It's the name of my student. She only has her left hand, but her right arm is still just as pretty and perfect. There is no ugly scar, see? Shizune-sensei did a very good job saving Kitten's arm when there proved to be too much damage to the severed hand."

"I…"

"You are Kitten today, yes?"

Hinata didn't know what to say.

"Yes?"

"Yes, Genkichi-sensei."

The fat man smiled, his salt-and-pepper stubble crinkling with his cheeks. "Kitten, let's look at your stump?"

Wide-eyed, Hinata shook her head. No, she didn't want to see.

"Kitten, let's look at your stump. Hinata-san isn't here right now, just Kitten. Let's look at what Kitten has always had, okay?" He took her right elbow in his weathered hands and lifted it. He shook her stump as though there was still a hand attached to it to clasp in greeting. "See, Kitten? There's nothing wrong. It's as it always has been, just a lovely stump here. Touch it, you'll see."

Hinata looked. It was perfectly smooth and egg-like, as he had said. It was odd, but it wasn't exactly ugly, not as she had expected from the way Kurenai-sensei's eyes filled with guilt every time she looked at Hinata. She traced the pale flesh with her left fingers. "I still feel like my hand should be there."

"And that is good. Never lose that feeling because it will make our work easier." He patted the back of what remained of her wrist. "Now, Kitten, let's sit down. Unfortunately, because you are so good at dodging and not being useless, we've made a mess of this mattress." He pulled the kunai out as he folded his leg and peg until he was sitting cross-legged.

She crawled forward, feeling the skin of her stump against the bed sheets and yet still feeling her hand. She frowned with him at the gash in the sheets.

"Here, Kitten," he said, passing her a needle. She reached out with her stump to grab it only to realize her mistake and flush. "No, that's the right arm. Kitten, you know how to walk on trees. What's grabbing a needle?"

Her eyes widened as it clicked. She forced a bit of chakra to her stump. It was hard. She kept expecting the chakra to go further, to her fingers. After some fumbling, she held the needle to the stump's surface.

"That's my girl, Kitten." He smiled and ruffled her hair, ignoring her flinch. He pulled some white thread out of his pocket and unravelled a bit. "Cut this?"

"Genkichi-sensei?"

"With your chakra, Kitten, just like you've always done. Rather like how Hinata-san inflicts damage with Jyuuken. Just cut it."

Frowning, she held the needle in her left hand and raised her stump. With Jyuuken, it was ingrained in her where the two lances of chakra came out: her palm if possible, but otherwise her fingers. But her palm and fingers were no longer there, but she could still feel them.

"Your hand is still there, you said. Make it obey you."

Frowning, she held out the hand that wasn't there. She pressed the palm that wasn't there against the thread. She pushed chakra to the palm that wasn't there.

Nothing happened.

"Kitten, look at what you're doing. You must see your hand."

Drawing her arm back, she raised fingers that weren't there into the tora handseal as she activated the Byakugan. Extending her hand again, she could see that the chakra flowed cleanly through her stump. Shizune-sensei had rerouted the chakra channels.

"See your hand. Push the chakra into it as Hinata-san has always done."

Hinata frowned, but gave it a try. She pushed.

"Concentrate. You must form the channels now."

She forced threads of chakra from her stump into the air, where the channels in her palm had been. She pushed it further and then held the hand that wasn't over the thread. Chakra lanced, but the thread was still whole. She had never aimed for a target this small.

They spent two hours in this way, trying to get her chakra into the right place, trying to get her mental picture of her hand to match up with the real world. Kitten smiled with Genkichi when the thread was cut.

"Now we sew to make things right and whole again, Kitten."

* * *

Neechan was still at work when Naruto got home. Takara-obaasan's shoes were missing too. Yasu-jiisan sat on the couch, reading one of his training scrolls. "Naruto-kun, it is good to see you."

Mikoto-obachan's words weighed on his mind still. Naruto couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer. "Do you hate ninja?"

Yasu-jiisan's grey eyes fixed on his, calm and steady. "I see, so you have been made aware."

"Mikoto-obachan said that it was bad that I had been raised by Neechan."

Yasu-jiisan levelled a calm look at him. "What do you think? Was it bad to have been raised by my daughter?"

Naruto frowned. "I don't know. Mikoto said that they were lucky because Neechan kept quiet about it and stuff, that she didn't make me hate ninja too."

"And do you feel this is true? Naruto, being raised in my family is something I have considered a most precious gift. I was allowed to be a child for so long, to experience peace, and now to study as I wish. I am blessed despite the danger belonging to my clan puts me, my wife, and my daughter in. Naruto, was being raised by Nariko as bad as they say?"

"I don't know. Neechan always looked out for me even when people weren't nice to us, but she always went on about her home and how things were better there. I hated that. I always figured she was going to go back there someday."

"And she yet might. But Naruto, can you understand? Being raised in the clan, she did not know the hatred that shadows you both here. She knew nothing of it. Back home, she had friends of her own, a life of her own. Here, who does she have other than you and Uchiha Mikoto?"

Naruto opened his mouth to say that she had his friends too, but that wasn't really true anymore. Neechan hadn't seen them since they had graduated.

Jiisan nodded. "You see? She is very lonely, so she clings to the memory of home for comfort as much as she clings to you. Let us go out onto the balcony, hm?"

They pushed the glass door shut behind them. Jiisan settled on the lone deck chair with care among some pots of ferns while Naruto sat on his butt near his birch sapling. Yasu pulled a pipe out of his pocket, filled it, and lit it. The smell was far lighter than the stuff Old Man smoked.

"Naruto, what did Uchiha-san tell you about us?"

Naruto summarized.

"Hm, I suppose that is accurate in a sense. Naruto, we love peace. That is what we are and all we will ever be. We are against piracy, against slavery, against mercenaries, against bounty hunters, against soldiers, and yes, against ninja. We are against violence. That is all.

"We have cousins in almost every country now. Our family is vast and prolific, with ties to nearly every region. Some of our branches are more effective at halting violence than others. For example, in Lightning, the clan there has managed to gather enough support to get the Daimyo to halt the practice of hiring mercenary companies and allowing the trade of some weapons. In Wind, funding for Suna has been cut drastically because of the clan's efforts. Warships are no longer welcome in any of Wind's ports. In River, several gangs died out because the clan there cut off their funding and lured what members they could into whatever niches could be found on the right side of the law.

"We destroy the profitability of violence whenever we can. We sap away their key members with job offers, with pressure, with religion if we can. If they are based around drugs, we cut off their supply or sell something similar legally, flood their market, drive down their profits, and ruin them while weaning their dependents off their drugs as best we can. If they are based around weapons, we cut their supply of raw materials or draw away their customers.

"We work within the law, always, and within plain sight. It is hard to fight us when we are insidiously honest. This is Matsuku, Naruto-kun. Yes, we will come for Konoha soon. We are already working on it, but we do not expect much success for a time. Konoha is very deeply entrenched. We will find a weakness though. We are patient."

Naruto stared and then narrowed his eyes. "I will stop you. I am a Konoha shinobi. I will not let you harm my village."

"Yes, I know. I expected that of you, of any Konoha shinobi. You will protect what you think is right. But know this. I do not hate ninja; I merely am against the violence they inflict upon others. I know some of your missions are good, very good. I would not have those stop. Community service, guarding, carrying messages, tracking down lost things—these are priceless services to me. But when you fight, as you did in Wave from what my daughter had written us, then I must feel sorrow because you hurt. Innocent or not, you hurt people. For that I must grieve, for you are only twelve. In my eyes, you are a child who has no innocence left, and that is a terrible, terrible thing."

Yasu let loose a smoke ring, looking so much like Old Man in this moment. "Naruto, can you forgive me for wanting no child to know violence? For wanting no adult to know violence? I will encourage the destruction of your village's primary function gladly if it means that I can achieve those two things. I will destroy every Hidden Village before I die if I can."

"But!" Naruto didn't know what to say. Anger coursed through him, but he could sort of see what Jiisan was saying. He wanted Inari to have never lost his dad. He wanted Inari to have never picked up that toy crossbow with the intention of making Gatou a pincushion. "How do we protect people without fighting then? How would I stop Gatou and his gun and his drugs and his mercenaries if I can't punch him?"

"We must be smarter: we must make sure he has no access to guns, we must give him no market for his drugs, and we must lure away the bad people he would hire. It is more difficult, but fewer people will get hurt. It requires more thought, more vigilance, but it nips the problem in the bud. But this is much harder for the Daimyo than pointing at a ninja team and then pointing at a snarled problem and saying 'Go fix that however you want.'

"We worry for Nariko because she has you. We think that she has been swayed, that she encourages your violence. This is her test. We could not have come up with a better one for her or for the younger ones close to her if we tried, so for that we must thank you and the Hokage who snared her so quickly after arriving here. Here is where she will prove her worthiness to become a clan elder. So we watch her, help where we can, but let her think."

Naruto's eyes widened. "This is why Neechan thinks you're mad at her."

"Yes. We are not, yet. We are waiting." Ojiichan winked and smiled around his pipe. "It's a secret."

* * *

When Neechan came home, Naruto was ready for her, having spent the entire time waiting for her pestering Ojiichan with questions and games. "I need to talk to you."

Neechan shucked off her shoes and set her bag on her desk, frowning at him. "Okay, but I need to make supper…"

"I need to talk to you."

"Raimei-chan, he needs to talk to you," Yasu-ojiichan said. "I'll cook."

Naruto's eyes widened in fear in tandem with his sister's as Yasu laughed. Takara-obaasan bustled out of the guest bedroom like a general on the march, having come back from her walk a while ago. "What? You? Cook?" Obaasan barked out a laugh. "You chop vegetables. _I'll_ cook. We don't need cayenne pepper with pickles in the rice again."

Ojiichan grimaced, but he laughed with them. Shaking her head, Neechan pulled some papers out of her bag and beckoned to Naruto as she walked down the hall. She gestured that he spread out her futon to sit on as she cracked open the window to let the meagre August breeze into the otherwise stuffy and far too warm room. She settled beside him on the futon, facing him. "What do we need to speak of?"

"Do you hate ninja?"

She frowned. "Why ask this now? What's happened?"

"I'll tell you later."

Pursing her lips, she leaned back on her elbows. "When I came here, yes, I hated them in a way. They stood against everything I stood for. They were violent and overpowered, arrogant and cruel. Now they are people to me, despite everything. I hate their violence still, but I see that there are times when they, and you, feel that it is right, just. So, I suppose that I don't hate all ninja so much as I hate quite a lot of what they do. Most of the missions you do are okay for me; I like them, encourage them. Getting Tsunade back and Wave though… You explained a lot of it to me, but I saw so many different paths I would have taken."

"So you hate that I want to be Hokage?"

"I…" She looked away for a moment. "It hurts me because I believe in what my clan is doing. Did my father tell you?"

Naruto nodded.

"I believe, so it hurts me that I may someday work against you. But it is your dream, so I will support it. The road to it is so much more important for me than the final destination though, you understand? I will support your journey. Once you are there, then we will have to consider again. Will I be your enemy? Will you cast me out because you know what I may do with every bit of information you give me?"

Naruto's heart ached. "But now you're on my side."

"I told you before that I would see this through. I don't mean it any differently than I did then, when you didn't know what else was weighing on my mind. You are my little brother. You will be Hokage before we part ways, no matter how it pains me."

Now he could grin at her again. Mikoto-obachan was wrong. Now he told her about Snake, about Gaara, and about what Mikoto had complained about. He weathered Riko's rage about Snake (and apologized for going behind her back until he was blue in the face), her worry about Gaara, and her concerns about the hints about what the Kyuubi's previous jinchuuriki had known.

"So, Mikoto thinks Gaara will be after you." Her calm was nonexistent. She was shaking with rage about Snake still, about how close to death Naruto had come, and yet she shook with terror over how the fox had broken through only a few hours earlier. "And me and my parents by extension once he learns of us."

"Yeah." Naruto picked at her bed sheet. "I think we need to do something before he crushes us with sand. We need to strike first. He's a psycho. Snake likes him, so he's really gonna kill people if he wants to. But he's like me, jinchuuriki. I need to talk to him, to make him understand that we're family. He's in the Final Exam, so he might go against Shino. Snake said he's my responsibility, and I say so too. I promised myself that I'd understand. So we've gotta counter him."

Her eyes narrowed, but he could hear the terrified thumping of her heart. Her voice was dead though. "We, hm? What if I say I don't want to be involved in this? That I don't want my parents in harm's way?"

Naruto grimaced and realized that behind her fear, Neechan was furious with him. "I…"

"You? You putting me in danger is one thing. I _chose_ this life and you. Putting my parents in danger is another, Uzumaki Naruto. They are _mine_." Naruto's eyes widened when Neechan snarled the last bit, her rage leaking onto her face. Neechan had always contained her fury before. "They are more important than you realize. This is why I refused you my name."

Naruto flinched. "You didn't want me to be a Matsuku so I couldn't hurt your clan."

Neechan's glare didn't soften. "Yes, that's the main reason aside from the one I told you then. You are not Matsuku, no matter how hard I tried to make you one. Do you see now, Naruto? You are the only reason I am still here. You are the only reason I will let this ninja lifestyle surround me. But that is me. I am but one piece of the clan. I can be severed."

Now Naruto became suspicious. "When I became Hokage, were you going to use me to destroy Konoha?"

Neechan jolted as though he had slapped her. Then she grabbed his chin and jerked him so he was in danger of having his eyes burnt out. Her lips were curled in a sneer. "That's going too far."

Fear, real fear, not the kind that he had felt in the face of her anger before, filled him. He had really pissed her off. "S-sorry."

Neechan let him go. "We don't need you as Hokage to succeed. Like you're finding out, Konoha has lots of dirty laundry we can use to get our way when we're ready."

Naruto wanted to say something, to strike back because Neechan had suddenly gained a dimension that had never been there before, a dark shadow, a menace, but he couldn't find words. Neechan loved using the truth to strike opponents silent.

He had never thought he would be one of them.

"Naruto, you're always going on about understanding, how the village refuses to try to understand you. Don't do the same thing to my clan. What they do is precious to me."

He understood. She would fight him forever about this. The shadow of the clan that had haunted him throughout his childhood became realer, darker, with Neechan. Neechan wasn't just his, and that hurt as he hadn't known it would. "W-will you help me clean up the mess I made saving Kiba?"

Neechan's face blanked. "I don't have a choice, do I? I cannot trust that the Hokage won't send us ANBU protection. ANBU fighting Gaara goes against everything I believe in. For this reason, I think my parents will help also, so long as your solution does not include violence."

Newly cautious, Naruto fell back on the manners Neechan had drilled into him. "Thank you for your help."

Neechan deigned to nod. "So, your plan?"

He recalled what Gaara had said about Kiba and smirked. "We're going to show him value."

* * *

The Sandaime narrowed his eyes as Kakashi relayed what Uchiha Mikoto had said. Then he called his secretary in. "Call in Tsunade. Tell her this isn't avoidable, if she protests."

When his grumbling student finally stalked in, Hiruzen had Kakashi up to speed. "What's this fuss all about, Geezer-sensei?"

"Tsunade, I feel it's about time you started sticking your hand in since I'll be stepping down next month. This particular case is one I want you to handle. You are by far the best person for the job."

Ignoring Tsunade's scowl, he gestured that Kakashi repeat his report. By the end, Tsunade was thoughtful. "So Orochimaru's feeling out the Uchiha."

"More like he's offering to collaborate. It's been years since the Massacre, but Uchiha-san is known for her patience, not for her skill in warfare. The chance that she has let the incident go is slight. If Kakashi is right and she was hinting that Orochimaru was offering to revive her clan for her, we must find out where the people he will need is going to come from and what he wants Mikoto to do in return for her family." Hiruzen fixed Tsunade with his stare. "You are the best qualified to make Uchiha-san speak openly about this. Make her decide, if she hasn't, in our favour."

* * *

This time, it took Naruto way less time to track Gaara down. The guy was hanging out on some rooftops, glowing down at the people walking the streets below.

"Yo, Gaara!"

The redhead turned and narrowed his eyes at the source of his obvious ire.

"You busy tonight?"

That seemed to throw the boy off. He scowled in reply.

"How am I supposed to know if you've got late night training for the Final Exam or whatnot? Anyway, since you're _not_ busy, I want you to come over."

That got a response. "What?"

"I want you to come over to my place, for supper or whatever. I wanna talk to you and introduce you to my sister and her parents."

Now confusion and suspicion crept over Gaara's face.

Naruto grinned happily at it. "Neechan wants to know if you're allergic to anything or if you have something in particular you want to eat. I'm gonna go with Obaasan to grab some ice cream or something while she's cooking, so if you're over by then, you can come with me and help me pick."

"What is this?" the boy growled.

Naruto was the picture of confused innocence. "This is me inviting you over to hang out. We need to talk, so we might as well eat too, dattebayo!"

"Talk."

"Yeah, about yesterday morning. I've got some questions about stuff they haven't told me that they might have told you. So, you're coming? It's tonight at five, since that's when Neechan'll be home from work to cook."

The kid blinked. Naruto snorted at how unintimidating Gaara was when he was off-balance.

"Tonight at five. Be there or I'll hunt you down; Neechan'll think you're afraid of her cooking, and that's no fun for me because she'll make weird stuff for a couple days to prove herself. Here's the address." Naruto bluffed his way through grabbing Gaara's hand and shoving a slip of paper into it. "My phone number's on there too, so call if your sensei tells you no or something. See you later. I've gotta hunt down my new sensei; Kaka-sensei told me he got into town today."

* * *

Nariko bolted from her desk when lunch rolled around. Terror drove her as she scuttled and jumped down the stairs and then sprinted through the streets toward the Uchiha compound. She banged on Mikoto's door without mercy. "Koto!"

An ANBU agent startled her into flattening against the house. "She is out. She has gone to view her son's training and then stop by Uchiha Akio's house."

"Dammit!" Uchiha Akio was not fond of her, so hunting down Mikoto there was out. "Where's Sasuke training?"

"Training Ground 27, probably."

"Thanks!" She bowed to Boar-san before sprinting off again, glancing at her watch. Only thirty minutes left. When she got to Training Ground 27, only Hatake-san and Sasuke were there. Both gave her funny looks when she clutched at her hair in frustration. "She's gone, isn't she?"

Sasuke nodded.

Nariko dropped her hands limply to her sides, defeated. "Dammit. Why couldn't Naruto have given me a bit more of a grace period?"

"Because he's an idiot," Sasuke said, turning back to the post he was decimating. "What did he do this time?"

"He's invited Sabaku no Gaara over for dinner."

Sasuke spun back towards her, and even Hatake-san's eye widened. Sasuke snorted. "That's the moron, alright. What did you want with Kaasan?"

She sighed and sat down at the base of a tree, pulling out her meat bun. "To ask her what the heck I'm supposed to do with the kid. Naruto told me he's a psycho. I don't want him near my parents."

"No, I guess not," said Hatake-san, nodding to Sasuke and wandering closer. Sasuke went back to making lightning form on his hand. "According to what we know of him, he is not at all stable. He's being watched since he went after Kiba-kun. In his own village, he is under similar surveillance. There have been problems there, according to what our spies have dug up over the years."

"So reassuring," Nariko grumbled, but she was glad Hatake had told her about the watchers. "So that observer will step in if something sets him off?"

"He will try. Naruto will be your first line of defense though, while he's in your home. He's the best qualified to counter Gaara, though his experience is lacking. Have some faith in him."

"I have no choice, do I?" But Nariko managed to smile at Hatake-san. "That Snake agent…"

"She's not allowed to have anything to do with Naruto."

"But she did anyway. Naruto told me they were trying to get her away from him for a couple days before they managed."

Hatake-san shrugged. "She's difficult sometimes. She wouldn't have killed Naruto."

Nariko sneered. "She's got a funny way of showing it."

"Yes, she does."

Nariko heard something tense and angry behind those words. "You don't like her either."

"I think the only person who likes her to any degree is Uchiha-san."

"Mikoto? Why?"

Hatake shrugged again. "They were on the same ANBU squad once. They've been training together over the past few years. Other than that, I couldn't tell you. Why dinner?"

"Hm?"

"Why invite Gaara over for dinner? Why permit it?"

Nariko grimaced. "Naruto wants to show Gaara 'value,' whatever that means. I think he's trying to reach out, trying to connect with another jinchuuriki. He's got this idea in his head that they should be family or something. Why permit it? Well, he tried pulling rank on me after making me explain about Matsuku. I sort of blew up about it, but in the end showing Gaara value is better than letting you ninja kill him. Naruto's not happy."

"Did you expect him to be?" Hatake said that casually enough, but she could tell he hardly liked Matsuku either.

"No, I suppose he took it rather well. My father got to him before I did, which I'm glad of. Dad's much better than me about explaining things. He can make anyone understand." Checking her watch again, she sighed and got to her feet. "Thanks, Hatake-san."

He nodded, all business, somehow seeming older than her.

Shaking her head at his continued wariness about her, she smiled. "See you, Sasuke." She got a nod in answer. Raising her hand in farewell to Hatake, she began her long run back to the firm. Alleys and back roads were her best friends, always, and dirt roads were great for sliding. There was minimal traffic to worry about and she could simply let loose and really let herself fly. She spent more time with her feet off the ground than on. This was better than dance, than calculus, than physics, than any sort of math, than painting… than anything she had ever experienced. If she ever lost this, she didn't know what she would do. Not being able to run would be worse than being dead. Itsuki was right. There were worse things than death. Much worse things…

* * *

Mikoto never made it Uchiha Akio's house. Tsunade saw to that.

"Uchiha Mikoto," Tsunade barked, spotting her on a side road. The woman froze, her daughter skittering to a halt at her side. The ANBU agents watching over the Uchiha matriarch watched warily as Tsunade stalked closer. "You and I are going to talk."

"Now?" the Uchiha asked with her damned aplomb. Nothing got under the manipulator's skin, not really. Or it hadn't.

"Now." Tsunade glared, and people in the street took the hint and scattered. The ANBU agents took up positions at either end of the street to be sure nobody else came by, far enough away to allow privacy. "What about your girl?"

Uchiha sighed and knelt down. "Ryuuka, go with Jaguar-san and don't give her any trouble." Tsunade waved the agent over, and Uchiha passed her into the tiger-masked woman's arms. "So, I take it you were the one they sent to question me. The Sandaime hasn't lost his touch."

This wasn't going well at all. "If you know why I'm here, speak."

Uchiha's façade crumbled into grief. "He said he'd bring them back."

"Your clan."

"Everyone. All of them would come back. Or else he would take Ryuuka and Sasuke."

"You know he's a poisonous, lying snake."

Mikoto's grief disappeared beneath a twisted smirk. "And if he offered to bring back Dan, your brother, your mother, your father, your fallen friends? What would you do? Tell me you wouldn't falter, wouldn't pause, and I will walk away, because that is a lie. Tsunade-sama, you know as well as I do what it is to want someone back."

Tsunade paused, grief hitting her as well. _Dan… Nawaki…_ "I would waver," Tsunade hissed, "but I would decide knowing that Orochimaru lies, that he never keeps his promises the way you intend him to. Do you know what that jutsu does when put into full effect?"

Uchiha shook her head.

"My great uncle passed scrolls along within our clan. I've seen them. It takes away all free will, leaving a corpse containing a dead man's abilities and knowledge and nothing more. What is to say that Orochimaru will not do this to your entire revived clan?"

Uchiha nodded. "That is why I hinted. You do realize you've endangered my children by confronting me openly like this. One of my ANBU guards belongs to him. The man wears glasses beneath a snake mask. He was the one who took me to meet with Orochimaru, unawares. I haven't seen him since."

Troubling. Geezer-sensei wouldn't be pleased. "Nothing will happen to your children."

Uchiha's eyes lit with an unholy light. "Do you swear it? Will you put a blood seal on it?"

"Now?" asked Tsunade, incredulously. She couldn't really blame Uchiha for her fear though. Tsunade was not entirely certain she would be able to beat Orochimaru in a fight if it came to that.

"Now, and I will hand over every scrap I managed to glean."

Scowling, Tsunade called for paper and pen and thought she saw the light of success and joy in Uchiha's eyes, though she was composed when Tsunade turned back to her. When her blood soaked into the document and she saw Uchiha's calculating smile, Tsunade wondered what the hell she had just signed herself up for, scouring the terms even as Uchiha spilled all about Orochimaru.

* * *

"It would have been great if Kaka-sensei had said where I could find Ero-Sennin," Naruto grumbled as he ambled through the village.

The nickname kick-started his brain. Where else would Ero-Sennin be but where he could indulge in his perverted habits and what better place to do that but at the public baths that used the water from the natural hot springs that Konoha was famous for? Gathering chakra in his feet, he sped off to the oldest and most prestigious of Konoha's many bathhouses. Perverse giggles and a familiar figure greeted him.

"Ero-Sennin, why are you such a pervert?" Naruto asked loudly.

Just as Naruto had hoped, screams emitted from the women's baths as someone spotted the peephole and Ero-Sennin's eager eye glued to it. The screams spread and became increasingly angry as Jiraiya began to shout pleas that they not run. He groaned, but it changed into a gulp of fear when twenty or so women rounded the corner and began throwing things at him.

Naruto beat a retreat ahead of his temporary mentor, grinning at his peeved mentor. "What are you going to teach me, Ero-Sennin?"

* * *

Tsunade walked along the path to the KIA monument beside the Hokage, forcing herself to ignore the pair of ANBU stalking them with attempted subtlety. She was a captive audience to yet another lecture about being Hokage, a job she was still smarting over being manipulated into taking. Sometimes, she wondered about ninja practices…

"As you know, there are the elders, the feudal lords, the Daimyo, and the council. All of those bodies hold levels of authority either above or below your own. The Daimyo outranks you definitely, though this isn't official because it's a matter of funding rather than actual authority; the feudal lords do if a majority of them oppose your decision; and the council and the elders can overrule you if they work together. The elders can subvert you as well in other ways."

Tsunade shot her sensei a suspicious glare, wondering at his cold tone. It worried her, but he ignored the concern on her face.

"Below you, there are your advisors on various matters, some of whom make up the council. Some are independent voices with no real authority unless you choose to heed them or they manage to sway some other power to their side. They are all experts in their fields and it is wise to hear them out at least. It is impossible even for me to know everything there is to know about every facet of running Konoha even after all these years. It is better to let the experts help you out."

She nodded when he smiled almost paternally at her.

"These advisors are generally selected by the council, the elders, and the Hokage. Each body can oppose the appointment and has one vote, but a majority wins. The current advisors are mostly neutral, but you will need to be wary. They can change their tune."

She shot him another worried glance. This was becoming complicated. Politics always was though.

"Each of the various advisors reports on a specific department below you, each of which are full of aides. Every department has an aide that reports to you directly for commands in order to keep Konoha technically under your rule. You have complete control over hiring all of these aides, not just the ones you will deal with on a monthly basis. Generally underestimated because they are working in the field, they are given less credence than their advisor counterparts." He cleared his throat, a signal that he was about to unveil a tactic that was perhaps not commonly considered ethical.

"These aides, since you have complete control over their employment, are often a greater support than the advisors. A wise Hokage carefully chooses his underlings, selects people he trusts and knows are loyal to _him_ and not to someone else. These aides can create havoc if they prove false and if an advisor doesn't catch them."

He halted so she would have no excuse to miss what he was telling her. "Tsunade, don't keep my current aides unless you have every confidence in them. Several of them are next in line to be promoted to the advisory capacity, others are set to retire, and others aren't known to you. Find people you know and trust to carry out your orders. Keeping my team would be a mistake."

"What departments are there that I should be looking at filling right away?"

"All of them. A new Hokage is expected to bring changes to the tower. This is standard practice. The feudal lords have a similar process when an heir ascends to the post: various ministers are usually replaced to consolidate power. Village Planning, Mission Planning, Intelligence, and Finances are the four biggest departments in terms of clout within the immediate workings of the village. There are others, but they have more specific functions." He stopped explaining for a moment and waited for her to speak.

"Qualifications?" she asked, and he smiled. She felt like a genin again that had gotten the right answer to a tactics question.

"Very important," he agreed. "Competent people do make things easier. Loyalty is just as important though. Picking a clueless follower to be in charge of Intelligence would be foolish though, no?"

She rolled her eyes. There was no need to spell things out this simply for her. She knew what he was getting at.

"Grateful people will always go the extra mile to see that you profit though. Decent people, trustworthy people, are the ones you need if you can get them. The sly are never predictable, but they can suit in some cases."

"You have some recommendations in mind?"

"Some," he said as he started walking again.

She was not fooled by his nonchalance; he obviously had some very specific plans that he was hoping she would want to see through. It was up to her this time though. He wasn't the jounin sensei anymore; this was going to be her show. She trusted him, but this was going to be her neck, not his. He was going to become one of the council members, one of the advisors he had warned her against. She would be on her own. The prospect was almost frightening.

She hoped that her luck would be better here than it was in the field. If not, she was screwed.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Five Copper Coins

_Ninja have a bad reputation in Kaijin no Mura. I learned that shortly after arriving. Someone figured out what those knives I carried around were for. That someone nearly raised a mob against me. Michi advised me to get rid of the obvious evidence of my former occupation. I only did so because it made him uncomfortable. After Risa was born, he told me that I had failed completely. Apparently, being a tool is hard to hide._

* * *

Naruto escaped Ero-Sennin's "training" too easily. The guy had mostly interrogated him about what Snake had done to him and complained about how Old Man had pulled him away from his research like Naruto just had. As training sessions went, it was pretty disappointing. He was almost sorry Snake was gone. At least he had learned something while getting pulverized by her. Sort of.

Neechan was still stiff with him. She didn't tell him how much he stank when he stumbled in the door or look up from her work. Obaasan must have noticed because her grey eyes flicked between him and his sister before settling back on the wool she was carefully combing even as her lips pressed into a flat line.

Ojiichan wasn't blind either. "Value cannot be imposed, Raimei-chan, Naruto. You want to show him value, so set aside whatever quarrel you have. This cannot be the time."

Neechan set down her pencil and bowed to her father. "Am I not allowed to be angry at how Naruto has endangered himself and us?"

"He was saving a friend," Yasu-ojiichan said, setting aside one of Naruto's ninjutsu scrolls.

"Violently."

Naruto scowled at Neechan. He doubted she could have come up with a better solution if she had been faced with the floating sand. Besides, that had been Kyuubi's fault.

Yasu shook his head. "Your plan is on unsteady ground. Do I need to mediate?"

Neechan snorted and left her desk to fling herself on the couch next to her father. Naruto had never seen her act this way before. "Dad, sometimes I don't know if you're serious."

"Who said that I wasn't serious? Should I tell you a story and make you solve it that way?"

Obaasan snorted and set aside her wool. "You are so long-winded you would not finish before Gaara-san arrives. Naruto," she said, turning to him, "go wash. No guest should be greeted by a host covered in sweat and grime, be he a high lord or a lowly shepherd. The only scent that a guest should notice is that of the tea."

Now Naruto knew why Neechan was always going on about his smell when he got back from training. He disappeared down the hallway, but stuck his tongue out at Grandmother's back. Riko noticed and narrowed her eyes at him instead of hiding a laugh as she might have in a better mood. His heart sank.

"Change too," Grandmother Takara ordered before he closed the bathroom door.

When he turned off the shower, there was a knock on the door. "Yeah?"

"I've got clothes for you. Unlock the door."

Naruto obliged and grabbed the shirt and shorts from his sister. As he scrubbed at his hair with a towel, he heard Riko sit down and lean against the door. She was waiting. Grimacing, he wiped steam off the mirror that the fan hadn't managed to do away with and took in his face for a moment. There were bags under his eyes. It was always hard to sleep when he knew Neechan was truly mad at him. "… I'm sorry."

"Are you now," she said, her tone so sarcastic that Sasuke would have been proud. It stung.

"You're mad at me."

"Yeah, really mad."

"Because Gaara might put Ojiichan and Obaasan in danger."

"… Yeah, that too. You've been pulling a lot of crap with me lately."

Naruto froze. Neechan was _really_ mad. This wasn't going to go away. "I didn't know…"

"Really? You couldn't tell I was pissed about your bet with Tsunade?"

"Well, yeah, I sort of knew that you were mad about that."

"I'm still mad about this. I know you don't understand just what I've signed myself up for in covering for you. Think of it this way: I'm now Tsunade's slave, basically. My money is hers, all of it. I, and you by extension, am really lucky that she's letting me keep enough to live. It's going to be like this for _years_, if not the rest of my life. She owes hundreds millions of ryou. That will turn into billions as the interest continues accumulating, Naruto. I don't make that kind of money quickly. She doesn't make that kind of money. The people she borrowed from are dangerous. When you take over as Hokage for her, how is she supposed to pay?"

Naruto kept quiet. He didn't understand, not really. It was money. A visit to Ichiraku's for him was equal to two D-rank missions after Neechan finished shoving most of his pay into his bank account. Beyond that, it was all incomprehensible. "She insulted you. She insulted my dad."

"And you lost your head over it. And I'm supposed to forgive you for your idiocy? I'm supposed to forgive you for your mistake?"

"I-I'm sorry?"

There was a long silence.

"Why now? Why didn't you yell at me then? I didn't think you were that mad."

"I wasn't." Her voice was muffled by the door. "I was so caught up in everything here. I couldn't lose you. But now my parents are here. I feel better, better than I have in years. They're here for me. You understand? I'm allowed to be angry with you now that they're here."

"Grandpa said you were lonely."

"I am. More than you know. I told you that I hated silence all those years ago when you first moved in. Do you remember?"

"Not really." It had been a really long time ago.

"Well, I did say that. It's true too. I can't stand being all alone. But because I had you, I only had you for the longest time. Perhaps that's too much truth for you, but I'm angry, so I'll say it. You were it for me, so I put up with a lot more from you than I would have taken from Shiro and Itsuki."

He fumbled with the damp towel and avoided his reflection. He didn't like where this conversation was going. The world was unsteady now that Neechan was changing. She wasn't his stone foundation anymore.

"You understand?"

"Sort of," he said. "Like how I put up with stuff from Sasuke before I met Shikamaru and Chouji because he was my only friend."

"Exactly. You were my only family because you were _here_."

"What about the letters?"

"Letters are beautiful, but they don't have a face and they are delayed reactions. I can't look in Shiro's face and see what he thinks of me."

"What about phoning? I never understood why you never phoned."

Neechan barked a bitter laugh. "Naruto, this is a _hidden village_. Do you really think that the long distance lines are for just anybody? No, they're controlled and carefully monitored. I'd have to go to the next town to have a real phone conversation with my family. I can't just take off on a two day journey just to have a phone conversation, no matter how much I wanted to sometimes.

"Whatever. Never mind. You don't understand. I can't expect you to. If someday you go and stay in the clan compound, maybe you'll understand then.

"I'm also still furious that you took part in the Chuunin Exam without asking my permission. What happened to parental or guardian consent?"

Naruto wanted to laugh at her, but that would be bad. He pulled his shirt on instead. "Kaka-sensei gave us the passes. He nominated us."

"And this is more important than my opinion."

"Neechan, he's my _sensei_. What if I became a chuunin? I'd be a step close to Hokage!"

"You're _twelve_. There is no way you're ready to become a chuunin."

"Neechan!"

She was implacable and even his indignation withered in the face of her unfettered ire. "No! Shut up! I know what I'm talking about, for once. I've met chuunin. I've looked in their eyes. You do not have chuunin eyes. You are _not_ ready. You were not going to pass this exam. If you had, gods, I don't know what I would have thought."

"Mikoto-obachan said—!"

Neechan slammed her hand against the door so it rattled. "Koto knew full well you wouldn't pass. She said it was a training experience for you. She let Itachi go into ANBU, too. I trust Mikoto, but I don't agree with her about a lot of things, especially when it comes to you. She has plans for you. I don't know what or why, but you're important to something she wants done. She's too concerned with your advancement. The Chuunin Exam only proves it."

"She knew my parents!"

"So did a lot of people. Your dad was the Yondaime."

"And he became a chuunin when he was eleven! I looked it up!"

"… Naruto, I'm not going to accept that argument from you. I don't forgive you this exam thing. I won't for a long time. You could have died. You _all_ could have died. I won't forgive Hatake-san for nominating you either for a good long time."

"You have no say over my shinobi career!"

"I do if you are living in my house!" Again, the door shook.

He raked the brush through his hair. "Then maybe I don't want to live here anymore."

"Then maybe I'll go back to Kaijin no Mura and let the clan help me with Tsunade. You are the only reason I'm still here."

Old terror welled up, overcoming his anger. He slammed his palm against the door. "You can't leave!"

"Why? What point is there in my being here if you won't even respect me enough to let me influence your choices, if you won't respect the effect your choices will have upon me?"

His nails dug into the door. "You can't go away."

"What reason is there for me to stay?"

He took a deep breath. "You're my sister."

"And what does that mean to you?"

"You're Neechan; you boss me around and take care of me. I bug you and make you laugh. You can't go away."

She was silent.

Desperate, he continued. "You're almost as scary as Obachan when you're mad… No, you're scarier right now. You know how to make pranks even if you don't like people knowing that you do. You're always making me be polite. You cook and work and buy groceries with me. We go running every morning we can. I can catch you now. We go to the library together. You read me books and teach me things that they don't teach at the Academy. You know more about chemistry and small physics stuff than Kaka-sensei. You're Neechan. You can't go away."

The door shuddered under his hand as she slammed her palm into it again. "Then respect me, dammit! I'm not your damn punching bag!"

He gulped. "I'm sorry."

"You'll listen to me about the Chuunin Exam next time?"

He took a deep breath. "Yes."

"Even though you know that I hate what you do?"

He grimaced. "I'll listen…"

"But you might choose to ignore me."

"I'll listen."

"Not good enough. Naruto, I may hate ninja, but I already promised that I'd see you become Hokage. But I only want that for you _when you're good and damn ready_. No sooner. No short cuts. You're nowhere near ready. I don't care what anybody else says. You are not ready to commit murder. You're still too kind. I got to you that much."

"But Kaka-sensei—!"

"Isn't your sister. Promise you'll respect my decision."

"You're supposed to be _my_ people."

"You're supposed to be my baby brother and do what I say until you're at least sixteen. When you can vote in municipal elections and drink, we'll talk again. Hiroji is in his thirties. When you're thirty, you're allowed to just listen. With any luck, you'll have a better grasp of the world than Tsunade."

Naruto allowed a small smile to twist his lips. "I don't like this."

"Too bad, brat. This is life. This is authority. Deal with it. This goddamn village may have some twisted idea that the moment you pass the genin exam you're an adult, but I was raised properly. You are not an adult. Your behaviour proves this many times over. Me bending over backwards to help you obviously isn't helping you figure out how to be one. My mother thinks you're spoiled rotten.

"After this Snake business, I agree with her. Who said it was okay for you to lie to me about what the heck was going on in _my own home_? You flinch when I ask you to wash dishes or have a shower. You eye your planters like you expect them to eat you. That's not okay. Are you a masochist?"

"She seemed so good…"

"She is; I'm sure. But how did she get that way? She's really old according to Mikoto and really nasty. Do you really want to be like her?"

"No, but I wanted to beat her." He carefully hung his discarded towels so they would dry.

"Yeah, well, come back to that goal in ten years. For now, keeping up with Sasuke should be enough. One thing at a time. I do want you alive, you know. You can't become Hokage if you're dead."

Her frank tone was back. There was the slightest twinge of humour in it that set his trembling to rest. He breathed easy again. He was on steady ground with her again. "I am sorry, you know."

"I know. I made you sorry and I'll keep at it until you truly _know_ why you should be sorry. I'm still good at that."

He snorted and unlocked the bathroom door. He heard her getting to her feet. When he was pretty sure she was clear, he opened the door. She was leaning against the opposite wall, a couple small braids resting stiffly on her shoulders. "When did you get those?"

"Mother did them while you were showering. She's always done this. It's the one 'peasant' habit she allows herself." Neechan's smile as she pushed the braids behind her shoulders made something click in Naruto. This was Neechan's family. This was the ease that existed between her and her mother despite Obaasan's stiffness.

This was value.

* * *

"Hurry up, you slowpoke!" Naruto shouted over his shoulder at Gaara. "Obaasan's fast for an old lady!"

It wasn't going well. Gaara was determined to be creepy. Fortunately, Grandmother was impervious to Gaara's malice as Neechan hadn't been. Riko had been genuinely terrified of the stare the redhead had levelled at her the moment he had stepped in the door. Naruto grimaced. He couldn't expect much help from her.

"Naruto," Grandmother barked.

Grinning, Naruto fell into step beside her and whined when her knotted fingers took hold of his ear. Yes, she pinched as hard as Neechan.

"Why Nariko lets you get away with such disrespect, I do not understand, but I will not tolerate it. You will address all politely." She released his ear and paused to turn back to Gaara, who hadn't even set aside his gourd for the walk to the grocery store. "Gaara-san, please keep up. I do not know when the store will close or how long it will take you two to decide on a flavour. I will not allow you to keep the store's staff past closing."

Gaara didn't hurry up in the slightest.

Obaasan's eyes narrowed, but she kept waiting. When he got close enough, she reached out to grab his hand. Naruto panicked when he saw the look in Gaara's eyes and the movement of the sand. He clapped a hand down on Gaara's shoulder and squeezed threateningly as Takara secured Gaara's hand and fixed her eyes on Naruto. "The other side, Naruto. This way we will not get lost."

Reluctantly releasing his hold on Gaara, Naruto slipped around Takara-obaasan to grab hold of her other hand. It was the most stressful walk of his life. He glanced back at Gaara every couple seconds, making sure he wasn't about to take Takara-obaasan's hand off or something. What he would do if Gaara did do something made him twitchy. He wasn't fast like Sasuke; he was positive Gaara would be able to hurt Obaasan before Naruto managed to intervene.

Somehow, they made it to the store without any major incidents. People who would normally go out of their way to bump into Naruto steered clear with ancient Obaasan at his side. Gaara probably had something to do with it too.

The automatic doors slid open without protest. Obaasan let go of Naruto's hand to pick up a basket, but kept a firm grip on Gaara, who still looked rather nonplussed about the whole thing. "Naruto, lead the way. We need to pick up some fruit for tomorrow as well."

"Neechan usually picks that up at stalls in the market," Naruto said. Grocery stores were only visited when they needed stuff they couldn't get anywhere else.

"Oranges and mangos are things I do not expect to find at a stall as they are imported and must be kept cold. We will get those first and then get the ice cream so it does not melt while we dither over fruit."

So Naruto set off in the direction of the produce section while Takara dragged Gaara along. He grabbed a bag and took the basket from Obaasan as she carefully inspected fruit. "You see this?"

Naruto peered at the discoloured spot she was pressing her pointer finger into.

"This indicates that the orange beneath the peel is beginning to rot." She picked up another. She pressed it into Gaara's free hand. "Squeeze it. Notice how it gives beneath your hand. That means that the peel is softer and will be separated from the orange within more easily. I prefer peeling oranges to cutting them up, so I prefer those with softer skins." She reclaimed the orange from Gaara and presented it to Naruto to try. "Put it in the bag and help me find more unblemished ones like that. We need four."

Gaara didn't help, but Naruto was just glad that Takara-obaasan wasn't screaming. He kept an eye on the boy as Obaasan fussed over the last orange and found a twist tie for the bag.

"Mangos now. Maybe getting cantaloupe would be good too." Again, Grandmother guided them both through how to select the best mangos, this time emphasizing smell as well as the feel of the fruit. "Alright, Naruto, ice cream now."

Grinning but still keeping an eye on Gaara, Naruto switched the basket to his other hand and grabbed Grandmother's free hand. "This way! How much can we get?"

Grandmother snorted, but her eyes smiled. "One tub, no more."

People in the store were still watching them, whispering, but Grandmother's glance was potent enough to shut them up. Whatever aisle they were in emptied pretty quickly, but Naruto couldn't really complain about that. It meant he could bounce around as much as he wanted as he spouted off the different ice cream flavours. "Gaara, what flavour do you like?"

The boy's blank look hardened.

"Nariko likes mango, but Yasu prefers strawberry, so we have that most often at home," Grandmother said.

"Obaasan, what kinds do you like?"

"Mint, but I am not so picky that I dislike any other flavour. Pick. They will begin to worry at home if we do not return soon. Your streets are so crowded here with this Chuunin Exam going on. It will take us some time to get home."

Rolling his eyes when Gaara continued to be uncooperative, Naruto grabbed a box of Neapolitan. "Grandpa's happy and Neechan can put mango in the vanilla."

"And chocolate for you?" asked Obaasan.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Obaasan shook her head, but reclaimed Naruto's hand once the box was in the basket. The girl manning the till looked terrified and perfectly willing to be bitchy about his presence, so Naruto dragged Gaara with him to the windows just past the bagging area at the end of the till. He didn't want to leave Obaasan unprotected with the guy. With Naruto out of the way, checkout went without a hitch. Obaasan presented the bag to Naruto and snagged both their hands again. Naruto thought that the incident would go without comment, but Obaasan was steel.

She made her comments directly to the cash girl. "So, I see that your customer service only extends so far. I am vastly disappointed by your unpardonable behaviour towards my grandson. I will be lodging a formal complaint with your manager and with the chain if it proves that your manager is willing to back up your behaviour. I advise you to seek employment where you are not in contact with customers."

Leaving the girl sputtering in their wake, Naruto went along with Obaasan, wondering if she was only being this forward because she would be leaving Konoha in a month. When they got home, Takara-obaasan started grumbling about the experience loudly to Neechan and Yasu.

"It's usually like that," Neechan said, taking the cutting board with a pile of minced garlic her father passed her and scraping it into the frying pan. "If I get too vocal about it, it just gets worse."

"Yet another reason you should come home with us," Takara said as she pulled her receipt out of the bag and hunted for a phone number on it while she grabbed the phone. After the number was stabbed in, Grandmother took a seat at the dining room table and began demanding to speak with the manager after a few moments of silence.

Naruto struggled to decide whether he wanted to laugh or grimace at the sight of his grandmother on the warpath on his behalf, but settled on shaking his head and deftly avoiding the dance in the kitchen to get the ice cream in the freezer and the oranges in the fruit drawer. The mangos went into the fruit bowl on the counter separating the kitchen from the dining room. "How much longer until supper?"

"A while, brat. Go entertain like a proper host. Dad, thanks for your help here. I think I've got it now."

"Very well, Raimei-chan, I know when I'm not wanted in the kitchen."

"You always cut the garlic so well, but…"

Grandpa shook his head and pouted. "I practice so hard for all these years apart, and this is still what you compliment me on."

Neechan smirked and waved her wooden spoon at him. "Tomorrow, we will cook together again and you can show me up."

"I will hold you to that. Naruto-kun, to the living room. Gaara-kun seems to be in danger of becoming a well-painted statue."

In the background, Grandmother primly described her disgust and disappointment in excruciating detail into the receiver. Whoever was talking to her couldn't seem to get a word in edgewise.

* * *

Gaara stood in the living room full of plants as the blond boy dragged his grandfather over to a couch. The grandmother concluded haranguing the store's manager and retrieved a phone book, searching for some other number. Neither grandparent was the least bit concerned that he was present. They acted as though he had always been with them. They were more at ease with his presence than his family.

He envied this Naruto more than he envied his opponent from the preliminaries. He had felt the beast in this boy. That he had what Gaara did not filled him with cold fury. Worse still, this boy probably had the power to reaffirm Gaara's existence, to provide a kill that would satisfy Gaara and the bloodthirsty presence within him, but this boy was not interested in killing him.

"This won't last," Gaara said, struggling to contain the wrath that threatened to destroy the entire room. He couldn't see the ANBU assigned to keep him under surveillance, but he could feel him doing his job. Baki had not been pleased when he had learned that Konoha was watching him, but the man pretending to be his sensei knew better than to try to scold him.

"What won't?" asked Naruto.

"They'll betray you. It is inevitable. They will try to kill you someday. That's what they do to people like me, like us. They make us, regret it, and try to remedy their mistake."

Naruto frowned at him. "That's what happened to you? Hm, then I guess it makes more sense. Yeah, people tried to kill me before, but never Neechan, never Old Man. They won't."

"You're a fool."

"Yeah," said Naruto with an easy grin. "Mikoto-obachan tells me that all the time. She's the one that stopped you the other day."

"The Uchiha."

"Yeah; she's my best friend's mom. I've known her since I was about six. She didn't really like me at first, but I managed to convince her that I'm gonna become Hokage."

Gaara laughed. "They won't let you become Hokage. They would never allow what they hate to rule over them. They despise you as they despise me. I saw it today. They will not touch you in the streets, they will not stay in the same space as you, and they won't serve you. No, you are not loved."

"Gaara-kun, please sit down," said the Yasu man, resting a hand on Naruto's head. When Naruto glared at Gaara when he failed to comply quickly enough, the Ichibi container reluctantly sat in a weathered armchair, forced to set aside his gourd to do so. "Now, speak clearly. You say Naruto is not loved, yet here he stays in my daughter's house for over five years now. For over five years she has sent me letters filled with tales of his adventures with Sasuke and his other friends."

Naruto sported a pained grimace for a moment. "Neechan told you everything?"

"Every little thing," said Yasu solemnly.

"Oi, Neecha-an!"

"Wha-at? Can it wait until I'm finished cooking? Do you want me to burn myself or something?"

Pouting, Naruto addressed Gaara instead. "You're right; most people here don't love me. I didn't know why until this year, but I knew they hated me from the very beginning. So yeah, I understand what you're saying."

Gaara frowned. The boy hadn't tried to deny it, but he didn't seem too bothered. What now? "Then you know that they will eventually kill you."

Naruto shook his head. "Old Man won't let 'em. He's Hokage, and he's always been protecting me. Sure, he's stepping down next month, but Tsunade-obaachan's next in line. She gave me this necklace." He pulled a black cord out from underneath his shirt and showed off the two silver drops and the blue crystal hanging from it. "It belonged to the Shodaime. It's sort of like a promise between us; I'm supposed to become Hokage because she leant this to me. I'm not allowed to die like everyone else that she's given it to. What about your Kazekage?"

"The Kazekage is my father. He orders assassins to kill me."

Naruto frowned at him. "No wonder you're so screwed up then."

Gaara was at a loss. There was no horror and yet there was no look of justification on that face. He was used to those two reactions when he toted out this choice bit of information. Naruto accepted the assassination attempts and moved on, as though they weren't important, as though they didn't reflect upon Gaara at all.

"Me, well, there are usually some who get stupid around my birthday. Kyuubi wasn't so nice to people here when he went on his rampage, so there are a lot of people who want to get back at him for all the people he killed. Unfortunately, he's in me, so I'm the one that gets to have fun with all their revenge attempts."

"In you." Gaara didn't know what to make of this. Naruto spoke as though the strange chakra in him was something other than the ghost of a vengeful parent. "I came into this world killing the woman that I might have called mother. Before birth, my father sealed an incarnation of sand, a priest, in me so I would be the ultimate shinobi."

Naruto frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"I killed my mother with my birth, so she haunts me with the sand, and I am possessed by the priest."

Naruto and his grandfather exchanged glances. "Um, dude, I don't think that's quite right. Old Man told me that you had Ichibi in you, not your mom or a priest. I've got Kyuubi in me; he recognized the guy in you and called him a 'drunken ball sac.' Kyuubi was _pissed_ to see him, so they've gotta know each other."

"It is Shukaku," Gaara insisted and glared at Naruto when he opened his mouth to argue.

"Will you let me tell you a story I managed to gather over the years?" Yasu asked. "My current sensei confirmed my own findings with his understanding, so I feel safe enough saying that this is more fact than fiction."

"Sure," said Naruto. "What sort of story?"

"About the tailed beasts and how they came to be. Most of this is shinobi lore, but there are several cults that worship each of the tailed beasts. The stories of where their deities came from share many things."

Gaara narrowed his eyes, but the old man began his narrative anyway.

"They say in the beginning that there was one who understood the magic of ten. Ten is a beautiful number, so said the followers of an ancient mathematician. The juubi was said to walk the earth before ninja came into existence. He was god on earth: when he walked, the world shook; when he slept, life came out and prepared for his next waking; when he sang, the skies were dark and full of frenzy.

"Humans were weak then since little of theirs could survive Juubi. Shaman after shaman worked to find some way of appeasing their angry god, to find some way to force him to sleep forever, to find some way to kill him, though this last option was only considered in secret for it was blasphemous. Seals were drawn and tested and failed time and again.

"One shaman stood above the rest. Sage of the Six Paths they named him, for his original calling was in the attainment of enlightenment. This man dared swallow Juubi, take him into himself, and stand as a peaceful god in his stead. They say he still looked to Buddha for guidance on how to live his life, but he knew he could not take Juubi with him when he passed into his next life.

"So, as his end neared, he took God and divided him into three and three pieces, distorting the magic of ten. And so the fragments fell, each taking to it an aspect, though one was lost in the breaking from ten to nine. The greatest of the fragments fell first for the Sage had not yet learned properly how to sever smaller pieces of power; to this one, Kyuubi, went fire and wrath. This one retains the most of what Juubi was when he walked. The last fragment and the smallest had only one tail—Shukaku, Ichibi. To him was given dominion over wind and gluttony.

"These nine were not what the Sage had hoped. They were gods in their own right, powerful in their own field to create as much chaos as their original form. And so the ritual began again, with shinobi and shamans alike trying to appease, contain, or destroy these new gods.

"And now we are here and I sit before two vessels that prove that if nothing else, these fragments exist. Fire and wind, each somehow belong to the countries that bear their names." The old man fell silent and leaned back against the couch, watching them.

"Grandpa, was there really a juubi?" asked Naruto, looking sceptical.

Yasu shrugged. "I cannot say. I can only repeat what I have managed to dig up. They claimed that his body was sealed in the moon, which I think is ridiculous. The moon is leagues beyond Earth's circles. No man has ever set foot on it. It's more likely it was cut into pieces and sealed all over the world: that would be far wiser than sticking the whole thing in one place. Who is to say that the bijuu would not someday recall what they had been together and decide to join again somehow? The Sage could not have known, after all, just how much the fragments would fight when he first devoured Juubi."

"Supper!" Naruto's sister called.

They did not return to the topic after the meal or during it, but it gave Gaara plenty to mull over. Before Naruto let him leave, he said, "We didn't get to talk enough, so we should do this again soon. Maybe in two days?"

Gaara didn't reply, but that didn't deter the other boy.

"Okay, two days then. Same time, okay? 'Night!"

"Safe journey to your lodgings, Gaara-kun," said Yasu, and his wife and daughter bestowed similar sentiments upon him.

Gaara wandered the rooftops, wondering what to make of it all.

Perhaps he would know in two days.

* * *

Naruto slumped against the shut door as Neechan collapsed on the couch. "Two days! You brat!"

"We didn't make enough progress! He's not going to leave us alone," Naruto said.

"I don't know if I can take it," Neechan whined. "Every moment he was in the house, I could feel him consider killing us. Gods, what did they do to make him like that?" She chafed at her arms and shuddered.

"Nariko!" Takara settled in her usual chair and folded her hands.

"Mother, you can't tell me you didn't feel it! You'd have to be dead not to feel it!"

"Yes, I felt it. I also felt the boy's uncertainty when I held his hand. He did not know what to make of it."

"Father?"

"I felt it as well," Ojiichan said. "But, Raimei-chan, he is one that needs something like us the most—"

Riko waved her hand. "No, I'm not suggesting that we deny him what we would freely give anyone else. I'm just really scared. He knows our faces now. We annoyed him."

"Hey, I was right here the whole time," Naruto reminded her, but he had to agree. Gaara was really creepy. "It's two days. Maybe by then Ero-Sennin will have taught me a cool jutsu I can use if something happens. He said we were going to be doing stuff so I could control Kyuubi better and use his chakra."

Neechan looked worried as she patted the space on the couch beside her. When he obligingly sat down next to her, she ruffled his hair. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Not entirely," he admitted. "But Kyuubi kind of freaked me out when he went after Gaara. I can't let that happen again."

Neechan pursed her lips, but nodded. "You'll be careful tomorrow, right? If Jiraiya-sama does anything that could compromise your seal, you'll tell me, right?"

"Sure, sure, I'll tell you." Naruto shook his head at her. "Don't worry! Ero-Sennin doesn't want me dead, Neechan. Come on!"

* * *

"If I get out of this alive, I'm going to kill him," Naruto howled as he hurtled towards the dark bottom of the chasm a week later.

Ero-Sennin had unceremoniously pushed him off the edge this morning after more conventional exercises to draw out Kyuubi's chakra had failed and Naruto's pathetic display of toad summoning ability. Naruto had been screaming and trying to grab hold of the slick walls for what felt like eternity and no time at all, but nothing was working. He was fast approaching total panic. He had to use the fox's chakra, or he would go splat. Desperation leant him the strength to force himself into a trance, or so he liked to think. It was more likely that he fainted, but he would deny that to his dying day.

He was not impressed when he became aware again. His mind was a bloody sewer. He hoped that it wasn't a reflection of his actual thoughts. As he traveled, he realized that he was walking through a flooded basement-like place rather than a sewer. Relieved, he followed the sounds of heavy breathing until he stood before ornate gates held closed with a piece of paper with the kanji for seal on it. Beyond the bars, he could see the enormous form of his fox 'guest.' They stared at each other, sizing each other up, Kyuubi's large golden eyes unreadable. Naruto felt that he had been found lacking though. Maybe it was the way those huge teeth were revealed in a wicked grin.

"**What do you want? Come closer so I can see you." **His voice was deeper than any human voice could be, as though echoing out through the ages. Naruto had a terrible feeling he wasn't just standing before a bijuu, one of the tailed beasts. No, this fox was more than just that, like Ojiichan's story said. He had the horrifying feeling that if he lost any of his nerve, he would start shaking.

"No way. Besides, you're a fox. You can see me just fine from there, just like I can see you just fine from here. You're glowing enough that I can make you out. You're pretty big." Understatement of the year right there… How did this fox-bastard fit inside of him?

The fox chuckled, with his paws crossed before him like some sort of weird king with way too many rings to show off. **"That's not saying much coming from a shrimp like you. You'd hardly be a mouthful for all that I want to eat you."**

"Well, I guess my height works in my favour. Now, I'm just about as happy about you being inside me as you are, but this is the way things are until we've got a better solution. I say we work together until we can figure something else out, because if I screw up and die, so do you. Right now, I'm sure you've noticed that we're hurtling towards a very messy end, so it would be great if you leant me enough chakra to save our butts with this jutsu I know."

Kyuubi burst out laughing. The cruel sound echoed off the basement's vaulted ceiling and walls until it was simply an evil cacophony raining down upon Naruto. **"You really are gutsy to come here to say these things to me knowing who I am and what I'm capable of. Fine, I'll lend you some chakra, but you'd better keep your word about fixing this. I'll be expecting another visit soon."**

Red chakra seeped into the liquid around his ankles and flowed towards Naruto, who had to remind himself not to bolt, and he came back to himself wishing he hadn't since the bottom was no longer just formless black. Reacting now that he could feel Kyuubi's chakra flowing through him, he raced through the seals for Kuchiyose no Jutsu after biting his thumb open and slammed his hand into open air, forcing the seal to draw itself upon the space beneath his hand with pure will. The result was immediate. A toad only a bit smaller than Kyuubi flashed into existence below him with a poof of smoke. Naruto's screams changed from panic to delight as he landed.

"Oh yeah! Who's da masta? I'm da masta! Who is still alive? That's right; I'm still alive! _Yosh_!" He danced on the toad's back. After calming down, he moved onto the toad's head and looked down into one of its eyes. "Hello," he said, waving into the toad's eye. "I'm sorry to pull you from whatever you were doing, but thanks for showing up. I was about to go splat. You really saved my ass."

There was complete silence for a moment before the reddish toad began shouting. "Li'l punk, get off my head and stop lying! There's no way someone as small as you could summon me."

Naruto was not impressed. He had been polite, so what did the stupid toad do? He mouthed off his about his size. Normally, Naruto could handle comments about his short stature, but it had been shoved in his face _twice_ today. He was at his limit.

"Shut up, you! What the hell! Why is every creature I talk to so freaking rude today? I spend all this energy summoning you, so what do you do? You insult me. I've just about had it, dattebayo!"

The toad narrowed his eyes at him. "Who are you to talk? You're walking around on my head. Do you even know who I am, punk?"

"No, you didn't see fit to introduce yourself. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. What's your name, oh mysterious toad, sir?" asked Naruto.

"You want your head ripped off, punk? I'm the great toad boss, Gamabunta-sama."

Now Naruto understood: this toad had an ego the size of the canyon and he had just dented it. He hopped onto Gamabunta's nose, hoping that his new location would be less offensive. "I'm sorry, boss toad."

"Huh, well, if you really are sorry, I'll make you my underling. You can drink with me—"

Naruto didn't like this idea and decided to say so. "But I can't be your underling and I'm too young to drink sake—!" Naruto was proud of himself for not cowering and for not blowing a gasket when a slimy tongue wrapped around him and Gamabunta jumped out of the chasm. Along the way, Naruto passed out. _'I'm never going to live this down,'_ was his last thought as everything went black.


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 39: The Hanged Man

Naruto woke in his room with no memory of how he had gotten there for the second time in two weeks. This time, he woke because he felt eyes on him. Cracking his open, he yelped and scrambled back when he saw that Sakura was crouched at the foot of his futon with her arms crossed, Sasuke was regarding him while he sat cross-legged at his bedside with one hand braced on his knee, his arm still in a cast, and Kaka-sensei was reading porn by the window.

"What are you guys all doing in my room?"

"We've got a mission, dumbass."

"Bastard, you think—!" Naruto stopped short and clutched at his head. _Kyuubi_…

"What is it, Naruto?" Sakura, her shorn hair looking much better now that she had finally had the time to get a professional hair dresser to deal with the hack job he had done, frowned at him and uncrossed her arms.

"I was falling down a chasm."

"What?"

"Ero-Sennin pushed me down a freaking crack in the earth! Why… why aren't I dead?" His thumb stung, reminding him that he had bitten it open one too many times over the past week during his attempts to summon toads. He had been failing miserably, unable to warp his own chakra into the delicate seal and generate enough at the same time to handle summoning more than dumb tadpoles. But there had been a giant red toad. "I saw Kyuubi."

Kakashi's book snapped shut. "Is that so?"

"In my head. I was falling and out of chakra. I went to a basement, and he was there behind this huge gate. We yakked for a bit, and he gave me some chakra, and I summoned some rude, badass toad. Gamabunta or something…"

"Interesting," Kaka-sensei said. "This explains when you were dropped off in front of the hospital. Matsuku-san required my help to get you released so you could recover at home."

"Yeah, she doesn't think it's safe for me there. Besides, it smells way better at home. Where's everyone, anyway?"

"It's nearly noon, so I imagine Matsuku-san is at work. Her parents let us in and left to do some sightseeing. It was kind of them to let us interrogate you in peace." Kakashi-sensei's eye-smile was distinctly menacing looking now. "What have you all been doing since you failed the second exam?" He looked at Sasuke expectantly.

"Recovering," Sasuke said, holding up his arm. "You've been on me like a tick, so I don't know why you're asking. You've been training me too."

"Recovering," Sakura agreed, running her fingers self-consciously through her hair. "Tsunade-shishou gave me some more books to read, so I've been doing that too."

"And you, Naruto-kun?" asked Kaka-sensei.

"Well, first there was Snake, but you know all about that."

"But Sakura doesn't."

"Oh, right," said Naruto. "See, this ANBU lady sort of started 'training' me without asking anybody for permission. Basically, she dragged me through the dirt. She nearly killed me all the time: she kept poisoning me, which wasn't fun, suffocating me, and trying to crush me. She almost drowned me when I was washing dishes once."

"Naruto, why didn't you report her?" Sakura looked aghast.

"Eh? Well, she sort of wouldn't take no for an answer. Besides, she showed me Gaara. I think he's the guy that crushed those people we saw during the exam to a pulp. That seems to be his kind of thing. Anyway, Snake got sent out on a mission, and Old Man dragged Ero-Sennin back to train me, but on Snake's last day, she got me to hunt Gaara down. I found him trying to finish off Kiba, so I kinda rushed him. That didn't go too well 'cause Kyuubi went nuts." By the time Naruto finished explaining events up to the last thing he remembered (yesterday?), even Sasuke looked surprised. "So, that's it!"

"Moron."

"Yeah, well, Bastard, you try saying no to these freaks chasing after me."

"It's nice that you've all been productive during your little holiday," Kaka-sensei interrupted, somehow getting behind both boys and resting a hand on their heads. "I'm not entirely disappointed with your progress during the exam. However, since none of you made it through to the final, your hopes of chuunin end here this time. So, it's back to work for us." He dropped a scroll into Naruto's lap.

Naruto cautiously cracked it open. "Gah! Weeding again!"

* * *

Jiraiya didn't know what to think when an old couple came upon him in the meeting spot Matsuku-san had angrily insisted upon for today.

"You are Jiraiya-sama?" demanded the elderly woman.

"I am."

"We're Naruto-kun's grandparents, Matsuku Nariko's parents. She had work today, so she asked us to step in."

"Yes," said the reedy old man beside the stately, menacing woman with a kind smile, "she asked us to find out why it was that Naruto-kun ended up in the hospital and you did not see fit to let her know why and how."

"So, let us sit down and _talk_." The old woman should have been a general.

* * *

Hinata grabbed her water bottle and squirted a measure into her mouth. It didn't bother her much that she couldn't feel her hand around the bottle. It was enough that it reacted to her chakra.

"Are you ready yet, Kitten?" asked Genkichi-sensei. They were braving the heat of Training Ground 5, which was the closest to the hospital, but was unfortunately without much tree cover.

Kitten nodded, wiping sweat lingering beneath her bangs away with the back of her stump. Contact with it didn't make her flinch, didn't strike her as odd at all. The stump was a part of her identity. It was comfortable.

"Alright, now we know you're pretty comfortable with most of your regular motions. Your kunai accuracy is nearly as good as it was for Hinata. You have the shape of your hand firmly in your head. This is both good and bad. Kitten, why could it be bad?"

Hinata slipped into her usual nervous habit of poking her index fingers together, but failed miserably. It was at times like this that the pang of not having her right hand hit her. "B-because… I'll try to rely on it too much when I can't." Like now.

Genkichi-sensei nodded. "Yes, that's part of it. But you are also limiting yourself by imposing the restriction of the remembered form of your hand. Your chakra threads, which you are using to imitate your chakra missing chakra network, are so much more flexible than you are giving them credit for. Come stand beside me." When she obliged (resisting the urge to cover her nose—her sensei's sweat did not smell good), he planted a meaty hand on her shoulder. "Now, grab your water bottle. I wouldn't mind a drink."

She blinked at him, but saw what he was getting at. He wanted her to set aside the picture of the hand. She grimaced and extended her hand, terrified that if she let the image go, she would lose it forever. Such fear did not help her bend the chakra threads across the clearing.

"Kitten, you're trembling. Relax. You know your hand. You can always call up your hand again. You still have a perfect mirror to use as an example. Let it go for now. Reach. Stretch. Watch what you're doing."

Taking back the form of her hand, she activated her eyes and watched the threads lengthen and lose form. It was horrible, watching her hand come apart just when she had finally come to trust it. When she finally had threads looped around the bottle, she tentatively tugged. The bottle was dragged a few centimeters across the tree stump it rested on.

"Good! Very good." Genkichi-sensei ruffled her hair. "Now, we don't want to get your water bottle dirty, so what can you do? The threads will drag it across the ground."

Hinata frowned and considered. "I-I don't know."

"Why don't you think out loud? Then I can help you find some ideas that might work."

"Well, if there was a tree, I could l-loop my thread over it and make it swing back."

"But you don't, so that's out. That's a good point though. Your threads are very flexible, but not very stiff when you need them to be when they're carrying something pretty heavy."

"I-I could thicken them? Make them stiffer?"

"Yes, you definitely could."

Focusing, Hinata collected more chakra from elsewhere in her body and reinforced her threads. When they were thicker than a pencil, than a rod, she began drawing the chakra back into herself, shortening the rod that still had the bottle threaded to the end. The bottle hovered back towards her on a beam of her energy. Blushing at Genkichi-sensei's profuse praise, she held out the water bottle to him.

"It's alright, Kitten. You need a drink more than me. See? I have one over there." She looked where he pointed. In the lone tree some twenty meters away sat a silver canister. He extended a hand, and it raced towards them. She saw his beam of chakra extend and retract to accomplish the motion. His beam was not as thick as hers. Perhaps she had used too much energy, overcompensating?

"You see, Kitten, the problem many shinobi have is that they assume chakra must be used with their physical forms. They must be touching the water to walk on it. They must stab with their arm to stab with a chakra blade. This is not true. In Suna, puppet users know this. They use their puppets as extensions of themselves over distances, manipulating the puppet with chakra strings. You have been given an opportunity to see how your chakra can be so much more than a halo around you. It can be your leg or your hand or it can be a thread that hangs you over a valley. You are only limited by what you can visualize, by what you can make your chakra do for you. Chakra only needs an element so it can take on physical form, like katon jutsu. Left raw, it is anything and everything, pure energy.

"So, Hinata-chan, I think you are more than ready to learn everything Kitten knows and see that you do not need to stick with the Gentle Fist Style if it no longer suits you. You can accomplish anything you could with your hand now and more." He crouched down before her, his face ruddy beneath his stubbly beard. "You are not and never were useless. I hereby proclaim that you have graduated from my tutelage. All you need, Hinata-chan, is lots of practice."

Hinata bowed deeply. "Thank you very much, Genkichi-sensei."

He patted her shoulder and grinned at her. "I look forward to seeing you with your chuunin vest very soon. I know you will have no trouble now that you have found your feet. Now smile. Let's go find your team and show them that you are better than new. If I remember right, your Aburame teammate is the only rookie that made it to the Final Exam. I'm sure you'll be needed to help him train."

* * *

Nariko unclenched her fist and loosened her stranglehold on the folders tucked under her arm. _It's going to be just fine_. She knocked.

"Enter."

With her head bowed, she pushed open the door. After three long seconds, she raised her eyes and took in the meeting room. The Sandaime was there, as was Tsunade. There was an ANBU agent with a bird mask guarding the door. The two elders and some people she assumed were from the council sat around the table as well.

"Just on time, Matsuku-san," said the Sandaime, beckoning her forward. "I see you have all the papers there."

"Yes, I have all the documents on hand. I have a two-page summary ready for this meeting, though I do not have enough copies for all assembled. Forgive me; I did not know there would be so many here today." Nariko cursed the Sandaime for neglecting to mention just big this meeting was.

"I didn't anticipate this number either. Apparently, a great many people are suddenly quite interested in the financial state of the Hokage despite how it has never been any of their business before."

_Oh, so that's what's going on._ Well, that meant that they couldn't blame her for not having enough copies for more than Tsunade, the Sandaime, and the elders. Ignoring the uninvited extended audience, she handed out her summary and took a seat at the chair the Hokage indicated. "As you can see, I have already allocated Tsunade-sama's assets into guaranteed bonds and stocks recommended by the Intelligence Division. The floor interest rate is barely acceptable at five percent, but I could not allow much risk given that her creditors are not interested in being forgiving for missed payments at this time. The interest will be left to compound and instead the payments will be handled from next month onwards by using ninety-five percent of Tsunade-sama's wages as Hokage. Any bonuses will be directed into her investments in order to accrue more interest.

"This leaves her five percent of her income to support herself on. I am given to understand that the upkeep of the Hokage Manor is paid for by Konoha, so this should be acceptable in covering life's bare essentials."

"How am I supposed to live off of a measly twenty-five hundred ryou every month? Even genin make more than that on simple D-rank missions! What's the current rate?"

"It's five thousand ryou for a D-rank mission," Sarutobi-sama said.

Nariko nodded. "Yes, but the sum is usually split between the village, the sensei overseeing the mission, and the genin participating. Sixty percent goes to the village. Of what's left, seventy percent goes toward paying the overseeing sensei for his teaching. The remainder is usually split between three genin, so each genin actually only ends up with about three hundred ryou, a paltry sum. But yes, genin will be making more than you will have to spend on yourself in a month.

"In your case, you will only be responsible for your food and clothing, so I think that two thousand five hundred is reasonable for now. When you are on steadier ground with your creditors or when a couple have been paid off, the monthly amount can of course be increased. Please note that I have chosen this course to save you money as the interest is accumulating on your debts at a much faster rate than on your savings. Most of your loans had interest rates of at least twenty percent and quite a lot of conditions that increased the rate dramatically.

"Any expenses you incur training Haruno Sakura will be covered by Konoha, of course. The only problem I foresee is your alcoholism."

A couple people in the room chuckled. Tsunade-sama glared at her. Nariko wasn't in the mood to placate her though.

"As you can see from figure 1, the scheme I just described should keep Tsunade-sama up with her payments for this year. Next year, when some rates will jump dramatically as per the terms of the contracts she signed with her creditors, the interest on her savings will begin being used to meet the difference. As long as the creditors continue to cooperate, Tsunade-sama should be in good standing in perhaps sixteen years. With the Intelligence Division's assistance, we will continue to keep the return on Tsunade-sama's investments high enough."

"And that's that," said Sandaime-sama, clapping. "So, are you all reassured?" When no voices raised enough to be picked out of the general murmur, the Hokage nodded. "Then this meeting is over. Dismissed."

"Nariko, stay seated," commanded Tsunade. When the last person filed out of the room and the door shut behind him, Tsunade gestured that the ANBU agent make himself scarce.

"I am very glad you have overseen this for me, Nariko-san," said the Hokage. "I hope it has been as rewarding an experience for you as it has been for me. Now I take my leave. No need to bow."

Once he too was gone, Tsunade turned to her. "I have an offer for you."

Nariko steeled herself for another request for funds to fuel alcoholism.

"But first, I want to know where the money you owe me is in this scheme of yours."

"Primarily, it will be flowing into your savings. It will also be making up the difference on your monthly payments. Your wages fall short by about two thousand ryou."

"Interesting that you didn't mention that."

"I'd like to keep my shame quiet, thank you."

Tsunade-sama smirked. "Your shame, hm? Does it rankle so much?"

"I did what I thought was necessary at the time, but yes, it rankles deeply."

"You are blunt. Does it hurt that Naruto will soon have more money than you?"

Nariko kept her face blank. "It would have happened eventually. My wages are nowhere near as spectacular as his. Once he started taking on C-rank missions regularly, he would have caught up with me within a five years. He doesn't have living expenses to cover."

"Hm, an evasive answer."

Nariko clenched her fists under the table at the woman's tone.

"As I said, I have an offer for you."

Nariko blinked at the sudden change in tune.

"Freedom in return for loyalty."

"P-pardon?"

Again, that smirk crept onto Tsunade-sama's face. "I offer you financial freedom from the terms of the bet in return for absolute loyalty. You see, the team of people in Admin needs to become mine in every way, but I can't do that without bringing in people I know are mine. You would serve me as one of many aides in the Financial Department. You and others I bring in will make sure that my will and not someone else's controls all aspects of Konoha. Since I can't dump just anyone into Finance, you'll do."

This was torment. She was being offered freedom, the return of financial stability she had been without since this damned bet, an escape from the horrors of her firm, and an out from a situation that put her on tenuous standing within the clan. The catch was just that should be working directly in ninja affairs, which was forbidden. She would be aiding perpetrators of violence firsthand, paying them for doing evil. "How long would this unwavering loyalty be required of me?"

"Until I'm out of debt: sixteen years according the neat plan you just presented. But you not contributing will make this even longer, won't it?"

Shackles, cold and heavy, clanked in the back of Nariko's mind. Loyalty in chains or disloyalty in financial ruin? There was no good choice. She needed counsel now, before she did something stupidly impulsive. "I need time to think on it."

Tsunade leered as though she knew just what a horrible dilemma this was for Nariko. "Good enough." Nariko had almost made it to the door when Tsunade-sama coughed and casually held out her hand. "Cash for sake."

The laughter in Tsunade's eyes forced Nariko to understand just how little control she had. Galled, she pulled out her wallet and fished out what cash she had and handed it over with carefully crafted politeness.

"You may go now."

Nariko all but ran out of Admin.

* * *

Naruto's back ached by the time the mission was over, but he was glad to have money to spend again. He would need to get Neechan to take him to the bank and help him get some cash for this cheque. He couldn't believe his luck when he spotted her familiar form in the street below. Hopping down from his rooftop path, he hollered her name to make her look up at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, noticing how pale she was when he halted in front of her in the empty side street.

"I just got out of a meeting with Tsunade." Her voice was thin and wobbling. She kept clenching her fists around the strap of her book bag.

"So what happened?"

When she finished summarising, he could tell she was really thrown for a loop. "I mean, there's nothing I want right now that requires more money. We're pretty good, sort of. I mean, I'll have to start skimming off your savings more to cover groceries and maybe utilities eventually, but I'll dig into my stockpiled money first."

That was the money she had set aside so they could run if they needed to. He had always thought he would be happy when she gave up the option to leave here, but now he just felt as though his heart had become a stone. She was really scared to lose her way out, her way home. He grabbed her hand and squeezed. He finally began to understand why she was so angry at him, why he should be sorry for the bet.

"I mean, if you weren't going through with your ninja career, I'd have to set aside money to send you to occupational training or higher education for a civilian career, but Konoha is covering most of your training costs or taking it out of the cost of the missions you take on. For myself, I should be setting aside money for when I'm too old to work, and I was, but now…" She sighed.

"Hey, no worries," said Naruto. "Somebody will look after you when you're an obaasan."

"You?"

"Eh? Sure, why not? You looked after me, so I can do the same, right?"

Neechan laughed. "I have the feeling you'll be shipping me south before one year of you 'looking after me' is out."

Naruto stuck his tongue out, but he was glad that Neechan had relaxed enough to laugh. "Would working for Obaachan really be that bad?"

Riko-nee became grim again. "Yes, for me. It would be good for you and your goal though, I suppose. I'd be able to learn how Admin runs and teach you so you'd be set when it's your turn."

"Yeah, that would be kind of cool. But I could find somebody else, you know. It wouldn't have to be you."

She half smiled. "True." They walked in silence for a while.

"Oh! Neechan, can we go to the bank today?"

"You got your paycheque?"

"Yeah. I wanna get ramen or something."

"Most of it is staying in your savings. I'll let your keep a hundred ryou as spending money. That's enough for three bowls of ramen."

"Aw, Neechan, come on! Only three?"

She swatted him upside the head. "You've always got to put away at least half of every paycheque, goof. At least half. When you grow up, it's best if you only spend about a tenth on things that aren't essential like rent."

Naruto's eyes widened with horror at this cap. "But ramen is essential!"

Neechan shook her head. "Let's argue over that one in about seven years, okay? I've got your bank info in my wallet still from last time, so let's go right now." She dragged him off down the next alley and soon they were in front of a resigned bank clerk. Neechan handed over the account information; Naruto stood on tiptoe to push his cheque across the counter. "We need one hundred of that in cash."

While the clerk dealt with stamps, papers, and the safe, Riko-nee leaned against the counter. "Naruto, there's one thing that I want that I need more money for."

"What's that?" Naruto asked, crouching down, resting his elbows on his knees, and letting his hands hang loosely between them.

"I want a kid."

Naruto nearly fell over. Neechan never dated or anything, but she wanted a baby? "What?"

Neechan blushed, actually blushed. "I want to be a mom. Kids are expensive, so I can't have one until I'm out of this hole with Tsunade."

"So you're gonna get married and have kids?" Naruto couldn't imagine it.

Neechan laughed. "No, not so much. I don't want to get married. It didn't work out so well for my cousin Risako."

Naruto frowned. Had she ever mentioned this cousin before? "Is she the one that's being all woodsy?"

"No, that's Okano. No, Risako died a long time ago. She was Shiro's guardian. I think I mentioned this to you once."

"Isn't your cousin Shiro married though? Why's it bad for you?"

Neechan grimaced. "Well, Shiro needed to get married. Junko gives him stability, which he needs. As for me, well, I don't really need the dad around to have a kid, you know? So he can just buzz off. I want a kid, not a marriage."

"But kids need dads! I wanted my dad!"

"Hey, no, don't say that. They don't absolutely need dads. They just need stability and proper care. There's no formula for family. And yeah, I know you would have loved to keep your dad. But you've got Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei. You see? They've become your father figures. And what about your mom, huh?"

"I don't know much about her… I mean, Mikoto-obachan said it was a good thing that Mom and Snake never met, so she knew her, and Old Man told me her name was Uzumaki Kushina."

"And you haven't researched her like you did your dad?"

Naruto shrugged. "I tried, but I didn't have much luck because the chuunin caught me before I got far with my dad's file."

"Your hundred ryou," said the clerk. She counted out the bills in front of them and passed over the receipt for their initials before handing over the money and a slip with Naruto's current balance on it.

"Let's go for ramen right now!" Naruto pushed open the glass door and held it until Neechan was clear.

"I don't have any cash right now, and I don't want to take out any more until next week…"

"What happened to your cash?"

"Tsunade." Neechan kicked a rock into skittering down the dirt road.

"Well that's okay! I'll pay. You can have one bowl, and I'll have two." He grabbed her hand and dragged her along before she had a chance to protest.

When they both had steaming bowls of blessed soup in front of them, Neechan shook her head after murmuring the traditional blessing. "Thanks, Naruto."

"Eh, don't worry. It's more fun to eat two bowls with Neechan than to eat three bowls alone."

She smiled at him and ruffled his hair.

* * *

Gaara crouched above a small thicket deep within Konoha's woods under the waning moon. It was galling that the Uzumaki and the Konoha ANBU had stemmed his entertainment by keeping such close watch on him. Humans made much more interesting noises when they died than rabbits did. Rabbits didn't even scream nicely and they hardly fought back, but _M__other_ was screaming for blood in the back of his head. This was the sixteenth tonight and it still wasn't satisfied, but then, neither was Gaara.

The Uzumaki was not leaving him alone. He had dined at their house six times. Each meeting had been oddly upsetting; his thoughts were still roiling uncomfortably at times, but killing helped. It helped him forget the raw envy he felt for the fox boy. Why did that boy have such warmth about him, supporting him? What made him so special that he, a worthless waste of space, had what Gaara had never had?

He grinned when he heard the fox yip. For once, he and the one that rattled around in his mind were in complete agreement. A tendril of sand slithered along the ground, shadowing Gaara's movements as he hunted for the fox. It was close: he could hear it trying to escape. Even the woodland beasts could feel his desire for carnage. The birds had all left hours before and whatever other creatures that were about had gone into hiding. This fox must have been blind not to feel he was sneaking up on a demon.

Closer and closer slid the sand as Gaara finally got a fix on the fox's position. When at last he could see it, the tendril struck, snakelike. There was a soft, satisfying crack as the neck broke and the ribcage collapsed. Blood seeped into the sand before it dropped the corpse and returned to his gourd, leaving the shattered remains of the vulpine creature on the ground. The other in his head quieted, almost sated for the moment.

He smirked.

* * *

Hinata held her chopsticks in her invisible hand and tried to ignore the stares as she ate dinner. Chopsticks should have been difficult, but handling them was instinctive. With her chakra tendrils and memory to guide her, this had been far easier to manage than sewing the hospital mattress up.

She had been avoiding eating with the family by waking extra early and returning late. Training with Shino-kun had been her excuse, but today it had held no weight. It was Sunday, and she would eat with the clan. It was her duty.

Neji-niisan sat across from her, his eyes narrowed. To her left, Hanabi-chan was also watching out of the corner of her eye. Father was the only one who wasn't looking, but he was on the other side of Hanabi, so perhaps that was why he hadn't noticed. When the meal had begun, her sister had whispered that Otousama had told her that she was supposed to help Hinata eat so she would not embarrass the main house.

It had felt nice to not need that help.

She felt calmer without her hand than she ever had with it. She was an oddity and they stared, but Genkichi-sensei had said she was better now. Only with this calm did she believe him.

Her team and her sensei had stopped staring at her stump. They accepted that she was as capable as before now, though she had had to throw kunai and shuriken for a couple hours before they had believed.

She could even still perform Gentle Fist, but it felt less right than it ever had. One hand could no longer touch to deliver blows. It could slide right through a person, so her timing was always a little off because she couldn't feel contact until her stump touched.

What then could she do?

She brought a clump of rice to her lips. Neji was still watching. He was always so angry with her, so bitter. She wished she was brave enough to try apologizing for whatever she had done this time, but every time he tore her to pieces for trying. She couldn't bear it.

She swallowed the rice and brought her teacup to her lips.

Tomorrow she would be skipping breakfast with the clan again.

* * *

"We've been assigned a mission," said Kurenai-sensei the next morning. "Shino and I will be staying behind to train, but Hinata and Kiba, you are to go to the stadium and assist in readying the arena for the Final Exam tomorrow. Here is the scroll. Be sure to write up your report and submit it so you receive your pay."

Hinata walked in Kiba-kun and Akamaru's wake, listening as her teammate complained about having to pick up trash and scrub benches while Shino-kun got to train. She was happy to let him rant.

When they arrived, Team 7 and Team 10 were there as well along with five other genin teams that she hadn't seen very much before. Kiba-kun joined his friends, and she followed him shyly. She wondered if they knew about her hand.

"Hinata-san," said Sakura-san, welcoming her with a smile.

Hinata blushed and stuttered out a good morning and then dared to say the same to everyone else. She strove not to disappear into the ground when Naruto-kun greeted her back.

"I can't believe we got stuck cleaning up this place," he said. "We're supposed to scrub the walls and touch up the paint too."

"Less complaining, more work," ordered the chuunin overseeing the clean-up. He assigned each team a section and sent them off with cleaning supplies.

They only noticed her lack of hand when she was passed a broom along with a bucket of soapy water and sponges. Her left hand was already dealing with the bucket, so she took the broom in her right. Ino-san noticed.

"Hinata-san! Your hand!"

People turned. It was all Hinata could do to not drop her broom when those blue eyes widened upon noticing her stump. Kiba quickly came to stand by her. "Some prick whacked it off after that Gaara bastard put me out. They couldn't reattach it because the bones were too shattered. She's lucky she still has most of her forearm. But she's totally fine, see? She can use chopsticks and everything."

"Who was it, Hinata-san!" asked Sakura-san.

"Shino's gonna pay him back for doing that to you in the finals, right?" Naruto-kun raised a first.

Kiba-kun grinned maliciously. "Shino's gonna face him if he and the bastard win their first matches."

Sasuke-kun took the broom from her and studied her hand with his clan eyes. She worked hard to keep from trembling. "It looks very complete."

"Y-yes, Genkichi-sensei taught me h-h-how to do it."

"And it reacts properly?" asked Sasuke-kun.

Hinata could see that Sakura-san and Ino-san were upset at how much attention Sasuke-kun was paying her. To answer Sasuke-kun's question, she extended her chakra and pulled the broom from his grasp.

He nodded to her and turned away to head for his own section, dragging Naruto-kun with him.

Hinata stared. That had been respect. She glanced down at her hand for a long moment before following Kiba-kun to their assigned section. He raked up the leaves and trash and bagged it and swept while she scrubbed away the grime and bird poop that had accumulated since the last exam.

When they met up on their lunch break, Naruto-kun went right back to harping on how they needed to get revenge. "What's his name, Hinata?"

"Kurenai-sensei knows. I forgot," she admitted. "He wore a Hidden Rock forehead protector."

"Seriously, if Shino messes up and doesn't beat him to a pulp, we've got to do it before he heads back home."

Hinata didn't know what to say. Getting revenge for the loss of her hand honestly didn't appeal to her. She was not so much angry as sad, but people around her were so angry for her. It made her happy that they cared, but… "It's okay."

"No, it's not!" Naruto-kun scowled at her while everyone looked taken aback at her reluctance. "He didn't need to take your hand off! Why should he get away with it?"

"It was a match," she said, feeling surer now. "W-we were s-supposed to fight as though to fight to the death. Hayate-san called the match right away, and my opponent stopped right away."

"Guys aren't supposed to hurt girls like that," Kiba-kun told her, frowning. "It doesn't matter if it was a match. He didn't need to take off your hand. He could have just knocked you out."

Blushing, Hinata shook her head. They didn't understand. They hadn't seen. The older boy had only done what he was supposed to be doing. He hadn't felt anything toward her, so it hadn't been personal or anything. He hadn't thought about taking her hand off; he'd just done it reflexively. It had been her own fault that her reflexes hadn't been quick enough to take her hand out of danger. If she hadn't hesitated when trying to strike him, her hand could have been in and out of the sword's path and no harm done save to his liver. But she had hesitated. She always did.

She couldn't bear to be so close to an opponent, but Gentle Fist Style required it.

Maybe she did need to find something else, like Genkichi-sensei had said.

* * *

After his mission and his afternoon training with Kakashi was long done, Sasuke hoisted Ryuuka higher up on her back and pushed away the traitorous memories of other times involving piggyback rides. He would _not_ let _that man_ interfere. Only monumental pouting and severe indignity had gotten him home early enough to take Ryuuka to the park. He hadn't liked cutting his training short, but his mother had insisted and Ryuuka had whined. Besides, he hadn't liked leaving them alone for so long…

"Oniitama?" Ryuuka said, thankfully lowering her voice so she wouldn't blow his eardrums. He was still sure that his left ear was partly deaf. The whole "loud roar" was only too true.

"What is it?" he asked as he strolled in the direction of the park.

"What does the fan on our shirts mean?" He forced his mouth not to smile. The memory of asking this same question of his brother did the job.

"The fan is the symbol of our clan. It is an _uchiwa_ fan. What are fans used for?"

He could see her thoughtful frown in the store windows they walked by, oddly distorted by imperfections in the glass. For a brief moment, he thought that Ryuuka's brown hair had turned black and much shorter and that his own had become much longer and that weary lines had drawn themselves onto his face. He glared at the glass—frightening the woman buying bread behind it—trying to scare it back into showing the present rather than the bloody past. It did not resist his efforts for long.

"Fans are for winding yourself when it's yucky hot and at festivals when you have to wear those yucky clothes!"

He shook her head at her horrible grammar and bit back a snort at the "winding yourself" comment. Naruto had to be responsible for that one. The moron was going to pay… "Kimono," he corrected her. "You can use fans to cool yourself, but they can also feed the flames."

"Feed the fire? You mean we throw the fan into the fire?"

He rolled his eyes at her lack of comprehension and shook his head.

"Then what is it, Oniitama?" she asked impatiently, a whining overtone becoming more obvious.

"Fire eats air. You use the fan to make the wind."

"Oh," she said, realization dawning on her slowly. "But why fire?"

He sighed, exasperated. "Because our clan uses fire jutsu. You know, like the big ball of fire Kaasan showed you once?"

"Yeah!" She bounced about and hit his shoulders with her hands excitedly. "That was so cool!"

The moron was going to eat dirt, Sasuke resolved. Slang was below his sister.

"Kaasan said that if I can do that thingy, then I'm a big dragon like you."

He rolled his eyes at her habit of referring to everyone in her family as a dragon just because she was one: infection by association obviously.

"Oniitama, I wanna be a big dragon soon! Show me the fireball thingy!"

"First of all, it's a _jutsu_," he said. "Don't forget that. Second, you're not big enough yet. You don't even reach my waist."

"Oniitama!" she almost screamed, and he cringed. "I can hit Niichan on the head! That means I'm taller than him."

"Nope," he said, praying for mercy for his ears. "You're not big enough yet. When you have six years instead of just three, then I'll teach it to you." He started running to the park in hopes that the wind would take her screams of protest away from his ears. Why did dragons have to be loud?

* * *

That evening, after filing their report, Hinata walked back to the training ground and found Shino-kun resting while Kurenai-sensei explained how the exam worked. When Shino-kun turned to her (he always knew when anyone approached), Kurenai-sensei stopped talking. "Hinata, why are you here? Shino is going to go home to sleep soon, so it's too late to help him train."

"I-I wanted to ask Kurenai-sensei a question."

Shino stood up. "Thank you for your help today." As Kurenai-sensei nodded, Shino-kun turned and walked towards Hinata. "If I face your opponent, what should I do?"

"Shino-kun should focus on becoming a chuunin, not on making him pay," Hinata said.

He nodded. "Very well. Good night, Hinata."

Kurenai-sensei beckoned her closer. "What did you want to ask me?"

"I don't want to use Gentle Fist anymore. I-I can't do it as well because I can't feel with this hand. I d-don't like fighting so close either."

"But you've been trained in Gentle Fist since you were so young! Your body knows it well."

Hinata shook her head. "Not so well. I-I hesitate."

"So you want to try something different." Kurenai-sensei sighed. "Well, alright. Did you have something in mind?"

Hinata shook her head.

"Well, you can start by looking up mid-range fighting styles in the library. I'm sure we could find you someone to study under if it's a conventional style. But Hinata, this is going to be a lot of work. You are going to have to overwrite all the training you know."

"That's fine."

"Then we'll talk about this more when you've had a chance to do some research. I've heard that Sakura-san is very familiar with the library. Maybe you could ask her for help." Kurenai-sensei often encouraged Hinata to become familiar with the girls in her year.

Hinata nodded. "Thank you, Kurenai-sensei."

"Have you spoken to Neji about his fight with Gaara tomorrow?"

"No," Hinata whispered. "He was watching Kiba-kun's fight, so I'm sure N-Neji-niisan knows what to expect."

* * *

Later that evening, on her way to her room, she passed Neji-niisan's door and paused. Words sat heavy on her tongue and intent weighed down her arm. She could knock and speak with him. She could try to wish him luck.

There was a listening quality behind the door. She had the feeling if she had used Byakugan, she would have seen Neji-niisan staring at the door, waiting for her to pass on and go into her own room, which was just down the hall from his so he could guard her.

She glanced down at her stump. Genkichi-sensei had said she was better now than she had been. That meant that she had changed, improved. She didn't really feel like it now though. Hesitation still held her still before this door. She couldn't do it; she couldn't bring herself to knock. It was too hard.

The remembrance of Gaara about to crush Kiba-kun made her tremble. With a shuddering breath, she reached out and set her stump on her cousin's door.

"Hinata-sama?"

She took another deep breath and ignored his query. "Good luck, Neji-niisan. Please be careful."

Shaking with adrenaline, she hurried towards her room.

* * *

Behind the Hokage Monument, deep in the bowels of ANBU headquarters, Snake-28 knelt with the rest of the ANBU troops receiving instructions for tomorrow. They had been here for nearly an hour, and her knees would not take much more. Fortunately, Dragon-1 was nearly out of things to say.

"If you can, start evacuating people before the attack comes. The fewer civilians running around, the better. You will give your best tomorrow to ensure the safety of your village. Do not fail. Dismissed."

Snake-28 scowled when Dragon-1 made the hand sign that solo agents were to stay back. A score of green-marked agents fought the river towards the door and gathered around the ANBU commander. Dragon-1 was holding a stack of papers.

There was no need for words. Snake-28 held out her hand and received her copy of the list. Photos and descriptions of chakra signatures were included.

"You have three minutes to memorize the list."

Snake ran through the names until they were firm in her mind and linked to pictures. She knew that the list would not last past the first blow to her head. She would have to avoid getting hit. As she always did, she asked, "Are you sure I can't keep this for reference? You know how bad my recall is."

As always, Dragon-1 didn't even bother replying. There was no way he would risk the list being seen by anyone other than the hand that had written it and those that would deliver the death sentence.

Twenty lists became ashes.


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Crumbling Emperor

Nariko sprawled on the couch as Dad and Naruto bustled around the kitchen making pancakes. She had the day off work because even Ii-san was interested in watching and perhaps wagering on the outcome of the Final Exam.

"Why are you letting him go?" asked her mother, splitting some of her attention away from the thread she was spinning.

"Because he's going to be down there eventually, some other village's version if not here. He needs to know what he's going to be up against. Besides, one of his friends is fighting today."

"It's a despicable event." Nariko let her mother's snarled words wash over her. "Letting children fight to the death in front of a bloodthirsty crowd. Barbaric. Are they going to bring out a lion or a bear for them to fight to the death next?"

"Mother, I know. Trust me, I don't like this any more than you do."

"You're not going with him," she asked for the hundredth time.

"No, I'm not. I've told you again and again. I want to spend my day off with you and Dad. We can go to this restaurant Mikoto and I go to every now and then and hike up to the top of the Hokage Monument. The view up there isn't too bad."

Her mother sniffed, the spindle whorl coming to a stop. "I'd almost rather stay here. Braving the energy of the crowds out there will be offensive. All this hype over child soldiers…"

Nariko rolled her eyes and buried her head further into the armrest. "Mother, there's no avoiding it. They might even be broadcasting it within the village limits, so we'll be sure to hear my neighbours shouting about it. The Monument is the best place to be because there's no television up there and most wouldn't bother carrying a radio all the way up all those stairs. Or are you complaining because you think you're so old and stiff you won't make it to the top?"

Her mother glanced at her, amused yet stern. "You have quite a bit more lip to you than you did at home."

"No one spanks me with a wooden spoon here."

"That can be changed."

Nariko huddled in the furthest corner of the couch from her mother. "I'd rather it not."

"Pancakes!" called Naruto, setting out plates on the table while Dad carried out a platter staked with pancakes in various states of nearly burnt.

Mother smirked all through breakfast.

* * *

Yasu trailed along after his daughter and the grandson that called her "neechan" instead of "kaasan." It was a little odd, but it made him smile just the same. It was good that he had gotten a grandson before the end, which was not too far off now. He could feel it creeping up on him, always hiding just out of the corner of his eye.

Naruto had wanted them with him for his latest attempt to sway Gaara-kun. That boy was pathetic, so very bitter, yet so very desperate underneath it all. He didn't seem to know what to do about the dinners Naruto forced him to attend. Gaara didn't desire change, so there would be none. How to make Gaara want to change was the puzzle.

The stories they had managed to pull from him through sheer annoyance and the need to brag about his existence shed light on how he had become like this. The betrayal of the uncle had triggered this sociopathic state; that was sure enough. Perhaps the uncle was also the key to breaking the nephew out of it? But how, when the uncle was dead?

"You are thinking too deeply again," Takara whispered.

He smiled at her. "Yes, as always. Thank goodness you are here to pull me free, or I would likely drown or walk right into that telephone pole."

"Exactly."

Yasu laughed and shook his head. "Ah, what would I ever have done without you? I bless Yuuyake-obasan for putting you on my case every day."

"Heh, that strange one had an unrivalled instinct in this. I praise her in this if nothing else."

"Yes, you would still resent her for daring to live and die in your village." Yasu sighed and watched Naruto tug his sister over to a stand selling masks. The streets were full of vendors and spectators. It had the feeling of a festival, not a gladiator-style debacle.

"I cannot breathe here," Takara whispered. "How can she stand it? There are so many of those ninja around."

"Your intolerance is shining through, love."

"I can't help it. They're just so…!" She shuddered. "I can't stand them. I just can't. We must bring her home."

"The whole point of letting her go was so she would grow. You wanted her to learn to disregard your intolerance. You wanted her to find a test. She's found one, the best one I've yet to hear of."

Takara looked close to tears. "I don't want her here. I stayed away so long so I would not feel this, but here…"

"They are people just like you."

"People that kill, maim, and get paid for it."

"Yes." He took her hand and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. "We will stop this."

"I know. But it's so hard to wait. What if I go to my grave waiting?"

"I have no doubt you will find the strength to possess a descendant so you can continue the push in spirit."

That got a laugh from her, and her hand relaxed in his. She was a good person beneath all her bluster. She had shown him that so many times over the years. Sometimes she just didn't know how to express it verbally, so she had developed a reliance on protocol and formal manners that bordered on annoying. Coming into the clan from as a shepherd's daughter had been part of it too though. She was ever trying to hide her "lower class" origins. Such folly always made him smile.

"Gaara, there you are! Geez, we've been looking for your forever!"

Yasu watched Naruto drag his daughter into striking range of the sociopath and tried to calm the fear that made his heart race. Still, he hurried closer. He liked to feed the illusion that he could protect these two precious young ones with his proximity. Near Gaara were two older children that shared the shape of his face and the cast of his eyes. They were probably siblings, though Gaara seemed to be a throwback with his red hair. The siblings eyed their otouto with terror in the guise of wariness. Yasu felt his heart ache for the boy. He couldn't even count on his brother and sister.

"I've figured something out," Naruto said. "When I first met you, you scared the hell out of me because you were like Snake, but way worse. She goes on and on about apathy, calling it her god. You're different. You want to destroy everyone so you can be alive, right? I thought that meant you were really strong for a bit because you're a true shinobi—you have nobody."

Yasu winced and prayed the words would not trigger Gaara's wrath. "Naruto-kun, that's not very nice to say."

"But it's true," Naruto protested. "Anyway, and then I got thinking and I realized that you were sort of like Itachi-empty-face."

Yasu noticed Nariko twitch. He could tell that Gaara had as well.

"Have you guys heard of Uchiha Itachi in Suna?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," said Gaara's sister. "He murdered most of his clan."

"Yeah, I knew him when I was a kid. He's the older brother of my best friend. I thought he was really strong because he was always surpassing his own limits and not caring about anybody else."

"Naruto," Nariko said, "you can't say that. Itachi loved Sasuke more than anything. He was always protecting him. He hid it a bit, but when it came down to it, he chose to murder the clan on a night that Sasuke wasn't home."

Naruto frowned at Nariko. "Yeah, that's true, I guess. He always freaked out whenever Sasuke got hurt, even if it was just a little cut."

Gaara was clutching at his head. His siblings were backing away, trading panicked whispers.

"Oi, Gaara, are you okay?" Naruto reached out to touch the other boy despite the protests of his siblings.

Gaara smacked his hand away. "Leave me alone! Always bothering me! Always making me come and eat and talk and making me—! Ah!"

Naruto became very grave. "We're the same, you and me. I've got to show you the way out. You're like my brother. I've got to protect you because we are family, because you understand what being a vessel is. I've got to show you that you're not alone because I'm here. I'm supposed to be your enemy. I'm supposed to fight you if there was ever a war. I say no."

Gaara and his siblings stared at him.

"I won't, because you're my family. They won't pit us against each other because I won't let them, just like I won't let people pit me against Neechan just because she's a Matsuku trying to get rid of ninja. I won't let the village pit me against you just because you've got the Ichibi."

Yasu smiled.

"Naruto, you can't say it like that," Nariko said. "Gaara doesn't understand family the way you do, remember?"

Naruto frowned at her and nodded. "That's right." He turned back to Gaara. "Family is love." He pointed to the scar on Gaara's forehead. "Being brothers is to share love. So, I guess that means I love you." Naruto grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Geez, that sounds really weird. But that's why you've got to come over for a victory dinner after the Final Exam, okay? There's a guy I want you to meet. He's crazy. He used to be so lonely, just like me before Neechan came, but he got taken in by this crazy guy. He values the psycho guy so much that he jumped in front of a bullet for him. He'd understand you too."

Gaara didn't seem to know what to say to all of this. "I… I don't believe you."

Naruto grinned even more widely. "Really? Well, that's no good. Keeping my word is my nindo. I'm gonna have to beat belief into you. Maybe we'll have to spar after the exam or tomorrow. Until then…" Naruto grimaced and rubbed his chin. "Hmm, I guess, I can give you this to hold."

Naruto pulled the necklace his daughter had told Yasu was thought to be cursed from beneath his grey shirt. He took it off, batted aside Gaara's warding hands, and hung the necklace around Gaara's neck. "That's my guarantee that I'll become Hokage, remember? I'm gonna trust you with it, so don't you dare break it. Old Lady Tsunade will rip you to pieces. It was her grandpa's, the Shodaime's."

The strangest thing happened as the blue crystal settled on the mesh armour over the boy's pale chest. Yasu swore it glowed briefly. The sand, which had been spouting restlessly from the gourd and orbiting Gaara, quieted. The boy's eyes cleared slightly. "What is this?"

"I told you! It's my good luck charm. You can wear it for the matches."

* * *

Naruto jumped to bounce Ryuuka higher up on his back and grimaced as she squealed.

"Bad pony!" she gurgled, patting his head.

Naruto fought to remain calm when Sasuke smirked at him.

"Niichan, why's Riko-bachan not here?" she asked as Naruto stuck close to Mikoto-obachan's heels as she wended through the crowds plugging up the stadium stairwells.

"She's exploring with her mom and dad," Naruto said. "She wants to show them the mountain. Stop distracting me, dragon girl. How am I supposed to keep on your mom's tail when you're making me answer questions?"

"Oniitama never has problems!"

"Pfft, sure, dragon girl." Naruto smirked as Sasuke shot him the evil eye.

"Naruto, Sasuke, over here!" Naruto could hear her, but he couldn't see Obachan anymore. Then a waving hand appeared over some heads. Sasuke got behind him and pushed him forward.

The bleachers they had painstakingly cleaned yesterday were nearly full, but Obachan had nabbed them some space near the front. Some young men glared at them, muttering about being forced out of their seats by a high and mighty bitch. Naruto wasn't surprised when they ended up tripping. Sasuke didn't handle insults toward his family well.

Ryuuka wriggled in his lap and tried to grab the thermos of tea from her mother's bag, but Naruto held her back. "Ah, ah, ah! Not yet!"

"Niichan!"

"Imouto, that's for later," Sasuke said.

Pouting, she quieted. "I want pop."

"Tea is better for you," Obachan said. "Look up there." Naruto followed her pointing finger, but all he could see was the next set of stands, the ones in the middle of the three. "Up there is where the Kage sit. Sandaime-sama is up there in his robes, and Tsunade-sama is beside him. Even the visiting daimyo don't get to sit up there, just the Kage. The Kazekage is here today. He wears green."

"Gaara's dad is here?" Naruto asked.

"It is an important day for him. The exam is used to showcase a village's strength. If Gaara and his teammates do well here today, Suna may get many more customers than it has been. The leader of Hidden Rock is here as well, the Tsuchikage. He wears brown. He's the oldest of the Kage."

"Even older that Old Man?" Naruto couldn't believe it.

Obachan nodded. "Yes, he came in before the Sandaime. You should know this from the Academy!"

Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "It's been a while…"

"Moron." Sasuke smirked. "Aren't there Rain-nin that made it through as well?"

"Yes, but Ame has no Kage, so there is no one to sit up there. Their village leader must sit with the daimyo at best. Did you notice which of the great nations didn't send any shinobi?"

Naruto frowned, trying to remember if he hadn't seen any of a particular forehead protector, but Sasuke beat him to the chase.

"Water sent no representatives. Earth and Lightning only sent one team."

Mikoto nodded. "And why do you think that is?"

Naruto scowled. "It's something complicated, isn't it?"

"Of course. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't think about it."

"Um, maybe they figured it was a long way to send genin over the water?"

"Unlikely. Kiri-nin are perfectly capable of getting across the ocean. They are very skilled at sailing."

Naruto wracked his brains and came up with nothing. "Maybe they just didn't have any genin that were ready?"

"Unlikely. They are not a small village. Think more recent." Obachan wore a smirk.

"Haku and Zabuza," said Sasuke. "Their ANBU agent was killed in Wave. They might already suspect Konoha's involvement."

"Suspect?" asked Mikoto lightly. "Did you convince Wave citizens to endure interrogation so they would not speak of the battle you waged in their downtown core?"

"So they already know that Kakashi helped take down the ANBU," Sasuke said.

"If they don't, I'd be very surprised. Whether they suspect Konoha of sheltering their missing-nin is another thing altogether. Still, they must be suspicious. Perhaps they're attempting to find out if anyone saw you and the nukenin travelling together."

All the people they had passed on their way home from Wave flashed through Naruto's mind. "No way…"

Obachan laughed. "Come on, Naruto. This is basic reconnaissance. But I doubt that's everything. No, Kiri is hard to pin down with speculation. Oh, the first match is starting!"

* * *

Mikoto tore her attention away from the match below and scanned the crowd carefully. _One, two, three…_ She counted nine ANBU.

So, they had trusted her. Good.

Now the question was did she trust ANBU?

_No, not at all._

So, was it better to be here and hope that the crowd would protect her and not conceal attackers, or would it be better to leave and find some safe place? The second option's required safe place had a short list of options. Where was safe? Not at home, certainly: Itachi had proved that. So where did that leave?

Tsunade had sworn to protect her children, so Danzou had less of a chance of getting a hold of Sasuke and Ryuuka, but how far could Mikoto trust Tsunade? Very little: the woman was brash and politically inexperienced.

_There are too many enemies. I can't see the path, if there ever was one._ Mikoto did not have enough friends. That was going to have to change right away.

Until then, Mikoto was willing to—

"Hey, Sasuke-kun, Naruto! Can we sit with you?" Sakura and Yamanaka Ino wavered on the stairs.

Sasuke sent Mikoto a pleading glance, but Naruto ignored Sasuke's reluctance. "Sure, there's lots of room! Shino's up next."

"Oi, gaki, shove over," said Jiraiya-sama, appearing out of nowhere.

"Gah! Ero-Sennin, can't you get your own seat!" Though he yelled, Naruto made room so Jiraiya could sit between Naruto and Mikoto, much to Ryuuka's displeasure.

"Naruto, pass her here," Mikoto said. Jiraiya-sama leaned back and the transfer was completed with much squalling. "Hush, Ryuuka. Good morning, Jiraiya-sama."

"Uchiha-san. I heard you had a visitor."

"I did, though I haven't heard from him since. Tsunade-sama told you?"

Jiraiya face was grave. "Yes, and the old man. Since ANBU has already been infiltrated once, the old man requested that I keep an eye on the situation. I couldn't resist!" He smirked at her and winked. "Having such a beauty on my left arm is an honour. And a beauty in the making, too." He cast an appraising look at Ryuuka, who was watching the fight below avidly.

Mikoto chuckled. "I am glad to add to your estimation."

"Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, are you watching? It might be you down there next time." Team 7 jumped, not having noticed Kakashi approaching.

"Gah! Kaka-sensei, you're late! You missed the first match!" Naruto hopped up and jabbed an accusatory finger at the man.

Kakashi ignored his antics.

Mikoto released a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and stopped clutching at Ryuuka.

* * *

They were nearing the peak. The stairs were wide, but Nariko still worried for her parents. She turned back every time she got too far ahead to watch them catch up to her, her mother supporting her father far more than Nariko was comfortable with. _Dad…_

She hugged herself against the ache in her chest. No, he was fine. She had to believe that. _I want him to be a real grandpa to my own child. I want him to see that his blood and his dream won't end with me._

"Nariko, are you alright?" called her mother.

"Fine! Just thinking. I hope Shino-kun is safe. I didn't get to wish him luck."

"I'm sure he'll be just fine." Her father wheezed for breath, so Nariko stayed put for a few moments more so he wouldn't feel the need to rush.

"I hope so. Look!" She gestured to the view of the village spread out below them with a flourish.

"You are spoiling it. The best view would be at the top. Lead on or else we may not go any further," said her mother.

"Fine, fine." Nariko took the last flight of steps in a burst of speed, knowing her mother would keep her father to a pace he could handle. When she got to the top, she spotted a familiar cloaked form perched on top of the Sandaime's hair. "You!"

A reptilian mask turned to face her. It was marked with poison green.

"Are you Snake?" Nariko stumbled back when the figure appeared right in front of her.

"I am Snake-28," rasped a voice from behind the mask. "Naruto-kun is watching the matches?"

"How could you do that to him!" Nariko made to slap the porcelain barrier, but a hand darted out and caught her arm.

"I did what I thought was necessary."

"Necessary for what?" Nariko snarled.

"Why, to prepare him for today."

Nariko wrenched her arm free from the gloved hand. "He's not competing today…"

"No, he is. There will be lots of fun competitions today." Snake gestured to the village. "Today, it's almost certain that this place will become a battleground, an arena for the competition."

"You mean the stadium?"

"No." Nariko swore that Snake's mask smiled. "I mean the whole village. It will be fun, lots of fun. You'll see. It was wise of you to come up here. ANBU headquarters is over that way though, so you can't go much further. When things start, the best place to be is inside the Monument, in the safe houses. Don't forget!" Snake disappeared, leaving Nariko cold with fear.

Nariko rushed to the viewing platform and stared out over Konoha, watching the ants move thither and non. But here and there were clumps moving towards the Monument. Some were already at the stairs, a few big ants with little ones. That one looked like Iruka…

"Gods," she whispered, bolting for the stairs.

"Raimei-chan?" called her father as she raced past them.

"There's something wrong! I have to ask Iruka what he's heard! If I don't come back, go down the steps and find Iruka—he's the young man with tanned skin, a high ponytail, and a big scar across his nose!"

"Wait! Raimei-chan!"

But she was gone.

* * *

Naruto was on his feet, howling advice to Shino. "Gah! Duck! No, behind you! Ah! No, no! The other way, you—!"

"Naruto, sit down!" Sakura shook a first at him, a dangerous look in her eye.

Ryuuka screamed from Mikoto-obachan's lap, making Ero-Sennin grimace. "Go, Shino! Go, go!" Naruto got a dirty look from Sasuke for this new indignity he had inspired his sister to imitate.

Naruto managed to ignore the wrath directed his way. "Shino! Come on! You have to win or else Hinata's not gonna get hers on that Rock guy!"

Ino nabbed onto his enthusiasm. "Yeah! Shino, you've got to get to the next round for Hinata! Win!"

Shino was doing far better than their screaming indicated, but Naruto had always had a hard time being a silent spectator no matter how much aggravation the rest of the crowd was sending his way. As always, Shino was relying on his bugs. They were happily sucking chakra and engulfing their opponent without encouragement. Shino was handling being the Suna-nin's target as best as he could, though the open arena was hampering his efforts to avoid the fan's attacks. Because she was using a weapon, Naruto wasn't sure that Shino's bugs would be all that effective. Sure, she would be dry of chakra, but she would probably still be able to wallop Shino to a pulp with that huge fan.

It turned out that chakra drain was just as scary as Iruka-sensei had always insisted. The kunoichi ended up staggering around and forfeiting.

"What! Hey, you can't forfeit!" Naruto only subsided when Sakura swatted his back.

"Hush," Mikoto-obachan commanded. "All of you, stop and think! Why would she forfeit? What is a chuunin?"

Naruto was stumped, but Sakura came through. "A chuunin is a leader. So, she would retreat to save her team when she found that she couldn't beat her foe?"

Obachan smiled. "Perhaps, but perhaps you should note that that might not be the only reason. Note that she saved her chakra even though she will not have another chance to fight today. What sort of a fighter was she? What does it say about her personality?"

"She was an all-out attacker. She gave no quarter, held back nothing." Sasuke looked disturbed. "She fought to kill or at least maim. It doesn't suit her style to suddenly withdraw."

"So that means what she just did was unnatural."

"Yeah…" Naruto frowned. "Why would she do that?"

Mikoto smiled and shrugged. "I don't know yet, but I will be watching her teammates to see if they emulate her. Perhaps her sensei gave her a hint. Sasuke, how much chakra does she have left?"

"About half." Sasuke sounded disturbed. "She could have lasted another ten minutes or more, long enough to perhaps have changed the course of the battle in her favour."

"But she chose to step aside without trying."

Ero-Sennin looked thoughtful, an expression Naruto had never seen on that jovial face.

"But Shino will face Hinata's opponent now, so that's good," Ino said.

"Yeah, dattebayo!" Naruto scrambled to the railing again. "Shino! Don't forget to kick his ass!"

"Next up is Gaara of the Sand versus Hyuuga Neji of Leaf," called the jounin overseeing the matches.

* * *

Nariko skidded to a halt in the wooden shack hanging off the mountain that protected one of the entrances to the passage cut into the mountain that connected the two separate sets of stairs. This corridor had steel doors along it going to what appeared to be the safe houses Snake-28 had mentioned. Bare bulbs lit the corridor. "Iruka!"

The chuunin turned to her after ushering the last of the Academy students past a steel door. "Nariko-san?"

"What's going on? Why are you evacuating?"

"Hokage-sama told us to get out early. They're expecting an attack today. It isn't certain, but it would be the best day to humiliate Leaf."

Nariko grabbed the collar of his vest. "Who's attacking? Where?"

"We're not sure, but it is likely that Orochimaru will be behind it. ANBU agents and spare chuunin are encouraging what civilians they can to seek shelter here, just in case. They're being quiet because we don't want to set off mass panic. Jounin that are free are scouting beyond the walls, looking for signs of attacking forces. As far as I know, they haven't found anything yet, but it's best to be safe."

"And they're just going to let the Final Exam continue?" Nariko shook him.

He pulled her hands away. "Yes, because we must keep up appearances. To delay the exam would be an even bigger sign of incompetence for Leaf."

Nariko yanked her arms out of his grip. "Of all the idiotic posturing! There are hundreds of people in the stands! What if fighting does break out? What will happen to them?"

"The shinobi of the Leaf will stand and protect them with our lives. We are the host nation. It is our duty to ensure the safety of the visiting spectators, no matter what."

Nariko spun away and stalked toward the door to the steps going down the mountain. "My parents are at the top of the Monument. Please keep them safe, Iruka of Konoha." She slammed the door behind her and started barrelling down the steps again, brushing past all those headed up, ignoring Iruka's orders that she remain.

* * *

Gaara felt strange. The necklace was still whole. For some reason, he had yet to break it, to force Naruto to fight him over its demise.

Mother's voice was quieter than he remembered.

He still wanted to rend and crush his opponent, to prove his existence against him, but there was no bloodthirsty hum in the back of his head egging him on. He felt lonely in his skull.

"Gaara? It's your turn." Temari stood further away than she usually did, eyeing him warily. She flinched and turned her gaze away when he stared at her.

His eyes drifted for a moment and spotted the Hyuuga that was to be his opponent instead of the Uchiha the Kazekage had been hoping he would fight.

"Gaara, was that the boy who's been bothering you? The one who gave you the necklace?" Temari shut up when he turned back to her.

He nodded.

"I've been listening around the village since you mentioned his name. Gaara, they say he's the nine-tailed fox."

So, Naruto had not been lying.

"Maybe you shouldn't wear the necklace… It could be danger—." Temari shut up when she saw his face change.

"He gave it to me to hold." Gaara didn't know why he had said it like that. He could use the necklace to make Uzumaki fight him, but somehow that wasn't quite it. _"You're my brother."_

"Sabaku no Gaara!" shouted the examiner.

Scowling, Gaara headed for the stairs.

* * *

Tsunade stood at the geezer's side, watching as the redhead and the Hyuuga faced each other. The Tsuchikage was smirking—his brat had made it through the first round with that club sword of his. The Kazekage, on the other side of Hiruzen-sensei, seemed far more intent upon this brat's match than his daughter's, though it was a little difficult to tell with how he kept his face covered with that flimsy veil.

Raidou dropped in to whisper in her ear. "We're moving civilians outside the stadium as stealthily as we can, but if the enemy is out there, they will have noticed the unusual activity on the stairs. There is only so much we can do to cover it without arousing suspicion. None of the scouts have found anything yet."

Tsunade nodded, and Raidou disappeared.

"What was that about?" demanded the Tsuchikage.

Tsunade ignored him so she could whisper in Sarutobi's ear. He nodded and turned to the other Kage. "A report came in that wanted my attention."

"I thought the host nation was supposed to suspend major missions while hosting," said the Tsuchikage, scowling.

The Old Monkey smiled disingenuously. "Sometimes, missions begin long before the exam and fail to end in time. This one ran long overdue; my men felt I should know the team had finally returned.

"Hmph." Ōnoki turned back to the match. "That Hyuuga boy of yours seems quite stiff. Nervous?"

Sarutobi laughed. "No, more young and formal than nervous. Neji-kun is not easily intimidated."

"He should be," said the Kazekage. "Gaara is no mere genin."

Tsunade was unable to keep the scowl off her face at this loaded banter being flung back and forth. How she hated politics and chitchat like this. She turned back to the match. The Gaara boy was frightening. He hadn't moved yet, being more content to spray his sand against Neji, attempting to encase him in it or spear him with it. Neji was using some Hyuuga defense technique to bat the sand away.

After Neji closed the distance between them to strike at close range, Tsunade could tell that this was going to be a bad match. Gaara couldn't defeat Neji's defense, and Neji couldn't get close enough to utilize the Hyuuga close-range fighting style. She'd seen him in the preliminaries. He could use Gentle Fist as well as block tenketsu. If he got close enough, Gaara would feel it. Getting close would be the problem.

* * *

Gaara watched as the Hyuuga's hits on his sand barriers caused them to crumble and shed sand. So, he could disrupt the chakra in them. That was fine. Gaara could replace them faster than Hyuuga Neji could break them down. This was disappointing. He had thought he'd seen a fragment of himself in this boy's eyes—hatred, bitterness, and loneliness.

"Is this the strength of your hatred?" he asked, sneering as the boy jumped and spun to avoid a sandy spear. "Is this all you have?"

"Gaara!" He could hear Naruto's voice from the stands. "Kick his ass, Gaara!"

He scowled.

Neji strove to penetrate his defense again. "Hatred has nothing to do with it. Fate is all. Hatred or determination will not change the path that has been decided."

Gaara had to laugh. Fate? What bullshit. "So you blame fate for your weakness. Pathetic. I thought you might be worthy of proving my existence against, as a replacement for the Uchiha who failed. I see you're worthless instead. Your hatred is nothing."

"Fate is decided before hatred can even be conceived."

Gaara shook his head. "Fate is nothing, but yours is easy enough to see. You are going to die here. You do not hate your target enough! You will never spill his blood or end his life with a rage as weak as that!" Sand swamped the advancing Hyuuga, but again he spun and the sand could not get to him. More sand, more, rose up and attempted to swallow the Hyuuga. The boy would run out of chakra eventually. Gaara would never run out of sand.

Still, Mother should be hungry. Maybe that was why she was too quiet. He had left her without satisfactory blood for too long. Animal blood could never compare. He reached to her, entreating. _Mother?_

No reply.

Frowning as his sand continued the assault, Gaara began to draw sand close. He had to draw her out. What if she was gone? She couldn't be gone! She was all he had!

He would have to provide her with nourishment to bring her back. There was enough blood here to suffice. Besides, his father had given him orders to let loose, for once.


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter 41: Strength Crystalline

Naruto frowned. What the heck was Gaara doing wrapping the sand in a sphere around him like that? He was distracted when Neji exploded past the sand attempting to drown him and started raining strikes down on the sand sphere.

"Hakke Rokujuuyonshou," Naruto heard Mikoto say. "And he can do all sixty-four strikes. The main house isn't going to be happy with him."

Naruto wasn't sure what that meant, but he could see it was an effective technique: Neji was managing to deal with all the sand spikes that came out to stab at him for daring to get close. The sand was crumbling beneath his fingers.

"Gaara!" Naruto shouted. "Gaara, watch out!"

If Gaara could hear him, he gave no sign. Neji began to spin, and the sand sphere was blown to pieces.

"Interesting that he would use the defensive technique for offense," Ero-Sennin said.

Gaara jumped back from his ruined defence, but Neji was after him, raining finger strikes down. Naruto, terrified that his necklace would get shattered in the scuffle, lurched to his feet and gripped the railing.

Sand sprinkled down from Gaara, cracking and flaking off, revealing that he had worn sand the entire time. Naruto remembered on the rare occasions that he had touched Gaara that his skin had been grainy. No wonder. He probably wore the sand armour all the time. Neji began hitting with his hands, lightly, and Naruto wondered how such sissy fighting had gotten him through to the finals when Gaara screamed and staggered, clutching at his chest. He coughed up blood.

"He got his lungs," Obaachan said.

"What?" Naruto rounded on her and Ero-Sennin.

"Gentle Fist is the Hyuuga fighting style. You should have seen Hyuuga Hinata use it at least a couple times. The lightest tap is enough for a Hyuuga to spear chakra into the internal organs. Neji hit Gaara's lungs. That is why he coughs blood up."

With a piercing roar, Gaara flung his hand out; a torrent of sand flung the Hyuuga far from him. Tilting to one side, Gaara stared at the blood on his hand and wailed.

_He's never been hurt like this before,_ Naruto realized, feathers flitting across his vision. _He's never bled. He must be so scared! What if he uses Ichibi? What if he loses control? What if…?_

Naruto collapsed in a heap.

* * *

"Kai," Mikoto whispered, but she left Ryuuka under the genjutsu. There was no need to have the girl become terrified. Jiraiya-sama was feigning sleep, taking stock of the situation. "It was the ANBU agents. The one who cast the genjutsu had the same chakra as the one who took me to where Orochimaru threatened me."

"No chance this isn't an attack then," he said. "I suppose the rightful owners of those masks are dead."

"Most likely," she replied, noting that Haruno Sakura was awake as well. "Wake your teammates and your friend. This won't be pretty, and it's best that they're aware enough to defend themselves."

Kakashi deflected a couple kunai, careful to ensure they fell into the arena rather than into unconscious spectators. "Hokage-sama!"

Mikoto swung around and stared at the explosion on the second level of the central set of stands. What would the Tsuchikage and the Kazekage do with Leaf under attack? Was one of them involved? Both? Would they step back and let Leaf be invaded, or would they honour the spirit of the treaties and render aid?

Mikoto wasn't hopeful.

* * *

Nariko sprinted through the streets while thoughts about ash floated through her head.

_Kaijin no Mura—the town of ashes._ Nariko had been told the story often enough to know that if there was a ninja attack on Konoha, she had a good chance of losing everything. She could only pray that an attack didn't count as "an act of the kami" in the eyes of her insurance policy.

She was determined to review her contract, if nothing else, when she got home.

She lurched up the stairs and nearly broke her key in the lock trying to get in. All was as it should be, but that didn't stop her from running into her room, grabbing her knapsack, and stuffing the box of letters from home in it along with all the financial documents she was sure had numbers she would need on them. A box of photos of her and Naruto and their years here got shoved in as well.

She skittered back into the living room and looked around. What would Naruto want her to save? She grabbed the fox and hawk statues on her way to his room. She took it in anew and wrinkled her nose at the staleness of the air despite the number of plants Naruto kept in here. He needed to open his window more.

She nabbed two dog-eared _Adventures of Hiroji_ books from his shelf as well as his favourite jutsu scroll. A pack of seeds he had been saving and his favourites from his rock collection joined the mass in her knapsack. She retreated from Naruto's room, snagging an orange shirt he had managed to keep unscathed from his closet on her way.

She paused at the door and surveyed her living room, letting a hand rest on the desk Shiro had lovingly made her. Her chest ached.

"Kami-sama, please let this haven lie intact."

She locked the door and slung the knapsack over her shoulders.

* * *

Gaara clutched at his chest and wheezed in the dark. "Mother…"

The cocoon of sand was thicker than he had ever made it. Hyuuga Neji had broken through, had _hurt_ him. He would not be allowed to do so again.

Gaara focused again on trying to draw out Mother. She was buried deep, so deep that he couldn't feel her at all. It was strange: he had never gone a day without feeling the immense chakra pressing out against his skin, struggling to break free. The lack made him a deflated balloon, more exhausted than he had ever been. His eyes ached and burned. "Mother!"

No reply.

Hugging himself, Gaara wavered in the dark as tears of exhaustion beyond what he had ever experienced ran from his eyes. What was he supposed to do if Mother was gone? He wasn't too worried about the orders, but how was he to prove his existence without Mother there to satisfy with the blood of the fallen?

Gaara clutched at his empty head and began to scream, his eyes shut against the pale blue glow of the trinket hanging from his neck.

* * *

Naruto woke to a world gone mad. ANBU and jounin and chuunin and ninja from Suna and Oto clashed amidst sprawled spectators, some of whom had suffered worse than being stepped on. One woman had three kunai sticking out of her back, blood dribbling through her long hair and seeping through her blouse. Others in the stands had similarly suffered from ninja weapons. Naruto supposed they were lucky no real jutsu had been broken out yet. So far, it looked like it was all knife work.

Sakura was kneeling nearby, glancing around. Sasuke was already up, hovering near Obachan, who was viciously fending off an Oto-nin that should have known better with a pair of kunai. With a kick and a slash that ended in a second way for air to enter the ninja's lungs, she gained enough space to turn back to them.

"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Ino. Keep together. Keep Ryuuka and Sasuke from him." She glanced away and flipped a kunai into the eye of a ninja further up in the stands battling with Asuma-sensei. The man fell, dead. Naruto stared at Obachan. He had always known she was good, but somehow he had never truly thought of her as deadly. She turned back to them and started speaking as though nothing had happened. "Naruto."

He met her creepy cold eyes.

"Protect my children. Prove to me that you are worthy of becoming Hokage. Prove that I did not make a mistake."

* * *

Sleep claimed Gaara.

* * *

The Tsuchikage had run.

That pissed Tsunade off more than anything else. Oh, she had figured he would. This was not his fight as it was clearly Suna and Oto breaking their treaties with Konoha. It was only his problem if he decided to honour the spirit of the treaty Earth and Fire had forged so painfully, rather than just the letter. Ōnoki had developed a reputation for callousness over the years.

She took a deep breath and growled it out as her ANBU guards hovered near her. Annoyance with Ōnoki would only distract her so much.

Chaos. If there was anything Tsunade had never regretted leaving behind, it was the chaos of battle. At least gambling had well defined rules.

This battle was hardly an exception. To be honest, it was as bad as any one of the many wars she had participated in. Shinobi battles during "peace times" were small: few participants and relatively little damage to the environment. Small skirmishes flitted through her memory, all full of the metallic tang of blood. Blood was the biggest common denominator in a shinobi's life. She _hated_ blood… _Dan_… so much blood… Only dodging snakes kept her from falling into memory. She had done that too many times already in this battle.

This battle was a war, not a skirmish. There were too many people fighting, bleeding, howling, and dying for this to be anything else. A war on home territory was always exceptionally bloody. Risk was greater, cost was enormous, and collateral damage was appalling. She could already see that many of the civilian members of the audience would not be waking from the genjutsu. She shuddered at the sight of their slowly paling bodies. She needed a drink when this was over. Badly.

ANBU struggled against what looked like a spider's web, but they were finding ways to fight it quickly. Those ANBU were certainly exceptional and adaptable, fools though they were for gambling their lives to protect her. They were holding back four brats that were trying to create a barrier around her and Orochimaru.

ANBU had all known that Sarutobi-sensei had never been here. They had all known that his clone had stood in for him while he waited at the walls for the first strike from the outside forces. She cursed the Hokage idly. Why had he left this to her? He had spouted some crap about duty and honour before using up all his chakra to keep those two coffins from rising out of the roof and dispersing in a cloud of smoke, leaving her to face off against Orochimaru sans her grandfather and great-uncle. At least there was that small mercy. To fight Grandfather would have been the most horrible thing.

She batted away her distraction again as the bastard tried to impale her with his bloody grass cutter. She raised a huge chunk of the roof to block it and to trap it and then she headed for him as he struggled to pull his disgusting tongue back into his mouth. Smirking, she grabbed the slimy thing in her fists and started tossing him around and smacking him against the roof like a ball on a string by his tongue, trying to knock those disgusting eyes out of his face. That wasn't even really his face too… She shuddered at how far he had taken his ambitions. That a woman had let him into her body like that disgusted her.

Her lapse of attention allowed Orochimaru to slip his tongue out of her grip. He stood back a ways, watching her with that sick smirk of his on his face. _What did he have up his sleeve this time? Where was the attack coming from…?_ She suddenly turned and thrust a fist through the ground at her right side. A snake exploded into smoke.

He had yet to attempt to call the last Hokage. She was grateful for that mercy: if he did, she was screwed. She didn't know the jutsu that the geezer had used to stop the summoning. She could only hope to interfere before he could implant the _fuda_ into Yondaime's head, so the former Hokage would be able to remember himself and resist. The Yondaime was too fast for her to take down otherwise.

But wouldn't he have called him already if he could? The Yondaime had sealed himself away. Perhaps that meant he couldn't be called.

Either way, Jiraiya would never forgive her if she killed the student he regarded as the son he had never had again. Gaining his ire would lead to problems. She mentally shrugged; if he gave her grief about it, she would just have to bash sense into him. It wasn't as if she hadn't punished him before.

"Ah Tsunade-hime," crooned Orochimaru, "I didn't know that you could read my attacks so well. I must be becoming too predictable. It's not you I really want to kill, but since Sensei isn't here, you will have to do."

He was about to form another series of seals. Not good! She knocked him off balance by slamming a fist into the roof, splitting it asunder beneath his slimy feet and sent him flying by throwing a piece of the roof into his midriff.

Bloody knuckles sent red rivulets down to drip off her fingertips. She had to end this now. He was already sick and desperate. She had to right her team's problem since she was the only one capable. Jiraiya, more the fool, still hoped to bring this snake back. Tsunade could see that it was far too late. Their teammate was lost to them forever. She would have to ensure that this separation was eternal.

* * *

Nariko screamed and ducked into an alley as a giant snake slithered down the main road.

It had all happened so fast! One moment, she had been cutting through the thinner crowds, nearly halfway to the Monument; the next, snakes had appeared and there was shrieking and explosions and screaming winds and roaring flames and rumbling earth and rushing water and crackling lightning and terror, terror, terror!

She collapsed in the alley, clutching her knapsack of belongings, as others people stumbled past her, stampeding towards the uncertain safety of the next main street. The tail of the snake still had yet to pass the mouth of the alley. Fear overcame her; she began to blubber with terror, pressing shaking hands to shield her face. "Kami-sama! Kami-sama! Kami-sama…!" Her chant built in hysterical pitch.

The tail flicked out and the building at the end of the alley crunched into splinters with a cacophony of groaning and snapping wood. It was laced with the thud of furniture probably being bashed into walls, the tinkling of shattering glass and china, and the hiss of gas and water escaping pipes.

Another building crunched as the tail moved on.

Shaking uncontrollably, Nariko couldn't find the will to get to her feet and run when a body smacked into the ground and didn't stir at the other end of the alley. Through her tears, she couldn't tell where the ninja was from, not that it really mattered.

When water bullets blasted out windows in the building across from her, Nariko searched for the flight response under her terror as she coughed in the haze of debris and gas. Then a kunai with a smoking exploding tag attached to it clattered to the ground.

* * *

The Sandaime stood on the north wall, gasping for breath after having used up a good chunk of chakra to keep a battalion at bay. He had thought that perhaps he had lived long enough and worked hard enough and sacrificed enough that he would never be made to do this again. It seemed that he had been wrong. This was worse than every "secret" war he had lived and fought through simply because this was home, and home was being burned to the ground. He could see a fire spreading from where an explosion had echoed only moments before.

The only good thing about this was that he was surer of Uchiha Mikoto than he had been.

* * *

Mikoto spared a glance at the monstrosity growing on the arena floor, the sickly green chakra flowing through it making her eyes narrow.

Fuck Oto and Suna.

Mikoto's rage boiled as she dealt with the attackers that simply _would not_ take a hint. When she finally managed to slit one's throat, she downed another bastard permanently by securing his head in her arm and using her momentum to snap his neck. She took another kunai from the pouch Sasuke had left her and vowed to castrate the next Oto-nin that tried to take her daughter from her. Roasting the Suna-nin near her with Housenka no Jutsu was not quite as satisfying, but their terrified screams and the stench of roasted flesh satisfied the beast within her.

Memories from her time in ANBU were pressing at her, but the barrier she always maintained during battle kept them at bay. Rage could be such a useful thing. Sasuke was certainly learning that: she had never seen him fight with such intensity. It was good to see him uphold his promise as her bastard son never had. _He_ would get his; she would see to it one way or another.

That would have to wait until her dragon girl was safe though. Whom should she send? She couldn't go herself: there were still so many here to punish for their temerity. She needed someone who could go without being noticed, someone without an aura that could be latched onto and traced, preferably someone fast and someone who would die for Ryuuka if it were required. Her eyes landed on Naruto and the ten clones he had in a ring around Ryuuka. He had a good look in his eyes, one that had kindled when she had mentioned his dream.

He would do anything now to prove himself.

Problem solved.

* * *

Naruto couldn't help but notice the sand monster growing in the arena despite how Neji kept trying to blast it down to size with his spinning and jabbing techniques. That was Gaara, Naruto knew. The purple veins running through the sand made it difficult to believe, but Naruto knew.

"Pay attention, Naruto," said Kaka-sensei, knocking away an Oto-nin.

Naruto snapped back to himself and created another hoard of clones, grimacing as another two sets of memories joined those behind the wall within ten seconds. Their spot in the stands had become the focal point of the fight here. Chouji and Shikamaru had shown up with Kiba hot on their heels. A guy that looked and attacked like Neji had appeared with Hinata and a younger girl. Chuunin Naruto remembered from his escapades had joined them too.

In the center of it all, one of his clones stood over the bleacher Ryuuka was slumbering in the shelter of. Sasuke was hovering nearby, his red eyes devoid of mercy. Sakura kept close too, flicking out kunai and shuriken whenever she had a clear shot, protecting Ino's limp body.

Obachan flickered into existence in front of him. "Naruto."

He couldn't find words for her. She was streaked with blood and had a wild, gleeful look in her eyes. He didn't know her.

"You must take Ryuuka and Sasuke to the Monument. They are the targets. Orochimaru wants them. You must get them there as quietly as possible. The best troops will be in the city, not guarding the safe houses. The guards there won't be strong enough to fend off the sort of attack that will nip at your heels. Lose as many in the city as possible." She gripped his shoulders and shook him. "You must do this."

"But Gaara…"

Mikoto blinked and glanced at the arena with him. "Gaara is not here. That is Shukaku, Ichibi. Naruto, did you decide to fight him? Did you make him your responsibility as Snake asked you?" Before he could answer, she spun and knocked aside a hail of shuriken heading for them. Asuma-sensei went after the Suna jounin that had dared to attack them.

"He's my brother," Naruto said. "I said I wouldn't fight him."

Mikoto nodded. "Take my children to safety and I will save your brother." She shoved him forward. "Now go! I will cover your escape."

Naruto staggered forward as his clones extricated themselves from the fight. "Bastard!" Sasuke appeared at his side after driving a foot in the gut of his enemy. "Your mom says we've gotta go to the safe houses. She made me promise."

Sasuke nodded and stood over the clone that scooped Ryuuka up, his eyes darting around. Naruto created more clones and spared a worried glance at the arena again before suddenly fire blossomed on the underside of the bleacher's roof. All eyes darted up, taking in the plumes that were beginning to devour the rafters.

Sakura screamed for Ino and started tugging at her useless body as Shikamaru rushed over to help her.

Naruto blinked as the beams holding up the tiles burned. _Obachan…? The spectators can't get out…_

"Now!" Mikoto's bellow made him jump, but he ran, his clones using henge to become Sasuke and Ryuuka and scattering to hide their escape direction.

* * *

Yuugao wasn't having a good day.

The Sandaime had announced that the future Godaime was going to be the one overseeing that the invasion went according to plan in the arena. That had been the start of trouble. The next thing she knew, her squad had been assigned to guard the clone and Tsunade. Yuugao knew that she should have been honoured, but if the information Uchiha-san had provided was even half-true, Orochimaru was likely to be about.

Yuugao had only a vague idea of what the fallen Sannin was capable of—she had never witnessed him fight in person—but even the rumours and the reports she dug up were not reassuring. How did one counter a snake that could deform his body at will? For that matter, how did one counter a Sannin-level ninja, one of the three christened such by Hanzou for enduring beyond all possibility? It made Yuugao leery, but she knew her duty.

She had failed so far though. Tsunade-sama had long ago abandoned the arena in favour of the forest, leaving her ANBU guard behind. Yuugao could not yet follow.

Technically, her opponent shouldn't have been a match for her. She was a member of ANBU and these boys, somehow sharing a body, were probably chuunin at best. However, their physical form morphing into progressively more monstrous shapes kept her off balance while the rest of her team attempted to deal with the boy with too many arms for comfort. Yuugao had the feeling that Ox-45 was not going to be fond of spiders after this.

In any case, her battle was not going well. Caught off guard by the head that seemed to be the submissive one of the pair, she was struggling against his scaly grip when suddenly he wasn't actually physically against her anymore. She watched, overwhelmed with horror, as he slipped into her own skin with her and took possession.

"Poor little kitty," he crooned in her ear, obviously enjoying the nausea they were both feeling because of her reaction to the budding of another head beside her own. The formation of a second spine and feeling it fuse with hers as cells took on new formations to allow this boy form within her body was terrifying beyond measure.

The brother, convinced the battle was over in his favour, stood back and gloated at the horror he knew existed behind her mask. The one possessing her crooned on about initializing sequences in the body that would slowly cause her to decompose before her own eyes and cackled about how she would soon feel her heart decay mid beat. Survival instinct made her reckless. She would not die because her body had been made to betray her!

Grabbing her ninjatou was a battle of wills. His cortex kept sending opposing signals to hers, but she kept the orders going, fighting for every fragment of motion from her arm muscles. Her spine was a battleground of messages overlapping and counteracting each other, but this was her body. She, not he, was the true master of it. Her ninjatou poised, she swallowed down the knowledge of the pain to come. Slow agony that spiked to a terrible peak was required to overwhelm his control; she was sure. He slept lazily within his brother's body most of the time from what she had gathered from their stupid conversations. He would not often know pain, sheltered as he was.

Nerves fired overwhelmingly, fuelled by conscious command. The utilitarian blade arced and came away stained. Pain exploded in her abdomen as air touched flesh that had never meant to bear exposure. Nerves now fired overwhelmingly both ways, sending frantic messages to two brains in a massive wave. Even as her thought process faltered in the face of the excruciating feeling, she heard him howl and felt him withdrawing, felt the abnormal tissues dissolving as he extracted himself to be free of the neural overload.

Unfortunately, her plan had been short-sighted. As what had once been her breakfast mingled with her blood on its way out of her body, she futilely pressed a shaking hand to her abdomen. The other brother advanced on her as the other phased back into his body, griping about weariness and required rest. She had no doubt that this brother wouldn't waste time with silent assassination techniques.

He halted when mud sprayed his face. Yuugao wrenched her neck as she looked over her shoulder only to spot a face she had hoped not to see during this battle. The poison green markings on that reptilian mask made a shiver of fear go through her: battles were the perfect time to make marked people disappear without any chance of suspicion or retribution. Thinning of the ranks would be happening and this one was probably right in the thick of things.

Snake-28's gloved hands held the seal of her namesake as she strode forward. The boy was about to wipe away the mud when it gained life and a small portion slithered up his nasal passages. He howled at the sensation until his voice was cut off. A fractured sucking noise came from his throat before he lapsed into total silence as he clawed at it, terror making that devilish face even more ghoulish. Snake kept on advancing across the roof tiles as the boy toppled, his brother's panicked shouts cutting off just as abruptly. Yuugao shook when the mud drained from both boys into a puddle on the roof tiles.

"You talk too much," Snake whispered at the double corpse, crouching down and casually hacking off each head with her ninjatou.

Yuugao had to shudder despite the pain the movement inflicted on her when the stocky agent turned towards her, her hands forming another seal. She froze with absolute terror when the mud rushed towards her. Yuugao was half-sure that the mud would suffocate her as well when it impacted with her only to seal her gut wound shut.

"You aren't a proper tiger," Snake mused aloud thoughtfully as she moved closer. "Who are you again?"

"Jaguar."

The mask didn't change, but a shift about Snake suggested she was going through some mental list of targets, searching for her name. "Ah, it is good then." She laughed at last, the musical quality of the voice incongruous with Yuugao's fear. "You are unfit to continue." Snake moved through a series of standard handseals, forming an earthy clone out of more mud that bent down the moment it was finished to scoop her up.

Yuugao tried to conceal the remnants of trepidation as she was slung between the replicas of the arms that had taken down her opponent so mercilessly. "I thought that was a forbidden technique," Yuugao managed to get past the dryness of her throat.

"Hardly. Propping the epiglottis shut is creative, not forbidden. Such flashy techniques as Dog's Chidori do half the work for twice the cost. Why waste effort if a simpler method works? This game has no rules."

Before Yuugao could ask why Snake wasn't in the city or fighting by the Sandaime, the veteran turned and dropped into the forest beyond the stands, obviously off to hunt something in the trees. The doton clone turned heel and headed for the hospital with the same brutal efficiency.

Culling the ranks… _Tsunade-sama!_

* * *

Mikoto watched Naruto and Sasuke go, chakra draining as she maintained the mass genjutsu, forcing the fight out of the stands, away from the spectators, into the arena where the sand beast was still trying to solidify its shape. Something was undermining it, which would make her job easier, she hoped. The faster she took out Gaara, the sooner she could get back to pummelling Oto-nin and perhaps even run into Orochimaru so she could show him why one did not threaten Uchiha.

Sucking in air, Mikoto ran through the handseals for Housenka no Jutsu again. Fireballs peppered the creature's bulk, inflicting little damage. Greater and more sustained heat would be needed.

"**Who are you?**" roared the least of the great spirits in stamina, if not in power.

"Your opponent."

"**I heard Kyuubi was here. Where is he?**" Shukaku's black and gold eyes peered about the arena.

"He left you to me. He had more important things to worry about."

"**That bastard! Where did he go?**"

Mikoto ignored the question and sucked in another lungful of air. Goukakyuu would probably be powerful enough if she fed it enough chakra to sustain it for a few minutes. She let it loose. The surface of one of Ichibi's arms melted into runny glass glistening on the arena floor. Leaping, she avoided the huge air bullet Ichibi sent her way. Such was the radius of the attack that a couple Oto, Suna, and Konoha fighters went flying pell-mell, ricocheting off the arena wall, which was blasted apart when the attack hit it, along with three buildings in the streets beyond. Mikoto narrowed her eyes.

So, Ichibi was supposed to be part of the force levelling Konoha. That was interesting, given that Orochimaru had never been too interested in jinchuuriki. But then, perhaps this was the Kazekage's contribution to the plan.

She remembered the last time she had faced a jinchuuriki, Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage. Snake had fled. Mikoto had stayed, full of youthful pride, and had been soundly thrashed. Water beat Fire. Ichibi was Wind though. She could handle him.

She took another deep breath. Dai Endan no Jutsu. She released the torrent of flames steadily, letting them wash over the sand, letting them melt it as other ninja battles moved away from them. When that jutsu was spent, she began Gouryuuka no Jutsu, spitting out dragon heads to blow holes in Shukaku, making him smaller still, smirking at how Ryuuka would have shrieked with glee at the shapes of the fireballs.

Only ten feet tall now with streams of molten glass draping from every inch like transparent glistening robes, Ichibi was furious. "**How dare you! I will wear your blood!**"

"You are not as strong as I expected," Mikoto called. "Perhaps your host is weak with lack of sleep? Like host, like beast, it is said. Sanbi's host was much more powerful, but his host had no dark circles under his eyes."

The tanuki's black and gold eyes narrowed, and he bared his teeth, such as they were when he had taken a fireball in the mouth rather than the head.

Mikoto assumed that the Ichibi had been protecting Gaara. "I will turn you to glass, weak one. A single step will shatter you. Your host will die of suffocation."

Ichibi, senseless with fury at how she dared threaten him, charged her, spitting forth air bullets that she danced around nimbly. Kakashi slammed Chidori into its unprotected back and skittered out of range as Ichibi howled and twisted around to swat at him. The fat beast was ungainly with so much glass hanging from it as Mikoto spewed fire on it again with its back turned. Shukaku shed the dead weight, losing more mass. His height was now only eight feet on all fours. Gaara must have been concealed within much of the body now, rather than just the head.

Back and forth, Mikoto and Kakashi took it in turns, making Ichibi twist one way then the other. Izumo-kun joined the fight as well, adding a third dimension by striking from above whenever possible, slowing the speed the beast could draw more sand into itself to a standstill. Now when it shrunk, it stayed shrunk.

"Kakashi, prepare a seal to disrupt Gaara's so he can't access the Ichibi's chakra!" Dodging a razor wind, Mikoto blasted away the Suna kunoichi that had to be Gaara's older sister, setting her hair and clothing on fire without remorse and then following up with a kunai to the gut. Naruto wanted Gaara alive. He had said nothing about any other fucking Suna-nin that tried to interfere. The girl screamed and fell, bleeding out.

A boy with a painted face sent his puppet to interfere, but she set it afire and flung shuriken at him until Izumo-kun caught up with him and kept him busy. Mikoto sprayed fire over the Ichibi again, making his skin glitter and ooze. She followed up with the same wind bullet that Ichibi had used against her one too many times. Gaping holes opened in his flanks as the glass splattered over the ground.

Jumping back into the arena wall, Mikoto spewed forth several more bullets right into Shukaku's head. He desperately pulled sand from the rest of his body as he tried to dodge. Most of them connected with him anyway. The Sharingan was useful that way.

Shukaku's head was blasted to pieces. The rest of the sand collapsed enough that Gaara was visible. Quick as a shot, Kakashi leapt in.

"His shoulder!" Mikoto shouted, but it was likely Kakashi could see for himself where the foul chakra was coming from.

Shoving up Gaara's sleeve, Kakashi studied the mark there while Mikoto came closer and kept blasting away the sand that tried to accumulate to give Kakashi time to think and draw. He slit open his finger and scribbled all around the mark, on Gaara's skin and clothes and the ground.

Izumo had run off to join another fight, but Mikoto couldn't leave this until it was done. Naruto knew how to hold a grudge, thanks to Sasuke. At last, Kakashi stepped back and activated the even seal so it would lock Gaara's odd seal. Sand that had been making to spear Mikoto and Kakashi for the umpteenth time collapsed. All was quiet, even the glimmer of the Shodaime's necklace on Gaara's chest.

"No wonder he was weak," said Mikoto, kneeling to touch the blue crystal. "Ichibi was always the most swayed by this thing."

"Does Naruto know about what it does? I thought he hadn't been told," said Kakashi, regarding her mildly enough, but she heard the accusation.

"What is it with Konoha and keeping Naruto in the dark? No, I haven't told him about this trinket. I would have if I'd known he was fool enough to bestow it on Gaara, though it was helpful. Now we just have to hope nothing happens to set Naruto off until we can string this around his neck again." With that, Mikoto hefted Gaara up and slung him over her shoulder. "I'm going hunting after I drop this one off at the hospital where he can be sealed away."

Kakashi nodded and departed into the city, probably off to do away with the three-headed snake that had been visible through the ruins of the wall.

* * *

Naruto ran through the streets, every so often getting hit with the memories of newly dead clones covering their tracks. Everywhere, buildings were flattened, fires raged, and the dying wailed and whimpered while the dead lay too still. Screams cut through the din of battles, some full of rage, other full of pain or utter despair.

Naruto had never imagined he would see Konoha like this—on its knees.

Sasuke was similarly shaken, but he was quieter about it, urging Naruto on when he faltered in disbelief or outrage. They didn't have time to gape; some Oto-nin were hot on their heels. Only by cutting through battles (like the one where Chouji's dad, many times larger than any human had a right to be, was stomping on enemy ninja) did Sasuke and Naruto have a hope of getting to the safe houses.

Naruto's clones dogged their trail, dealing with what followers they could, often going so far as suicidal attacks despite the sickening swoop their every death inflicted on Naruto.

A run that should have taken ten minutes felt like hours with all the sneaking around they had to do. They made it though. Iruka-sensei was called to the door to confirm their identities before it was opened. "Whose desk did you rig in your third year at the Academy?"

"Toady-sensei's."

"Sasuke, what is your least favourite day of the year?"

Naruto somehow found it in him to laugh when Sasuke muttered something too quietly for Iruka-sensei to hear. Only when Iruka prodded him did Sasuke say "Valentine's Day" louder than a low murmur. The door opened to them.

Iruka-sensei escorted them into the stone tunnels. "Naruto, your grandparents are here. Sasuke, most of the Uchiha in the village have made it here. Your mother—"

"She's still fighting," Sasuke said. "She's furious, so I don't think she'll come until it's over."

Iruka nodded and led them to his grandparents, who were settled on a bench in a room off the hallway. "Naruto, your sister has yet to show up."

Naruto spun around, finally realizing through his state of numb shock that she really was missing. "What?"

"She ran off when I told her the attack was coming, leaving me in charge of protecting her parents. I thought I saw her heading in the direction of your apartment, but…" Iruka-sensei shook his head and shrugged.

Naruto spun around and headed back for the door. "Sasuke-bastard, you better stay here with Ryuuka or your mom's gonna roast me alive since this Orochimaru guy is after you."

Sasuke scowled, but he nodded, taking his sister from the clone and settling near Ojiichan and Obaasan.

"Naruto, I can't let you back out there," Iruka-sensei protested. "I know you're getting stronger, but there are enemy jounin out there."

"Groups of genin are supposed to be able to defeat jounin," Naruto said.

Iruka-sensei gave him a level look. "And did you beat Kakashi-san?"

Naruto scowled. "Neechan's out there."

"And she would want you to be safe."

Naruto jabbed a thumb at his belly. "This guy's not gonna let me die. We've had a talk."

Iruka's eyes widened. "You've seen him?"

"Ero-Sennin pushed me off a cliff; I had to see him to live. He's pissed, but he doesn't want to die, so he'll help keep me alive."

"Naruto, you're still a genin."

"She's my sister! I've got to find her! I'm a ninja of Konoha; it's my duty to protect Konoha's civilians."

Iruka-sensei sighed, but didn't let him go.

"If my daughter dies, I am afraid that Matsuku will have to move faster than we anticipated," said Obaasan, glaring at Iruka-sensei, who looked lost.

"Most people don't know about Matsuku, Obaasan," Naruto said, shrugging.

Naruto swore she pouted, but she would only ever admit to being mightily offended. "Well, then I have a…mission for Naruto. Retrieve my daughter." Iruka-sensei looked ready to argue this to dust, but Obaasan talked like a general. "Go immediately." She turned to Iruka-sensei. "Send him on his way."

"I will not!"

"You will open the door," said Obaasan, advancing as though there was nothing he could do to stop her, "or I will. Come, Naruto."

Iruka-sensei made to grab Takara-obaasan, but she gave him such a look that he recoiled. Without laying a hand on anyone, Obaasan managed to intimidate everyone who protested into opening the door, though only Iruka-sensei was determined to keep Naruto safe. Everyone else didn't need much convincing, which was useful for once.

"Go," commanded Obaasan, her face stony.

Naruto went.


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42: The Staff

Naruto spent hours combing the streets. Every broken corpse had to be investigated, forcing him to see the look of death closer than he had ever wanted to. He learned much about how many ways the body could break, could look so wrong.

He maintained ten clones and went under a dog henge. The last thing he wanted was to get into a fight with somebody when Neechan could be dying. Only two of his clones died in the first hour; apparently, someone was feeling particularly bloodthirsty or a kunai had been deflected in an unfortunate direction. Naruto suspected the former and became even more wary as he picked his way around fires.

He had never realized how big Konoha was before, but there were so many streets, so many spots Neechan could be.

* * *

Hinata wasn't thinking. All she knew was that some Oto-nin was about to get her sister in the back.

She extended her invisible hand in a blast of force, like a beam. The enemy was knocked back.

Hinata had a second to marvel at how she hadn't hesitated before she had to do it again.

* * *

Naruto found her curled around a barely singed pack, part of a roof covering her legs, most of her hair singed away, and her skin covered in burns and lacerations from glass that must have been thrown by the force of the explosion that had landed the roof pieces on her.

"Neechan?" He pressed a finger to her wrist gingerly, not wanting to touch the blistered flesh. He couldn't tell if there was a pulse, so he put a hand before her mouth and then under her nose. Air moved over his fingers. She was breathing.

Something tight in him relaxed, slightly.

"Neechan, can you hear me?" He slapped her raw cheek lightly.

No response.

Heart thudding again, Naruto made a few clones to help him get the rubble off of her. In the process, he found that a broken end of wood had stabbed her through her pelvis. Horrified, Naruto wavered, wondering if pulling it out would really be the best idea. She would bleed badly with a "sliver" that big coming out. But it needed to come out if he was going to get the debris off her.

Gritting his teeth, he and his clones worked the spear out of her as carefully as they could and wrapped pieces of his shirt around the wound. He would never leave home without his pack of bandages again. Once her legs were free, he could see that they were not in good shape either. They looked wrong, the way Ino's leg had looked wrong during the second exam.

"She's got stuff from home," said the clone that had been investigating the backpack. "Important stuff, like papers and photos and books."

"We need to get her to the hospital," insisted another clone, pressing the makeshift bandage tighter against the pelvic wound.

Naruto nodded and began organizing his troops. He couldn't afford to get attacked now.

* * *

Mikoto strode through the hospital, having had Gaara sealed into a room in the high security corridor, to find a bunch of Narutos lugging her friend's corpse into the hospital foyer. She was at his side in an instant. "She lives?"

"She was breathing," a Naruto insisted. "I couldn't find a pulse, but she was breathing."

Mikoto pressed her fingers into the bony wrist and stilled for several breaths. "She lives, for now." Mikoto turned to the chaos that was the foyer, full of too many injured shinobi and civilians and too few medical staff. She snagged a likely med-nin before he could pass her by. Naruto would be unable to get them to listen to him. "See to this woman. Now."

Mikoto didn't let the man escape until Nariko was installed on a makeshift bed in a ward with a doctor applying green chakra to her to stabilize her until someone else could get to actually treating her non-life-threatening injuries.

"Sasuke? Ryuuka?"

"They're in the Monument," Naruto said.

Mikoto sighed with relief and grinned. "Good, then we can hunt. Come with me." She hung the Shodaime's necklace around his neck again despite his protests. "You can return it to Gaara before he wakes if it worries you so much."

"But Obaasan will want to know—"

"Use a clone. Come." Mikoto stalked toward the door. "I will show you what it is to be a shinobi at war. A Hokage must know."

Naruto could do nothing but follow in her wake.

* * *

The steady beep of a heart monitor was the first thing that she heard.

It took her a few moments to realize that it was her own.

So, she was alive despite her stupidity. That was a miracle that must have exhausted her supply of karma for the rest of her life.

"Nariko-chan?"

She grimaced at the sound of her mother's voice. Every time—every damn time—she had ever been stupid enough to land in the hospital came back to her. Why was her mother always the first one to speak to her when she woke up?

"Are you awake?"

"Yes," she whispered.

"Don't move, dear. They've done wonderful things for you, but they only treated the burns to the point where they wouldn't scar. They're still healing. Your eyes, dear…"

"There's something covering them."

"Gauze. Glass slashed your eyelids during the explosion. We were terrified it had gotten your eyes too, but you'd kept your head behind the pack enough, it seems."

"… My legs?" she whispered, dread filling her.

"They're very bad."

"Goddamn Shiro-nii."

"Dear, that's the drugs. We're in Konoha, love. Shiro isn't here."

Frowning, Nariko puzzled through her mother's words. No Shiro? "Itsuki?"

"No, dear. We're in Konoha."

Nariko tapped the fingers of her right hand against the bed sheet. "Explosion… Konoha…" Her mind was fuzzy. She felt giddy despite her self-disgust.

"Come on, dear one," said her father. A warm, dry hand enfolded hers.

"Dad. Mother…" There should have been another person in this strange timeline. Someone like Itsuki, younger, more painful to her. "Naruto."

She could hear her parents' sighs of relief. "Yes, Naruto," said her father. "He found you and got you to the hospital in time. You did a very foolish thing, but I can understand why."

"My pack," she said, groping for it.

"It's right here," her father assured her. "Nothing is harmed, miraculously. You shielded it."

"Home?"

There was a pause. "It's not as bad as it could be." Her mother squeezed her other wrist above the bandages. "Your neighbours downstairs had entire rooms taken out. You lost your balcony and part of your kitchen wall and the wall of your attached bathroom. Your dining room and kitchen floor suffered damage because of the damage downstairs, but nothing irreparable was broken."

"Ribosome? Shiro's table?"

"They've suffered some hurts, but nothing sand paper and some plant food won't smooth out. Naruto-kun was still very upset." Her father sighed and patted her hand. "Shiro will be too when he hears about how some of his carvings suffered."

"Naruto?"

"He's busy," her mother said tartly. "This Hokage has everyone in the village rushing around repairing things night and day. He's on duty right now clearing away rubble and searching for the injured and dead. He's always asleep on his feet when we see him. We've been staying at Uchiha Mikoto's home since your building is off limits. The Uchiha Compound was untouched."

Nariko giggled, unable to translate her grief and relief into anything else. "Water."

Someone set a straw to her lips. It was fuzzy to suck, so fuzzy that she spluttered and giggled.

"Careful, dear!"

She cackled at her mother's reprimand until a finger tapped her lips. She snapped her mouth shut.

"It's the morphine speaking, I know, but mind yourself. Who knows what will happen if we soak your bandages?"

She had to smile. That was her mother.

A warm dry hand settled on her forehead. That was her father. "I'm sorry about your hair, love. It will grow back."

"I can walk?" she asked instead, terror making her words wet and choked. There was no logic in her now, not with so much morphine in her system.

That hand cupped her cheek as the straw was set to her lips again. "Yes, Nariko-chan, you can walk. You will walk. You will run. You will dance. Never fear."

A sigh whispered over her lips before she took in the straw again.

* * *

Naruto pointedly ignored Snake as she escorted him down the grim sterile corridor of the high security wards. She had been dogging his steps since he had entered the hospital after his shift. Neechan had been asleep again with Ojiichan watching over her, so he had decided it was time to see Gaara.

"You didn't fight him."

Naruto grimaced at Snake. "Do you ever take off your mask? Do you ever not wear your gloves or the rest of your ANBU gear?"

She laughed. It was a beautiful laugh despite the bitterness. "You would not want to see me without my ANBU gear. I've seen you glance away from me in the street."

Naruto frowned, trying to place her. "I don't remember."

"I know. I'll keep it that way. Let's just say I like wearing my mask." She chuckled again. "Why did you not fight him?"

"He's my brother."

She snorted. "He is the son of the Kazekage, while you are the son of…" She coughed.

Naruto frowned at her. "Yeah, I know. He's my brother in spirit."

She sighed. "Why did I waste so much time on you? Crushing those snakes with toads was the only thing I hear you did during the attack, and Mikoto was there to hold your hand through it. I thought you wanted to reach chuunin."

Naruto shrugged. "I didn't want to fight Gaara. I promised him I wouldn't."

"So you got my kohai to do it instead with the help of the pup and a chuunin. Thank you for freeing up so many resources so they could save so many other civilians."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "You're so sarcastic."

"Forgive me for not being more supportive of your idiocy. I regret wasting precious hours on you. You'll never win the game." She stopped in front of a door and ran through a series of handseals. The door glowed briefly. "He's been sealed twice—his beast's chakra is blocked and he's been sealed into sleep. I haven't received permission to break either seal."

Naruto shot her a look as she unlocked the door with a regular key and opened it.

Gaara lay on the bed, his red hair stark against the white sheets. A paper seal was stuck to his forehead, and another was wrapped around his wrist. The dark circles around his eyes were lighter than Naruto had ever thought they could be.

When Snake nodded her permission, Naruto stepped into the room and pulled the Shodaime's necklace off. After he hung it back around Gaara's neck, Snake reached forward and plucked the seal off Gaara's forehead.

"I thought you didn't have permission!"

Snake snickered. "I'll put it back when we go."

Gaara's eyes flickered open as Naruto leaned forward to peer into his face. Gaara blinked at him and narrowed his eyes, his mouth opening, but Naruto beat him to it—he slammed his fist into Gaara's cheek, knocking his head to the side. Gaara's eyes widened as his hand flew to his face. Blood dribbled to his lips. Naruto figured Gaara had bitten his tongue.

"That's for attacking my village."

Gaara's mouth dropped open. "Fuck you."

Naruto sneered. "Hurts, doesn't it? No sand barrier now."

Gaara's eyes widened; he lowered his hand to rub his shoulder. He glanced around the room. Naruto swore he could see the thoughts going through the redhead's mind. "It failed."

"Your dad's dead. He never made it to Konoha; Orochimaru did him in and took his place so he could attack Old Man. Your sister and your brother are being held for ransom, same as you. It looks like your village will buy you back." Naruto finally grinned. "Thanks for not breaking my necklace."

Gaara cautiously sat up and glanced down at his chest, fingering the crystal. "I can't hear Mother."

"They've sealed the Ichibi away so they can keep you in custody. He got loose in the arena, but Mikoto-obachan and Kaka-sensei beat him no problem."

Gaara blinked. He seemed to be doing a lot of that. "Beat him."

"Yeah, piece of cake. You should sleep more often." Naruto pointed at his eyes. "You look way less like a raccoon."

Gaara raised a hand to his eyes.

"I'm sorry about your dad."

Gaara met his gaze. "I'm not."

Naruto nodded. "I know, but I'm still sorry."

Gaara didn't know how to take that. "… Thanks."

* * *

To Nariko's dismay, the next time she woke, the gauze was gone, so there was no excuse not to notice Hatake-san reading her chart at her bedside.

"Naruto told me to be here," he said before she could even open her mouth. "Your parents frogmarched him home to sleep, so he made me stay to tell you sorry that he wasn't around when you woke up."

"So this isn't hell and you're not the Shinigami," she whispered. "Thank goodness. I wouldn't have survived."

His unimpressed look said it all. "I'm going to assume this is your sense of humour under the influence of morphine, nothing more."

She made a noncommittal noise. "Why aren't you reading your porn? I can't see how my chart would be more interesting."

"Well, I'm not actually clear of a hospital bed, but I'm close enough that Shizune-san said I could wander around the hospital if I was good. Since I doubt that you screaming about my reading choices and aggravating your injuries would be 'good,' I chose to spare myself the fate of being shoved back into bed."

"Ah." She giggled, despite his longsuffering sigh. It was nice for once to be able to cow him. Reality drifted back in. "Who was lost?" she asked, hoping that everyone she knew had come through safely.

"Maa, Tsunade-sama was pretty badly injured, but she took care of it. Jiraiya showed up to help her and together they drove Orochimaru off. The Sandaime stepped down two days ago. He's taken up a councillor's position, and Tsunade-sama is going to be promoted to Godaime next week. We lost a lot of chuunin; they took the brunt of the fighting since they're usually in charge of making sure that the civilians get out of range, and Sakura's out like you. A Suna ninja got her, but Ino and Shikamaru got her to the hospital in time. Jounin and genin losses were high as well, but nowhere near the level that the chuunin were decimated. The ANBU operative you know as Jaguar is in the hospital too. It was a lot better than it could have been though."

Nariko forcibly calmed her breathing; sobbing would only aggravate what healing had been done. Drugs were never again to be taken: this emotional storm was simply too odd. "So many are gone even with the advance warning. I'd hoped that maybe it would be better since we knew," she murmured with forced calm, unable to keep her eyes open any longer. "Well, I guess you can read your book so long as you put it away when anyone younger than fourteen shows up. I don't mind then…" She lost the battle for consciousness.

* * *

"Kaka-sensei, is she still awake?" asked Naruto as he barged in the door.

"No," said Kakashi, putting away his book. "She had me tell her a bit about what happened before she went under again."

"Damn, why did Obaasan make me leave? I could've talked to her."

"Your 'grandmother' is a scary woman when she wants to be. She demanded that I knock you out if you refused to listen to her."

Naruto paled. He was glad he hadn't argued _too_ much with Takara-obaasan. Kakashi smiled at the sight and leaned back in his chair.

"Yeah, Takara-obaasan is scarier than Neechan when she wants to be," Naruto muttered after carefully glancing around to make sure neither woman was capable of overhearing. "What did you tell her?"

"She asked about loses, so I explained." Naruto nodded and scrambled over the chair on the other side of his sister as his sensei stood up and waved casually over his shoulder. "Later," said Kakashi as he ambled out the door.

"Thanks, Kaka-sensei!" Naruto called after him, but his sensei just waved the gratitude off and disappeared, probably off to bug another unfortunate bastard since he wasn't allowed out of the hospital just yet. Naruto had the feeling that Genma and Jaguar were beginning to hate this fact.

Naruto huffed at his teacher's rudeness before inspecting his sleeping sister. It was still so weird to watch her lying there. She was always the one that watched over him when he got hurt; he had never thought that he would be doing the same thing someday. At least she had woken up; he had been worried that she was in a coma or something no matter what Shizune said.

Four hours later, Naruto figured that he ought to go back home, but he really wanted to be around if his sister woke up again. It wasn't as if tomorrow's mission was all that important. It was just more rebuilding, nothing he hadn't done today and yesterday. His internal grumbling was interrupted by the sound of footsteps outside the door.

"Naruto?"

He turned around in his chair and grinned at Iruka-sensei, who looked a little nervous even when Naruto greeted him enthusiastically.

"Hey, I'm really sorry about letting her leave the safe house… She wouldn't stop, but I knew I should have tried harder…"

"Eh, it's okay." Naruto grinned, rubbing the back of his head. "If Neechan steamrolled you, I don't blame you. She can be really scary sometimes." Naruto could tell the Academy teacher still felt guilty.

"Hey, how about I take you to get ramen to make it up to you?" Iruka offered after a long pause where the only sound was the blip of the heart monitor.

That animated Naruto as nothing else could have. Takara-obaasan had forbidden ramen until further notice, insisting that it was hardly healthy enough for a growing boy. Normally, Naruto would have ranted and complained until the evil person that was separating him from his ramen gave in, but Takara-obaasan was _scary_. She hadn't been half so scary when Neechan had been around, but having Riko-nee passed out in the hospital seemed to make her grouchy.

"For real?" When Iruka nodded, Naruto shot to his feet and dragged Iruka-sensei out the door, waving at his sister's dreaming form before shutting the door. Obaasan wouldn't be able to protest if the ramen was a gift. "Bye, Neechan! Get better soon!" He then dragged Iruka down the hall, babbling on about how much work there was for him to do tomorrow, how mean Obaasan could be, how much he hoped Neechan would wake up and get better before his birthday, and how great ramen was.

* * *

Mikoto stared at the rat mask the ANBU watching over Ryuuka and Sasuke was wearing, her gaze penetrating the shadows concealing those eyes and warning Rat-san that if _anything_ happened to her children, she would see to it that he paid personally. It was a credit to the force of her glare that he cringed visibly and saluted her the same way he would have saluted the Hokage. If she had been any less worried, she would have smirked, but Orochimaru was somewhere out there biding his time before he tried to snatch the pair of them again. She wouldn't sleep well at night until the pieces of his body were safely sealed in titanium cases.

The walk through the streets was frightening. So many buildings she had once stood in were only rubble, and many corpses were still lying around, unclaimed and beginning to stink as the flies gathered. She figured that they had been visitors that had come to watch the Chuunin Exams. She wondered how long it would be until their families heard about their deaths. Probably months. The genin teams were being assigned burial detail, but these things took time. Some corpses were too damaged to make out a positive identification, and they couldn't be dealt with until that was done. The smell of death drove her to the rooftops, which she had been avoiding so that she would not have to see the extent of the damage to her village. It was every bit as hideous as she had anticipated.

Eight days since the attack and some fires were still burning. It was probably because someone had yet to get through the rubble to shut off the gas line. At least those fires were mostly smokeless. Clouds of steam still rose in other places were chuunin were using water jutsu to put out some of the more resistant fires. Electricity was still down for the most part (thank goodness the hospital had its own generator), though ninja were working with technicians to rectify the problem. Food wasn't really a problem yet, but there was an awful lot being spoiled because refrigerators weren't working. Clean water had been an issue in the first two days. One of the snake summons and an Oto-nin squad had contaminated the reservoir by rerouting the sewage into it. She had been assigned to help clean that up because of its urgency. She was still worn from using so many katon jutsu to help the doton specialists deal with the waste after the suiton specialists had displaced the water from the reservoir. That had been a massive undertaking.

She knew that there were still some foolish Oto and Suna ninja lingering, too wounded to run back to their traitorous nations. ANBU squads roamed the streets, searching for any leads on the whereabouts of those fugitives. Suna captives were being held prisoner as a new treaty was hammered out between Konoha and Suna, but the Oto-nin were given almost no quarter. Orochimaru had certainly not attempted to claim any of them. She was tempted to join those squads just so that she could fully extract retribution for her children, but it was not to be. She had other tasks to do as a katon specialist: cremation duty sometimes to keep disease from adding to their problems and waste disposal.

That wasn't where she was headed though. She owed Riko a visit. "Hey," called Mikoto, strolling into her room.

"Did you bring it?" Nariko asked eagerly. Mikoto grinned at the sudden energy at the sight of the book in her arms.

"Yeah, yeah, I brought it. Geez, almost dying obviously unhinged you."

Riko snorted. "I am so bored. Mother won't even bring me my books. She's determined that I won't scar and feels that having me not move until the scabs come off is the way to do it."

Mikoto hid a smirk.

"What are you complaining for?" she asked as she propped herself up. "I thought you wanted somebody to talk about these books with."

"Yeah, but this personality shift is a little frightening. You're making up for lost time or something." Mikoto settled herself into the chair beside Riko's bedside and glanced at the book again. She had stopped reading these when she had gotten married, but after Ryuuka had been born she had needed something to fill the hole Fugaku had left. The books always dulled the pain of separation a little.

"Hell yes. Hand it over. Shiro-nii would be disgusted with me. Do you have any idea how many years it's been since I read something like this?"

"Too many obviously. How did you survive without historical fiction?" asked Mikoto wryly, dangling the book in front of the younger woman's nose. Riko rolled her eyes before rudely snatching the nondescript book.

"Somehow. Forced celibacy wasn't something I was interested in being reminded about. I think I would have turned into a nun if you hadn't kept on badgering me about it though."

Mikoto laughed brightly and settled back into her chair. "We can't have that."

"Bah, I know," grumbled Riko, waving her hand dismissively again. "What's the point of being immune to innuendo if you can't use it against someone? Besides, I was getting out of practice. Shiro and Itsuki would actually be able to make me blush now."

Mikoto snorted and leaned back in her chair, glad to have managed to convince Sasuke to take Ryuuka to the partially repaired park for a bit. They had both been getting so sullen… "I can tell," murmured Mikoto under her breath. Riko was already twenty pages in. "What have I done?" the Uchiha mused under her breath as her friend almost literally _devoured_ the book.

* * *

"What have I done?" muttered Nariko under her breath as Naruto pushed her wheelchair through the crowds so she could see Tsunade's promotion. Everyone around her was decked out in their finest clothes and looked far more hopeful than they had at the start of the reconstruction.

Mikoto smirked at her, and Nariko grinned back slightly, indicating that she wanted her friend to shut up if she knew what was good for her. Mikoto subsided into her "mother" mode and nudged Ryuuka forward. Nariko hoisted Ryuuka up onto her lap when the black-haired girl held out her arms and pleaded with her dark, soulful eyes, and she ignored the bitter twinge of her femur protesting the weight. Ryuuka babbled on about all the fun things she had done while Nariko stroked her hair, watching as the Godaime appeared on the top of the Hokage's Offices with Sandaime beside her. Both were wearing ceremonial robes and Sandaime way carrying the hat that was a symbol of his office.

"Konoha," called the Sandaime, "today I step aside for the last time. I can no longer protect our village the way it deserves to be protected, so I pass the torch along to my second successor; may she be as successful as the Yondaime. I announce Tsunade as our Godaime."

The cheers were deafening, and Nariko placed her hands over Ryuuka's tiny ears when the girl winced and kept screaming with everyone else.

The Sandaime passed Tsunade his hat, and she set it on her head. She then stepped forward and looked down at them all. Yet again, Nariko wondered what she had done to Konoha. Would Tsunade really do a good job when she was only doing it for the money?

"Before you today, I swear to protect our village with all my strength. Together, we will make Konoha prosper despite this recent tragedy."

Nariko buried her chin in Ryuuka's hair as the celebratory cries rose into the early autumn sky. It seemed that she had done all right.

* * *

Nariko stared up at the ceiling of Mikoto's guest room, absently rubbing the tender flesh where her stab wound had been with fingers still coated in salves and wrapped in gauze.

Her mother chuckled. "Bored?"

"Yes." Nariko shifted her cast-encased legs and frowned. She felt so trapped.

Her father shot her a disapproving look. "I did offer to retrieve your books from your home."

"Dad, I don't want you anywhere near there except in an overseeing capacity until the crews finish repairing things. I want to move back in so we stop stretching Koto out."

Her mother sniffed. "If she would accept our help—"

Nariko laughed. "Mom, she's just as stubborn about what guests should and shouldn't do as you."

Mother sniffed again, but there was grudging respect in it. "Naruto isn't getting enough sleep."

Nariko's lips twitched at the subject change. "Really?"

"He's been dreaming," her father said, looking up from the scroll he was studying.

Nariko frowned. "Dreaming?"

"He twitches and whimpers. Sometimes he reaches out to smack things out of the air or clutch at his stomach or neck."

Nariko fought her way into sitting up. "Oh." He had died again, his clones. She worried her lower lip. "I'll talk to him. I think I know what's wrong."

"Those painkillers must really put you under for you not to have noticed." Her mother shot the bottle of pills on the dresser a scowl. "He's been loud enough that he wakes your father and me. I've heard our hostess listening at the door too. She prowls the halls most nights."

"I saw her carrying a sword when I went to washroom one night," her father noted.

Nariko grimaced. "Mikoto's careful. Most of her family was murdered by her son. This latest thing with Orochimaru—a leader of the attack—trying to take her children has her on edge. Just… just try not to set her off, okay?"

* * *

Naruto sat on the foot of Gaara's bed, Snake having left them alone for once. "So they're going to take you back?"

Gaara shrugged. "So your Hokage told me. They want Shukaku back. Your Shodaime gave him to Suna long ago, apparently."

"Do you want to go back?" Naruto thought he knew the answer to that. Gaara looked so much better. The dark circles were almost gone; being forced to sleep whenever Naruto or someone else didn't need him awake seemed to have settled him. He wasn't so creepy anymore. Naruto almost swore that Gaara had half-smiled a couple times when he had visited.

"Not really, but I don't want to stay here either."

"Eh? Why not! We could be real brothers!"

Gaara narrowed his eyes. "Your sister doesn't like me."

"Yeah, well, you scared the shit out of her. Are you really all that surprised? You weren't nice to her at all."

Gaara couldn't refute that, so he looked away, rubbing his shoulder. "They're going to take off the seal. Suna demanded it."

"Huh? But why? You're so much better now!"

"They want my power back, not me."

This time, Naruto couldn't say anything to refute this. "How are you going home?"

"My siblings and some other Suna ninja will be released at the same time. We will be travelling back together, escorted by a group of your people. The seal over Shukaku will be removed at the border, but the ones blocking my own chakra will be released at the gate." Gaara didn't seem too enthused about this. "I don't know when yet. The details haven't been finalized."

"I'll check back with you so you can tell me when, ne? Hey, I brought one of the books I was telling you about last time." Naruto pulled _Cloudy Mountain_ out of his pouch. "Neechan actually grabbed this one from my bookcase when she ran home right before the attack. She knows this one is my favourite from the _Hiroji_ series. It came out three years ago. See, in this one, there's a secret base for this group of illusionists intent on getting revenge on their local lord. They keep their base protected by ringing it with illusion clouds…" Naruto nattered on and read the first chapter to Gaara until Snake swooped in and whispered that she wasn't going to waste any more time indulging them.

Naruto couldn't help but notice that she had a heavy aura around her. Her poison green mask, normally sneering to him, seemed sorrowful with her shoulders bowed under her cloak. He wondered where she had been and what had happened while she had been away. She couldn't have gone far.

He turned back to Gaara. "I'm going to come see you off when you leave for Suna. Keep my necklace safe until then, okay?"

* * *

After getting ambushed on their last rubble clearing mission in an alley by Oto-nin, Team 7 found itself in Tsunade's office. ANBU had dealt with the Oto ninja in six seconds flat after Sakura had screamed. Things would have gotten messy if ANBU hadn't been so quick; the buildings framing the alley had been unsteady and just about anything could have brought them down.

Even Sasuke had been impressed despite how much he disdained ANBU for failing to prevent the Massacre. They had protected the Uchiha during the attack on Konoha though, so Sasuke owed them some loyalty, but loyalty and the bastard didn't get along unless Sasuke got to see some faces. Naruto figured the only reason Sasuke was loyal to the ideals of Konoha was because people he believed held them dear.

Baachan slamming her fist down on her desk and barking, "Naruto, pay attention!" pulled him out of his musings. He met golden eyes snapping with rage. The way the rest of his team was cringing made him more resistant. Sure, Baachan was scary, but _someone_ had to be brave and stand up to her!

He planted his feet and interlaced his fingers behind his head. "How am I supposed to pay attention when you won't even give us any good missions? We haven't been out of the village in weeks!" He almost patted himself on the back when Baachan's grip started cracking the edge of her desk.

The rest of his team looked ready to flee at the drop of a feather.

"Brat."

Naruto felt really sorry for her desk and the poor suckers that would have to replace it.

"You want a mission out of the village?" Her forehead was more wrinkled (with rage) than he had ever seen it. "You'll get one then. D-rank, departure tomorrow morning."

_D-rank?_ The indignity made Naruto scowl as Tsunade leered.

"The hospital is running low on some essential supplies. The usual suppliers in Konoha are out of commission at the moment since their premises were totalled in the attack, so the hospital had to order from a supplier in south-western Fire. You are to meet up with this shipment and ensure that it arrives on schedule."

Naruto winced and ducked when the mission scroll rocketed towards his head.

Sasuke snatched the scroll out of the air and unrolled it. "Bandages?"

Naruto groaned.

"Until then, you can clear rubble out of this alley." Tsunade-baachan pointed at an area on the big map of Konoha on her desk that had yet to have all the red and yellow marked spots crossed off. "Another three construction and restoration crews have arrived from other parts of the country; you will be assisting and guiding the ones assigned the alley. Kakashi, I've got a separate mission for you." The three genin were quick to clear out when she pointed at the door.

* * *

On his way home, Naruto stopped by his apartment building to see how repairs were going. Neechan would want an update. The contractors were still at work. They knew him pretty well by now; some waved greetings. They were from out of town and had yet to figure out that everyone hated his guts. It was nice.

Sasuke had tagged along. He walked up the walls to peer at the progress while Naruto nattered with the guy prepping a nail gun. "They've put drywall on," Sasuke called down.

"We're mudding and taping the walls in your place today," said the contractor as he loaded a string of nails. "You can see from here that we've got your balcony well on its way too. Somebody in town is salvaging the old railing. We should be ready for it when he finishes."

Naruto grinned. "That's great! So we can move back in soon?"

"Only after we've finished the rest of the building," the contractor warned. "Officials have to sign off on the repairs before your landlady can let you back in."

"Eh? When's the rest of the building gonna be done then?"

The contractor shrugged, but he was smiling. "Soon enough. Don't worry. See? The second floor here is almost done, and it was the worst. I still can't believe snakes did this. How big would they have to be?"

Naruto grimaced. "Big. They filled the entire street, they were so wide. They were hard to stop. See, they don't disappear back to where they were summoned from until you inflict so much damage on them they choose to go back. They're pretty hard to scare and damage, so we had to kill them or crush them. I took out five."

"Five?" The contractor thought he was joking.

"Yeah, there were about a dozen or so. See, one of my teachers taught me how to summon toads, so I'd summon really big ones right on top of the snakes. The tricky part was summoning the toads high enough in the air right above the snake. That guy's mom"—he pointed at Sasuke, who was peering in windows on the third floor—"helped me out. She'd distract them while I got up high and did the summoning. It's pretty tiring!"

The contractor laughed and ruffled his hair; Naruto could tell he still didn't believe him, but that was okay.

Naruto and Sasuke left soon afterward, heading for home base. Takara-obaasan was spinning thread with her weird top while Ojiichan told the dragon girl a story with the hawk and fox statues Neechan had grabbed in the living room. Sasuke sighed as Ryuuka jumped up to glom onto his leg the moment she realized he was home. Naruto was her next victim.

Once she had settled into listening to Yasu-ojiichan again, Naruto snuck off toward the kitchen. In the hall, he could hear Neechan and Obachan talking.

"See, that the author tried to mislead you into thinking that that lord was the one interested in the pass was what made it interesting," Mikoto insisted.

"True, but it was a little hard to appreciate that bit because we only ever heard about it second-hand through other characters at court. The intrigue there was what kept the story rolling. That guy was just a minor backdrop for the rest of these snakes to operate against. A distraction," said Riko-nee.

Naruto groaned. They were beating that historical book of theirs to death again. Whenever he came upon them talking these days, it was their topic. He wasn't even sure if it was the same book every time; Neechan had been reading an awful lot and the covers did seem to change. _Court intrigue. Bah._

He wandered in, but they didn't even pause harping on their points long enough to greet him with more than a nod. That suited him fine since it was the fridge he was interested in. Once he was equipped with an orange, he settled at the table near them to peel the freshly washed fruit. They wrapped up their discussion in another few exchanges and finally greeted him properly.

"How was work?" Neechan asked.

"We cleared out another alley. We got some more crews in today, so we had to show some of them the ropes. Other genin teams handled the rest."

"No incidents today? Your clones were okay?" Neechan had been harping on about the wellbeing of his clones ever since she had made him talk out the poisonous memories from the attack.

"Nothing today, just corpses. We found a cat, or I think it was a cat."

Neechan grimaced. She was slowly losing her outer skin of bandages. The flesh revealed was red at first, but it was going back to her usual middling colour. Her hair had been burnt down to stubble in some places, so it had been chopped down to the roots so it would grow evenly. It was really weird to see her so close to bald like this.

"Some family will be missing their family pet then. Is there a list for pets?" asked Mikoto.

Naruto shrugged. "Sakura knows. She's been writing up our reports."

"Oh?" His sister dragged that so long that Naruto knew he was in trouble. "Is she still the only one doing the paperwork? How typical."

"I help!" he protested, but he could tell she wasn't going to let this go. "She's the best at it though."

"That's nice, but are you sure she doesn't mind constantly doing the reports? Aren't they boring?"

"Eh, well, kind of. She's always volunteering to do them"—_because Sasuke had said once that she did a good job with them_—"so we just let her. Whenever I do them, she rewrites a lot of it anyway when she edits it."

"And do you look over what she changed and ask her why she changed it so when you're doing missions on your own, you know how to write a good report?" asked Neechan archly.

Naruto sighed. "Sometimes."

"And what about Sasuke? Does he write reports?" asked Obachan.

Naruto glanced at the door to make sure the bastard hadn't snuck on them. "Well, um, he's written two?"

"And did he listen to what Sakura said when she edited them?"

Now Naruto really grimaced. "Um…" How was he supposed to do this? "Well, she didn't edit them."

Mikoto frowned. "Why?" There was an amused glint in her eyes though.

Naruto knew she was doing this just to make him squirm. Best he just spat it out. "Because she said of course his was perfect."

Neechan snickered.

Obachan smirked. It was an evil smirk, one Naruto hoped never to see again. "Oh?"

Naruto was quick to change the subject. "Anyway, Tsunade-baachan gave us a mission out of the village for tomorrow. We're off to make sure a caravan full of bandages doesn't get lost."

Neechan frowned. "How long will you be gone?"

"A couple nights. We're not sure how far away from Konoha they'll be. Kaka-sensei will be meeting up with us later on. Oh, I was at our apartment. They're getting close to being done. One guy was saying a couple weeks at most."

Neechan smiled and moved to tug hair that wasn't there. She looked disconcerted for a moment. "That's good. It'll be nice to go back to the familiar, not that it isn't nice to stay with you, Koto."

Obachan shrugged. "I know what you mean. Don't worry."

* * *

Naruto pushed through the crowds watching stonily as the Suna-nin group was prepared to be escorted the border of Waterfall Country. There were a lot of handcuffed wrists in sight, most having the added feature of a chakra draining seal to ensure that the prisoners would only have enough chakra to travel. There was lots of angry muttering; most people weren't happy that these attackers were being given back in return for another peace treaty that Suna could break again and some measly reparations money that Suna couldn't really afford to give, according the rumours.

For once, Naruto was invisible in a good way.

He found Gaara under heavy guard with a new seal on his wrist. "Gaara!"

Teal eyes met his. A half smile appeared. "So you did come."

"Yeah, I said I would. Keeping my word is my nindo, remember?"

Gaara nodded as the two jounin guarding him looked between them uncertainly. "I can show you now."

"Show me what?"

"You asked me what my hobbies were during one visit."

Naruto remembered that. Gaara had made a last ditch attempt at being creepy, claiming that proving his existence by killing people was his only hobby, but Naruto had nagged him into divulging that sculpting was something he had tried.

"I have enough chakra to show you." Gaara raised his hand the cork popped out of his gourd. The jounin hopped back, raising kunai and shouting threats, but Gaara ignored them as sand poured into his hand. He narrowed his eyes at the sandy lump, which became a quadruped. An angular head with angular ears appeared as paws and tail gained definition.

Naruto's eyes widened when Gaara presented him with a lifelike trotting fox about the size of a shoe box. "Wow."

Gaara half-smiled again and nodded. He still didn't say thank you.

Naruto didn't mind, not with the statue in his hands. "This is so cool, Gaara."

"Keep it."

Naruto's eyes managed to snap away from the details of the fur. "Really?"

"Yes."

The jounin relaxed as the cork plugged up the gourd again, but they were still wary. They muttered on about how Gaara shouldn't have wasted chakra for running on this.

Naruto glared at them. "Buzz off. I just got a really cool present."

One of the jounin snorted. Naruto went back to ignoring them. At the gate, the jounin in charge of the group shouted that it was time to head out.

Gaara glanced at Naruto.

Naruto got the feeling that Gaara had never said goodbye before, so he took initiative. He held out his hand and grinned when Gaara cautiously clasped it. "It was good meeting you, Brother. I'll write, okay? And you write too if you ever just want to talk or need help."

Gaara smiled, nodded, lifted the Shodaime's necklace over his head, and handed it over. "Bye."

* * *

"I just need you to bend your knee like this one more time and then the people waiting for you can escort you home," the nurse that was overseeing Nariko's rehabilitation said. The sessions were almost over, but her legs were still so tender. She had graduated to a cane from crutches though. She did as requested, and her cane was handed back over. "Next week at the same time, all right?"

"Sure thing," Nariko said as she limped out into the foyer only to find Team 7 waiting for her. "What are you lot doing here? Didn't you have a mission?"

"Yeah," said Sakura, "but we finished early again. Naruto really wanted to be here to help you home after you got tripped up last time."

Nariko grimaced and stared out the window before her eyes slid closed. Civilians really were cruel. A soft touch on her free hand brought her back to the present, and she saw those blue eyes that had once been so lonely filled with shame.

"_It is not your fault_," she enunciated every word. "Now, let's go home." Leaning heavily on her cane, she limped towards the doors, holding Naruto's hand despite the glares that followed them on the streets.

When they got in, Okaasan had already prepared dinner and Tousan was sitting on the couch under the bamboo reading the newspaper. Team 7 was ordered brusquely by Takara to stay for dinner and no one dared to gainsay her. Naruto hovered awkwardly as Nariko sat at the table and passed her Gaara's gift when she asked for it. As everyone else sat at the table around her, she smiled absently and ran her fingers over the desert fox. It was still remarkably whole and had yet to lose a single grain of sand.

After everyone had started eating, Nariko paused. "Otouto, did you find out if Gaara made it home?"

"Not yet," admitted Naruto nervously, an anomaly in itself.

She narrowed her eyes fractionally, but decided to pursue this later.

"Nariko-chan," her father said when everyone was nearly finished, "your work called. They're insisting that you go in tomorrow about leave of absence. There have been some complications, they say. According to them, you're not cleared for sick leave and they want you working tomorrow."

Nariko closed her eyes wearily, her face blank. "Thank you, Tousan. I'll see to it tomorrow. Knowing them, my medical expenses won't have been covered like they're supposed to be either." She should have held her tongue, she realized as her mother deliberately set down her chopsticks and placed her hands on the table _just so_. This was going to be bad.

"You know," said her mother, "I don't know how you two have put up with this for so many years. I really think you should come home for a while, Nariko-chan. You're in no condition to be fielding this sort of work. You'd never have to deal with these underhanded attacks if you were living with the rest of your family. I'm sure Naruto could manage by himself for a month or two. Besides, the boy is obviously worried about you. That kind of concern could get him killed. He wouldn't agonize nearly as much if he knew you were safe with us."

Nariko froze. She had been afraid of this. Gripping her chopsticks tightly, she ate a bit more in order to stall her reply. "I'll think about it."

She could go home and abandon everything she had done here. Retreating to the fold tasted too much like defeat and poisoned the beauty of the option. Pride left her no choice but to stay and continue to scrape out an existence for herself until Tsunade released her and Naruto didn't need her anymore… and then what?

"Think about it? What is there to think about? You need to come home. Everyone misses you, and this village is obviously not being kind to you. I can't allow this to go on—!"

_Oh, that rankled! Her mother wouldn't allow this to go on, huh? She was twenty-eight…!_ "_Mother_, I said I'd think about it."

There was an uncomfortable silence until Nariko smiled and asked about Team 7's latest mission.

When Nariko finally made it to bed, Naruto crept in. He took the cream she was supposed to use on what was left of the burns on her back and ordered her to lift up the back of her shirt since she couldn't actually reach the spots. It was so odd for him to take care of her like this instead of the other way around. He spread the cream over the ugly red patches that still ached and stung when her movements stretched the skin.

"Have you written to Gaara yet?" she asked her brother as he put the lid back on the jar and as she shrugged her sleeping shirt back down.

"No," he mumbled, fiddling with the jar. "I'm not sure what to say. I've never written a letter before either."

"Don't fib."

He grunted and screwed the lid back on the jar of cream. This wasn't like him at all: he obviously wanted something from her. He never acted this out of character unless he was trying to wheedle something out of someone.

"You know precisely what you want to say." It was time; even she knew this. "You just want me to give you something better. I refuse to. Go write your own letter." Why did this hurt so much? It shouldn't have hurt; it should have made her happy that he was finally ready to stand by himself. Somehow, the lump in her throat hurt more than the stakes in her hips and femur. "You're adult enough to figure out what you want to say." She hoped her voice had been steady enough to hide just how much that phrase had cost her. _When he no longer needed her, what then…?_ "I'll take it to Godaime-sama at the end of the week; there's something I need to talk to her about."

"It's that job, isn't it?" he asked her, his face telling her that she had succeeded at least a bit in keeping the ruin of her emotions from his notice. He should have caught that easily, unless he was hiding his knowledge of it from her…

"Yeah, I need to tell her my answer." It sounded so simple when she said it like that. She really needed to do some more research before going.

"What is it?"

"I don't know yet. I think I'll know by then."

She really hoped she would.


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Death in Vogue

The room and the vegetation were the only witnesses of the bloody clouds floating on the black sky, and the click of the tumblers in the lock was the only sound initially.

* * *

Mikoto suddenly froze, soapsuds dripping back into the sink as her stomach swooped sickeningly.

Something was wrong.

Something very wrong was coming or it was already here.

She wiped her hands off on a towel and called for Ryuuka, hoping the little dragon would come in from the garden quickly even as she swept through the house and pulled the ninjatou in its katana sheath out of the lacquered box on her dresser. She freed the ANBU blade quickly, checking it for any flaws just as she had every hour on the hour ever since the attempt to mark Sasuke. Its perfect reflection of her face assured her that all was well. She strapped a shuriken pouch to her leg and rigged her blade on her back after changing out of her normal daywear.

Something unsound was coming.

* * *

Nariko looked over the stacks of papers on her desk, frowning slightly. Something was missing. She flipped idly through the various piles as her mind cast back to where those records could have been. She searched through every drawer and even through her bag, though why Tsunade's documents would be in there was beyond her. Hadn't she kept them locked up here? She had better not have limped all this way to face all this ire from her bosses and coworkers only to find that those essential papers were missing.

When she finally realized where they were, she smacked her forehead and cursed herself for a fool. Now she had to go all the way back…

* * *

The neighbour downstairs prided herself on her excellent ears, though they had caused her grief many times in the past, especially since that demon boy and the nosy woman had moved in upstairs. She had complained time and time again with no results: unjust treatment as far as she was concerned. Why should the pair of them have been under the protection of the Hokage? What business was it of his where they lived?

This time she wasn't sure who was moving around upstairs. It wasn't the noisy demon: he had a quick step that emphasized the impact of the heel too much for comfort. It wasn't the bitch: her step was steady most of the time and rolled like thunder when she wasn't in a good mood. It wasn't any of those other boys: these steps were far too light to belong to any of them. It wasn't those girls either: this step was too heavy for their slender forms. It wasn't that bitch's parents either: their steps were far slower and more cautious because of obviously achy joints.

No, this step was quiet and somehow menacing and its companion's sounds had last been heard on the landing. Even if it had been as loud as the terrible music that teen that had just moved in downstairs played, she wouldn't have complained. This stride commanded quiet and hinted that there was something barely controlled beneath the surface. She really didn't want to find out what it was. She put down her broom and locked her door tightly. Maybe it was time for a very quiet nap…

* * *

Mikoto sighed with relief when Ryuuka finally appeared in her doorway.

"Kaasan…?" her little girl asked, wide-eyed at the sight of Mikoto's old jounin uniform.

"Ryuuka, go to your room and lock the door," said Mikoto, one hand unconsciously drawing closer and closer to her shuriken pouch. Instinct was screaming that it was coming soon. "Turn off all the lights and sit in your closet. Don't make a sound no matter what until I come and get you."

"But I was making mud pies!" A red-eyed glare sent her running.

Mikoto loved Ryuuka dearly, but spoiling her was a bad idea with a renegade running around and many groups hoping to finish what he had started. Sharingan eyes meant no arguing. Ryuuka had been taught that the moment she had learned to say yes and no. Mikoto walked past the room after making sure that her long hair was pinned out of the way. There wasn't a sound, and the door was firmly locked.

Good.

* * *

Walking was so painful. She hated this. Running, dancing, skipping, jumping, and all those wonderful things were completely out of the question when she could only just hobble with the help of a cane. She was dreading going up all those steps.

She snarled at a young man whose foot almost "accidentally" swept her cane out from under her. Maybe she could take out this odd tension in her gut on him.

A chuunin she didn't know beat her to it, lambasting the brat until he bowed and skulked off. "Sorry about that."

She could only stare. She was sure this grizzled man knew exactly who she was and had never before seen fit to lend a hand.

"That brother of yours did a good job during the invasion. I heard he took out five of those snakes."

Nariko's eyes widened. _What?_

The man was old enough to be Naruto's father, but he still rubbed the back of his neck the same way. "Ah, sorry, I'm Jin. Please tell him to keep up the good work, Matsuku-san." With that, he scuttled off, his ears red.

Nariko could only watch him go, the unsettling dread forgotten for a moment.

* * *

Ryuuka whimpered soundlessly in the closet, huddling behind those long robes that her mother had said would fit her one day. She hoped that they never did: they were stuffy and yucky even if they did match the clan robes Oniitama had to wear sometimes.

Why was Kaasan being so weird? A horrible thought occurred to her. What if it was the evil weasel that ate the souls of the unwary Uchiha? Her brother had told her stories about him once. The evil weasel was supposed to have evil red eyes and horrible lines across his furless cheeks. She shuddered and closed her eyes, only too ready to see those scary eyes everywhere. At least Kaasan's and Oniitama's were cool looking…

It was just a story, right?

* * *

Mikoto leaned against a wall that was almost in the exact centre of the house. She had attuned herself so much to the noises of this building that every motion of out of the ordinary sent thrills of adrenaline through her. She had already erased all evidence of Ryuuka's existence: the mud pies were gone, the toys were carefully stowed away, the baby things were hidden in closets, and the smells had been erased with a careful application of cleaner. No one that didn't already know about Ryuuka's presence would ever discern it now.

Her hand clenched around the hilt of her ninjatou.

* * *

Nariko scowled at the steps. Why were there always steps? Was there no escape?

She was just about to hobble up the first one when she froze. Something was wrong. Unreasonable fear made her tremble.

There was a hunting presence ahead and above her.

* * *

'_I'm getting too old for this sort of excitement,'_ grumbled Mikoto mentally, wiping the sweaty evidence of anxiety off on her pants before gripping the cloth-wrapped hilt again. _'I need to start going on missions again once Ryuuka is old enough for Sasuke to look out for by himself.'_ Where was Sasuke? Her stomach froze into an icy heap at the thought of him being found…

She wrenched the door open and stared at the person standing there, her blade pressed against the offending throat. There was a cold smirk on those lips…

* * *

Nariko had never felt so threatened. It was all she could do to stay upright.

* * *

"Such a pleasant greeting," drawled that familiar voice even as the blade in her hand refused to waver.

* * *

Tsunade glared at the map spread out on her desk. She really needed a drink. This was almost _hopeless _and something was wrong with her guts. Why did she have this terrible feeling that she was missing something? Why did she feel as though she had failed? Why had she let that bastard sensei of hers foist this mess off on her?

She reached for her usual dish of sake and sighed when she saw that it was empty. It had been for the past seven days. She hated this budgeting: she hadn't had to do such a thing since… Well, she couldn't remember the last time she had worried about money. Money was easy to come by and easy to lose, at least for her. Now though, now she actually had to account for every penny with those creditors breathing down her neck. Sake had to wait until her next paycheque or until she could con Shizune into buying it for her.

Her musings were interrupted by the devil herself. "Tsunade-sama!" Her apprentice gasped, leaning on the door handle for support.

"What is it?" Why did every little thing have to be run by her? Couldn't people think for themselves? That was what they got paid to do.

"There have been reports from an off duty Konoha Military Police member stating that there was a blue-skinned individual walking through Konoha!"

"Shizune," Tsunade drawled, sitting down at her desk and hiding a wry smile behind steepled fingers, "we can hardly chase a man because he has blue skin."

It was always amusing to watch the girl gobble when someone interrupted the train of her thoughts. "Tsunade-sama, ANBU intelligence has identified the man as possibly Hoshigaki Kisame! He's an S-ranked Kiri nukenin! The officer reported he was wearing very odd apparel: a dark coat with red clouds traced on it. He was with a man that the officer said reminded him of Uchiha Akio, who is currently in the hospital recovering from a stroke."

Now Tsunade understood. She glanced at the reports from Jiraiya, which were collecting dust on her side table. She had only scanned them, but she remembered those details. They would have to act quickly.

"Send the fastest people you can to track down Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. Keep the messengers updated so changes in orders can be passed along as necessary."

Shizune nodded sharply and dashed out the door, leaving Tsunade to stare out onto Konoha. She summoned the agent she needed with a flick of her fingers.

"Go track them down. See to it that every jounin is sent out on the trail. I don't want them to leave this village alive." Just as the shadow behind her was about to depart, she held up a cautionary hand. "Send someone to back up Uchiha Mikoto and bring in whoever let them into the village. I want them in the strategy room now for questioning. Make sure they stay there."

After the shadow disappeared, she went back to staring anxiously down at the streets below. Would those Uchiha survive until her people got there?

* * *

"I just want to grab those papers," Nariko continued, staring down the length of the steel at her friend, who was milky pale. "I left them on your coffee table, and I need them. Tsunade-sama is going to knock my head off if I don't get them for her, though it looks like you're quite capable of doing it for her with that thing. I promise I'll be out of your hair in sixty seconds if you're having one of those weeks."

Nariko was confused when Mikoto broke into hysterical laughter. What was so funny?

Taking the papers and facing the steps up to her floor was definitely sounding better than hanging around. She shot out the door as soon as possible, leaving Mikoto with that extremely sharp knife.

* * *

Kakashi had to wonder if he had some sort of unfulfilled death wish. Why on earth had he agreed to take on Itachi? This had to be one of the stupidest things he had ever done.

Asuma and Genma were scrapping with Kisame deeper in the alley, the sounds of their fight muffled by the enclosed space and the bustle of the main street crowds only three blocks south. Kakashi wished that this fight could have taken place in larger space. Unfortunately, beggars couldn't be choosers. Their trio had been the first to happen upon the nukenin six blocks from the Uchiha compound. Given the proximity and the people involved, waiting for a better battleground hadn't really been an option.

"Why are you protecting them?" Itachi said as he cancelled out Kakashi's watery blast. "Don't you know what they did?"

Kakashi didn't deign to reply. He was a bit more concerned with the fact that Itachi's eyes were receiving quite a bit more chakra than Kakashi was comfortable with if his reading of the haze his Sharingan could see was correct. Not good.

"Don't look at him," he called. From the way Genma jerked his head, Kakashi was positive the message had gotten through to him at least.

"Why not?" Asuma grunted as he struggled to keep Samehada from scraping him to ribbons to allow Genma the opportunity to attack.

"Sharingan."

"Perhaps you are not as ill-informed as I supposed." Itachi's frail form seemed almost relaxed even though his eyes were shut.

Kakashi knew that this brat was not just being arrogant. ANBU captains were elite, but to become one at thirteen… He had watched the boy join the ranks, not concerned in the least by his advance. The Uchiha were geniuses after all. But when he had been made captain, less and less information about the kid's missions had been bandied about. Fewer and fewer had known exactly what sort of skills he had had until suddenly he had shown them all in the most public way imaginable. Kakashi had to wonder if he had killed off his bloodline merely to ensure that no one would ever be able to counter his techniques. If that was the reason, he had failed in a sense. Though the Uchiha were still horribly closed-mouthed, they would undoubtedly share information to slaughter their traitor heir.

His thought process was abruptly cut off when suddenly the two trios of tomoe morphed into a very different shape.

The world went black.

"… Seventy-two hours at my mercy, Hatake. Let's see if you can handle it."

Kakashi had been through interrogation before. He had also been through the hospital more times than he cared to try to count, each time sporting various life threatening injuries and plagued with a considerable amount of pain. None of those experiences compared to this. If Hell was anything like this, Kakashi could understand just why Orochimaru was desperately searching for a way to keep living. Bound and suspended within a negative landscape, surrounded by the boy who had almost murdered his entire clan, and able to feel his liver being hacked to cubes, he had to admit that this really wasn't one of his better days. Had he been capable of anything other than screaming, Kakashi might have said that he wasn't quite sure he was going to survive another seventy-one hours fifty-nine minutes and ten seconds of this.

He didn't.

Seconds of exposure to excruciating pain were bad enough, but this… this was beyond what could be handled with any sort of sanity. Itachi had impeccable timing: as soon as one wave of agony began to subside, another took its place. There was no relief, no respite. Wounds often overlapped, increasing the pain to various exponential levels. A person could only be stabbed in so many places before he started falling apart.

First, his voice gave out. Rational thought died. Emotional capability vanished. The ability to feel was cursed with every scream of every nerve ending. His mind died, shrivelling up in a corner to simply let the never-ending anguish fill his skull. An hour destroyed him. Two hours left a husk. Three… well, the less said about the third hour and all of those after it, the better. Suffice it to say that Kakashi the person didn't exist anymore at that point. Kakashi the animal wasn't even around to offer resistance.

Yet, somehow, beyond imagining, when the last second passed, something was left to keep the true body from simply collapsing limply on the ground. Perhaps it was id, instinct, or maybe the anti-thanatos every shinobi needed to survive.

"Still alive?" Whatever still inhabited Kakashi's body knew that voice's owner was an enormous threat. Even in the face of an overwhelming desire to flee fast and far from the source of all that pain, whatever it was that held the fort in the jounin's brain kept him sensate as he shook horribly. Every second of consciousness was fresh agony over raw wounds. Weak-kneed and incapable of defending himself, what had once been a jounin dropped feebly into a crouch/kneel. "Ah, just barely. Still, it is impressive."

The owner of the voice moved closer. The cringing, screaming, flailing inhabitant of Kakashi's body heard this even as it identified the clink of a kunai. Instinct screamed that the body needed to flee if it was going to survive, but reflexes could only operate if there was energy around to fuel movement.

Considering his fragmented mental state, death would probably be a mercy. Fleeting impressions of movement and sound were all that penetrated the broken mess of his mind. They were disconnected in the bleeding sea of his consciousness, making no sense whatsoever. Everything was so raw…

"Why are you here?" he managed to rasp out as the nukenin closed on him, the tatters of rationality rallying one last time before they scattered to the four winds. "For Sasuke and Mikoto?" Some inner instinct knew not to mention the youngest living Uchiha.

"… No." _A lie, but only partially so._

"You're… You are from Akatsuki…" His voice wasn't even a whisper at this point. He doubted Itachi even heard him and there was no way that the boy could read his lips. Jiraiya's warnings clogged his brain and beat his floundering thought process all to hell.

"We've come for the Yondaime's legacy."

_Sensei's legacy? Sensei… Minato-sensei… Naruto…?_

"Kakashi, hold on! Reinforcements are coming," said a loud voice as its owner interposed himself between the fallen jounin and the silent nukenin after walloping the back of Kisame's head during his "dynamic" entrance with his sandaled foot. Genma and Asuma struggled on in the face of Kisame's displeasure, still working to avoid Itachi's eyes. "They say Mikoto-san is coming—"

"Kisame, let's go." The hated voice… it almost sounded… worried.

"But—" Another dangerous voice… impatient, angry, and not willing to obey.

"Now. There's no need to start a war just now." The hated voice again, calm this time.

And just like that, they were gone. Seconds later, a trio of ANBU and a familiar and frightening face appeared on the roof of the shorter building creating the alley.

"Where did they go?" Uchiha-san grated out through clenched teeth. Gai gestured, and the group was gone. Kakashi's body's tenant decided that it was now safe enough to fall into a different kind of darkness. He didn't even feel himself hit the ground.

* * *

_Faster!_

She had to go faster! Tiger-19 sprinted at her side. Horse-5 and Boar-11 ran just behind them, prepared to jump right into combat the moment they caught up with the pair of nukenin. Ryuuka was with the Sandaime. She trusted him to keep her safe. ANBU had wanted to keep both of them safe, but Mikoto was hardly going to let this opportunity pass her by. She had "convinced" the agents to do her bidding; it really hadn't been very hard. It was one of the perks of being a former senior agent. They had been too slow though. One man was already down, a former agent and a genius in his own right. It didn't reassure her.

Mikoto froze when she saw the bloodied body on the roof ahead of her. _Kohai…?_

She wavered for a moment, torn between the subordinate she had once been responsible for and the former son she needed to vanquish so much that the rage his proximity inflicted actually made her tremble with reaction similar to the withdrawal she had witnessed in drug addicts during missions. Monkey was going to die though… His pelvis had been scraped open in a ragged manner that a sword certainly couldn't be responsible for; sandpaper was a more likely culprit.

Horse-5 solved her dilemma by breaking away from the group to scoop up the body of the younger agent. He indicated that he would return as soon as he had been stationed in the hospital.

_They're heading towards the southern wall,_ Boar signalled as they took up the chase again.

Mikoto envied the Yondaime at this moment. If she had been able to bend space as he had… Baring her teeth with frustration, she pulled more chakra and directed it towards getting to the wall before _he_ escaped her again. The midday crowds were blurry ants on the streets below. They didn't matter unless there were red clouds on a black sky in their midst. No henge would get past her, not this time.

"Uchiha-san," Tiger warned her, but she hardly needed this cub's advice. She could see it.

"Stop him," she murmured, breaking away with Boar on her tail to approach from the left while Tiger took the right.

Wood sprouted from the earth, blocking the path of the two nukenin, hemming them in a tight weave of oddly sinuous planks. The blue one swung at the wood, breaking through with the wrapped sword.

ANBU hissed vile words in her mind, but Mikoto ignored it and pushed the wall higher as she pursued. The battle chaos that followed was oddly distant from her. Boar was at her side one moment and gone the next, blasted aside by a spray of water she had instinctively avoided. Boar countered, calling upon agility to combat ninjutsu while Tiger countered the nukenin's attack with a barrage of tendrils intended to pierce or subdue, whichever came easiest. That sword was brought into play again. Tiger and Boar had their work cut out for them.

Mikoto knew how to pick and choose her battles. Suiton beat katon. She was at a disadvantage when it came to elemental ninjutsu and the one that Tiger had called Kisame wasn't the one she was after. No, her target was scaling the wall with discouraging ease. She had watched Fugaku teach him that. She had been proud. That skill only ignited rage now. How she wished that Fugaku hadn't taught him so well… She lunged at him, only her own agility saving her when he turned and used Housenka just as easily as she had against those Oto-nin. Sharingan met Sharingan on the forest floor just beyond the wall.

"What made you do it?" she asked as calmly as she knew how as she held herself still on a bough at an angle above him. He didn't answer, instead merely staring at her blankly with eyes that had once stared up at her adoringly. _My son…_ "Speak."

"Hello, Mother."

"No son of mine, traitor. Tell me what made you do it." When he didn't answer her again, she lost the fragile control she had managed to maintain. "Do you see them?" she crooned, gripping the cloth-covered hilt of her weapon until her fingers shook with strain. "Do you hear their screams? Do you see their horror in your dreams, kin slayer? Do you see the shock on their faces, the disgust in their eyes? Do you sleep at night, betrayer?" A cruel smile played across her lips. "Do you feel their flesh part beneath your weapon? Do you see the trust in Hiroe-chan's eyes turn to terror as you slit her throat? Did you enjoy it, sadist? Did you take pleasure in ending her dancing and skipping? Are you proud of how you slaughtered her innocence?"

His face seemed blank, but there was some struggle beneath the surface that she could just barely make out. He had been her son. There was very little he could hide from her when she looked for it, as she should have before. The responsibility this placed upon her shoulders was crushing on the darkest days. "Hiroe? Who might that be?"

She leered at his frail attempt to pretend indifference and blessed Boar and Tiger for keeping Kisame busy. "Don't even remember the cousin that loved you so? Perhaps you only remember your brother…"

"Sasuke."

"Hmm." She broke his attempt at genjutsu and blocked his kunai.

He wasn't even trying. That made two of them. Both of them wanted to talk.

"Let me make it right." She purposefully shifted her posture into a stance that Riko had so carefully perfected over the years. It invited trust and confidences. Fugaku had been the one to school Itachi privately. He would not know about this manipulation as well as he could have if she had been the one to train with him occasionally. She was only beginning to appreciate that mercy. "Tell me why you did it. Let me fix it for you. The clan is gone by your hand. At least let me know why you took them from me."

"It was to measure my potential."

"Lies, idiot!" She spun to counter the attack of his bunshin before seeking cover in the dense foliage where she could still observe him. "Did you never learn not to lie to your mother? Such ignorance. Sasuke knows better."

"You read the note."

"Maybe." She bounced her voice with a simple ninjutsu so it came from a different direction to his ears to make it more difficult for him to pinpoint her location. It was hard, so hard, to hold onto her patience and remember that Itachi wanted to be killed by Sasuke. She would do it herself, but she would grant this one wish if only he would give her the information she needed. No one else could tell her. Dead, his essential knowledge would be lost to her. "Tell me why you did it."

"Keep Sasuke alive and I'll spare you."

"Keep your trap shut if you're going to spout utter crap," she hissed, moving to another location as she wove a genjutsu. "Who would want him dead? He's the last sane Uchiha with a life ahead of him. I need not trouble myself with guarding him. You speak nonsense. There's no need to guard him. The Godaime and the Sandaime see no point."

No twitch there. It was all right then; Sandaime-sama was safe. "You are blind."

She smiled even as her image materialized before him. "Am I? Danzou-sama keeps a special eye on Sasuke… He is quite proud of his progress." Itachi didn't really flinch, but there was quietness about him that Mikoto filed away. "The elders insist that they will see to it that he receives the treatment he deserves." Another period of stillness gave Mikoto hope. "Still, some among their number are wary… They resist, whispering behind closed doors about traitors and brothers." Itachi stayed still, but she felt the danger around him condense as his eyes began to change. He stared unerringly at her hiding spot.

"Just keep him on the right path. He needs more hatred." He waved away her genjutsu.

Mikoto pursed her lips, reining in the desire to simply charge and slit the traitor's throat. "Too much and he'll be just like you."

"Too little and he'll be like you: weak and searching for answers clumsily."

"I won't see him break like you. I won't see the dead techniques renewed."

He blinked once, and she knew that she wasn't looking at her son anymore. Another bunshin met the sharp edge of her ninjatou. "You speak of only what you are guilty of," he said from above her.

"You are the one failing in the face of the Mangekyou," she mocked him, crouching slightly. "Tell me, fool, how blind have you become? Does the usage _hurt_? Do you begin to understand the _imperfections_ of the 'ultimate eye'? 'The more powerful the technique, the more damage it does to the user,' is not a rule restricted to ninjutsu, foolish little boy. Are you satisfied with your 'progress,' little idiot? Are your intestines still working in the face of the decay, _seventeen-year-old_ brat? Do you feel the wear and tear creep up upon you, young one? It's called '_age_,' little moron, condensed into a lethal dosage. Are you content?"

"You know nothing," he said impassively, but she could feel that her words had shaken him.

She smirked. "It will kill you before Sasuke does. Such a sin comes with a heavy penalty, little one. Great power comes with greater suffering, always."

"Do you feel it then as matriarch of a fallen clan?" he asked, but she brushed aside his words.

"Do you, heir to the role of leader of the Uchiha?"

He ignored her in turn. "Protect Sasuke, and I will let you live for a while longer."

"I promise nothing to a traitor and a kin slayer. Sasuke is in no danger from anyone."

He glared at her, the frustration with her "ignorance" beginning to wear upon him. "Your eyes are failing you."

"You jump at shadows."

"You claimed to want to know who ordered it."

"I said nothing about orders," she noted slyly.

He stared at her blankly. He still had so much more to learn, so much untapped potential. He could have gone so far… "You implied it."

She waved aside his frail excuse. "You were ordered." She circled him with all the presence of a hunting lioness. He didn't turn to follow her with his eyes, an act of defiance and confidence. He was telling her without words that even if she attacked from behind, he would be able to stop her easily. The arrogance of the gesture nearly made her take the chance to show him differently, but Itachi had never been arrogant without cause. To give in to his challenge would be foolishness. She had not survived all this time by being one who ran into things without carefully considering the consequences. "The question remains: who and why? Also, who is the eldest?"

He blinked at her and narrowed his eyes. "The eldest."

"The eldest," she confirmed, letting him skip around her other two questions. She had gotten enough information from him to make an educated guess.

Now that she finally had a direction, she could either begin indiscriminate slaughter of the council and the elders or probe the suspects carefully. She was so close to her goal now… It was a little frightening because she knew that she would not survive achieving it. If she did manage to take down the guilty parties, her life would be forfeit. She would have to wait until Ryuuka and Sasuke were sure to survive her fall. They had to be completely ready before she could take the last step without regret.

"You do not know?" Itachi asked her passively, the back of his neck exposed to a quick slice of her blade. The willpower it took to keep herself from making that motion was incredible. She hated it when people toyed with her, but having her traitor son do so pushed the fragile limits of her restraint. Her tense silence must have been answer enough for him. "Madara."

"Uchiha Madara?" There was no way. He couldn't be alive. Shodaime had killed him at the Valley of the End. Kyuubi had fallen to the Shodaime's power, and Madara had been vanquished. Only Kyuubi was immortal enough to have survived that battle. Itachi had to be telling tales.

"Keep him away from Sasuke. I did not kill Hiroe."

Comprehension hit her so hard that she staggered. Her misstep cost her dearly. Any show of weakness in a battle such as this was a clear invitation for annihilation. Itachi could hardly resist.

He spun towards her, his clever fingers that had once helped her mend the rips and tears in his training clothes for the Academy now forming seals with deadly speed and accuracy. She darted out of the way of the great fireball he sent to incinerate her, only to be caught in a murder of crows.

Genjutsu, always genjutsu with Sharingan—it was simply the way two users of the doujutsu fought. It drained chakra steadily and helped the opponents measure the capability of the eyes involved. Any slip-up in the genjutsu preliminary battle signalled weakness and almost assured obliteration later on. It was a deceptively simple part of a much longer battle between two ninja with more chakra than was normal in shinobi. Even as gossamer illusions were formed and destroyed at a rapid pace, kunai and shuriken cut through the air. More often than not, they missed. It was common for the genjutsu to be four or more layers thick. Ears, eyes, and even noses couldn't be trusted. Touch was only reliable half the time. It was the only sense that told her that she had been hit by two projectiles. She really wasn't at Itachi's level anymore, but she couldn't let him know that.

She shredded his illusions as fast as she could, simultaneously weaving her own sinister projections designed to foster overwhelming guilt in him. She needed him to shatter. The only plausible, practical reason she had to keep him alive was that he had more information than she did. He was a known threat. Motherly feelings couldn't be allowed to cloud her judgement.

The only thing that told her she was free of the illusions was the return of her ability to taste the tang of blood in the air. Itachi had always discounted taste, figuring that scent was the superior sense when it came to battles. Fugaku had held a very similar belief, one she hadn't had the heart to disabuse him of. It had been one of the reasons his illusions had never bound her for long. For genjutsu to be perfect it had to ensnare all five senses completely and all of their varied combinations.

Genjutsu wasn't the limit of Itachi's skills though, which was why he had been adopted by ANBU. Agents could have flaws so long as they had advantages that outweighed them. She pushed herself as far away from the watery clone as she could before it exploded with terrible force. The superheated spray assaulted her skin, but she had no time to bemoan her state. Itachi had planned this. There was no doubt in her mind that he knew exactly how she had jumped and that he had something even more terrible waiting.

Closing her deadly eyes, she cast about with her ears for tell-tale signs of her son's presence. He had never fought her before. She and Fugaku had been very different fighters. If her son was expecting them to be similar, he was about to get a very nasty surprise.

She sent three kunai right through the suiton bunshin as she twisted through the boughs. Pain lanced through her as one of her son's shuriken hit her from her blindside even as she countered the attack of another of his bunshin from the fore. She hated clones. Using solid bunshin rather than projections was dangerous for one such as her. Clones took a massive amount of coordination as well as more chakra than she was comfortable expending. They weren't hardy either.

She lobbed her own wave of ranged attacks at him as he moved with impressive speed around her, attempting to outmanoeuvre her to get past her guard. She batted away his next round of projectiles with her ninjatou, manipulating katon chakra to render his weapons useless by melting them so their tips were wavy, dull ends that distorted balance and usefulness. It made her smile to know that he would have to dig deep into his wallet to replace these high quality weapons.

Her smile faded when they finally clashed face-to-face. He was only armed with two kunai, but he could attack circularly with two hands while she had to defend with her single weapon. Still, he had misjudged the extent of her ability to balance on one foot and counteract the force behind his kunai. A sound kick to his pelvis winded him and slammed him against a tree.

"Focus too much upon one aspect of the fight and you'll lose sight of other potential hazards even with those eyes," she mockingly warned him. "Tunnel vision never did anyone any good. It certainly didn't keep Shisui alive."

"Don't speak of him to me."

She gloried in the iciness that had infected his tone. So, he still cared for his best friend. "He didn't deserve what you gave him."

"You twisted him against me."

"You betrayed the clan. What did you expect? Shisui knew his place."

True anger swept across Itachi's face for the first time she could remember. It was pure rage and betrayal, all so obvious to her eyes. It shocked her and cut her. She could have decapitated him, but she hesitated.

"May the clan burn in hell," he said calmly before flickering away.

Kisame appeared about fifty-three metres southeast and Itachi disappeared after him. She made moves to pursue, but three clones surrounded her, all detonating in a boiling spray she couldn't truly avoid in time. Tunnel vision indeed. They both seemed guilty of this flaw for all of the power of their much-vaunted eyes. Still, this had not been in vain.

When Tiger and Boar caught up with her, she ignored their questions and applied pressure to the most worrying of her gashes from the genjutsu battle. Her scalded skin stung and was beginning to welt. She hoped that whoever healed her was good enough that she wouldn't look like porridge for the rest of her life.

"You should not have faced him alone," Boar scolded her. "He has injured you badly. You are lucky to be awake and alive."

Mikoto smiled internally and winced externally at the deep wound, murmuring agreement with the agent's statement. "He has become much more powerful," she gasped out, letting terror creep into her tone as Tiger exhaustedly helped her to her feet. He was not uninjured either. Apparently, that Kisame was more dangerous than she had assumed. Whether he would have been a match for Shodaime was something she doubted though. Tiger wasn't Shodaime though. To expect that from him was unfair.

She must have lost a little more blood than was safe because her vision became blurry and she swayed. Boar grumped about being slaughtered by Godaime-sama for insubordination as she passed out.

* * *

Naruto was hanging around with Sakura and Sasuke when the news came. They had been playing one of their many training games because they hadn't had a mission for the first time in a long while. Sakura had been shocking them with her improvement under the Godaime when Lee, one of Gai-sensei's students they had worked with during the clean-up, came running up.

"Sasuke-san, Sakura-san, Naruto-kun; you three have been called to the hospital. Your sensei is there."

They hadn't wasted any time as soon as they heard that. When they saw Kakashi-sensei lying unconscious on the hospital bed with the Godaime, Gai, Asuma, and Genma standing around him, they began to panic. Sakura's fingers dug into his arm, and he was pretty sure that Sasuke was going to pry her other hand off his arm once he stopped clenching his teeth. Sasuke would have to stop soon or else they would shatter. An inappropriate image of Sasuke with only gums flitted through his head, but it was driven away when he noticed the blood on his teacher's shoulder.

"What happened to Kaka-sensei?" demanded Naruto, his voice cracking inconveniently and his hands on his hips as he gazed up at the much taller adults. The other jounin were not unscathed: Asuma sported a wrapping on his shoulder, Genma was twirling his stupid toothpick around a splinted finger with his other arm braced by a sling, and Gai looked more serious than they had ever seen him. None of them answered his question, but a chuunin came running in the door.

"Godaime-sama, we've found no trace of Itachi or Kisame in Konoha. It seems that they have escaped as easily as they entered. One group has yet to report in though. We have the gate guards in custody for questioning. Uchiha Mikoto will be sent to wait in your office with Sandaime-sama like you asked the moment she arrives."

"Itachi was _here_?" growled Sasuke, his eyes switching from black to red. "_When_?"

"Out," the Godaime barked, pointing at the door. "If you want your sensei to wake up, you'll all clear out and stop pestering me with questions."

Sakura's grip went from reassuring herself to dragging Naruto and Sasuke out the door.

Sasuke paced, looking ready to spit nails. Sakura crouched against the wall opposite the door, pale-faced and blank-eyed. Naruto was more inclined to following Sasuke's example. He spun a kunai haphazardly around his pointer finger as he bounced around to get rid of nervous energy. What was Baachan doing in there? Was Sensei going to be all right? What had Itachi-empty-face been doing in the village? How had he gotten in? Where was Ryuuka? Where was Neechan? Where was Mikoto-obachan? Why hadn't the jounin had to leave?

The abrupt return of that chuunin messenger made Naruto lose control of the spinning kunai, sending it flying into the wall. Sakura squeaked and ducked before glaring at him and kicking his feet out from underneath him when he ducked under her punch. Damn it all! Why was she learning? It had been better for him when she had simply punched him. Now she was learning to counter his avoidance techniques. This wasn't fair! She completed her attack by growling threats at him and stealing his kunai. Sasuke huffed at this display. Naruto flipped him the bird. Damn bastard!

"Tsunade-sama, Uchiha Mikoto was just checked into the hospital by Tiger-19. She is sporting severe burns and several deep wounds. She cannot be escorted to your office immediately as you requested."

Naruto and Sakura turned to stare at Sasuke, who had frozen in place, his eyes wide with disbelief. Naruto couldn't believe it either. Who could have been strong enough to get Mikoto? She had handed his ass to him a couple times when he had annoyed her enough to get her to spar with him and she had done it in three seconds flat. Mikoto-obachan didn't mess around if she wanted to win. Whomever she had fought must have been really good.

"Bring her here! There's another bed in this ward. I'll see to her right after I finish with Kakashi. The rest of you, get out. I'll finish debriefing you all later."

The jounin exited the ward and trooped down the hall. Naruto watched them go as Sakura fiddled with his kunai and glared at him. Maybe Neechan had a point about not playing with weapons indoors… One thing was certain though: he would not being doing that around Sakura again. Next time she would probably nail him in the gut like she had threatened and then he wouldn't be able to eat ramen.

When he saw Mikoto-obachan's face, ramen fled his mind. Even Sasuke couldn't keep the horror off his face. Naruto had never seen Mikoto this injured before. Their eyes followed the gurney into the ward and stayed fixed on the door even when it shut. Naruto only broke his staring contest with the wooden panel to share a worried glance with Sakura after appraising the bastard's face; he looked as though the whole world had shaken beneath his feet.

"Ah, so you're all here then," called a familiar and welcome voice. Naruto nearly grinned with relief at the horrible sight of Old Man's ugly mug. "Good, then only your sister needs to be notified."

Sasuke wasn't watching the previous Hokage; he was far more interested in the girl having a one-sided argument with Cat, who was struggling to keep his mask on his face as he carried the unrelenting dragon. Sasuke pulled Ryuuka from Cat's arms before damage could be done. Naruto remained convinced that Sasuke had teleported or something. Shunshin couldn't be that fast, could it? Either way, Ryuuka went from squabbling to berating her brother for keeping her from succeeding in her self-assigned task. The relief around the bastard was palpable. Naruto experienced a similar feeling when Jaguar appeared at the end of the hall with Neechan hobbling behind her.

"What's going on?" she called down the hall. "Spotty won't spare a word."

"Ah, Matsuku-san, patience is all that is required," Old Man said. Jaguar snapped a salute before falling into place beside Cat. Neechan frowned, but obediently leaned against the wall between Naruto and Sasuke, rubbing her still-healing hip with her knuckles until the door to the ward snapped open.

"In. All of you. Now," Tsunade-baachan ordered in clipped tones.

Sasuke almost lunged over to his mother's bedside with Ryuuka in tow. Naruto was relieved to note that she was well enough despite how bad she looked to sit up in bed and embrace her children before making them settle themselves on the bed next to her. Kaka-sensei was also awake, staring at the ceiling with a look on his face that Naruto had never seen before, as though he wasn't present. His sister had noticed his sensei's eye and stared at it, shocked, before glancing at Old Man, realization written all over her face. Old Man nodded to her after a moment, confirming something that made his sister look ashamed and a little pensive.

Baachan didn't give Naruto a chance to question Neechan about it. She set down a chart on Mikoto-obachan's beside table and eyed them. "As most of you know, Uchiha Itachi was found within the village a little more than an hour ago accompanied by the former Mist-nin, Hoshigaki Kisame. They are both members of a group of nukenin that call themselves Akatsuki. Jiraiya discovered this group a few years ago and not long after Orochimaru left it. Their exact purpose is unknown, but we do know why the pair was in Konoha. Kakashi and two other jounin confronted them about their intentions and managed to discover that they were after Naruto. Where were you three?"

"Training way out in the forest behind the mountain," admitted Naruto. "We were pretty far away from Konoha. Lee found us."

"You are incredibly lucky. If you had been any closer, they would have found you. However, I would not like to have to rely on luck next time. They will come after you again. We don't know why yet, but we're not going to take any chances. Naruto, we need to get you out of here."

"What?" Riko and Naruto squawked at the same time. Even Mikoto looked a little surprised as Ryuuka wailed protests on her lap.

"Naruto cannot be separated from Kyuubi safely," said Sarutobi-sama. "If this is indeed what Akatsuki is after, such a separation would kill him. We need to get Naruto from beyond Akatsuki's reach until he is strong enough to counter them by himself. I recommend that we send Naruto on a training mission for a couple years with Jiraiya."

"What? Years?" shrieked Riko, "Now?"

The same sort of panic was running through Naruto's head. _Years? Years away from everyone who had finally started to accept him?_

"As soon as possible. Jiraiya is out of the village right now, but he should return in two months."

"You're going to send him away in December then," said Riko with deceptive calm, clutching at her cane with white fingers, and Tsunade nodded.

He was going to get stuck with Ero-Sennin. This, while horrible, didn't bother him as much as another thought that occurred to him. "What about Gaara? Are they after him too?"

"It is likely that he is another of their targets," said Sarutobi.

Naruto's mood plummeted. Gaara was in danger too and so was everybody else like him. Wasn't it enough that they had to deal with the constant hatred? Wasn't it enough that they were outcasts? He growled and clenched his fists as the discussion continued over his head.

"We'll be sending some details about this attempt to Suna so they can prepare themselves," said Tsunade. "Mikoto-san, in regards to Itachi…"

"He is a traitor to his family, to his clan, and to his village. You may do with him what you will, but if you manage to bring him in alive, I wish to be allowed to speak with him so I may find answers for his crimes. If he has not been caught by the time Sasuke is strong enough to take him on, I request that Sasuke be allowed to try. He has expressed a desire to seek retribution for the clan."

Sasuke nodded as Tsunade sized him up.

"Very well, if Itachi has not been apprehended by the time Sasuke makes jounin or ANBU, then he may track down Itachi with a team of his choosing," agreed Tsunade, her firm tone indicating that this wasn't all she had to say on the matter though. "This team will have at least two other members."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," said Sasuke, his face not filled with joy, but with a sort of joyous determination. Everyone who looked knew that he would work himself into the ground to reach jounin as quickly as possible. Revenge wasn't a dish best served cold as far as the bastard was concerned.

* * *

Sasuke lay in his bed, waiting for dawn so he could begin training. Sleep was only necessary to keep his body going, yet it was frustratingly elusive. _That man_ had been here! Rage surged and drove away any trace of drowsiness. _So close…_ _He_ had dared to show his face in Konoha after murdering his father and his clan! _He_ had dared to approach the compound where his mother and sister were! Fury made Sasuke's fists clench.

He was progressing so slowly! He needed to get to jounin as fast as possible! He rolled onto his back and stared fixedly at the ceiling. At least Sasuke knew that he could always find Itachi if he needed to. So long as Naruto was around, Itachi would keep trying to get his friend. Naruto was the unwitting bait, though Sasuke doubted his best friend would appreciate this. Naruto did have an odd sense of humour though… Maybe Sasuke would tell him. Naruto had looked like he had needed some sort of laugh.

Sasuke rolled over, futilely trying to find a position that would send him to sleep. His mind refused to quiet, and thoughts just kept circling around and around… He froze, his hand darting towards a kunai near his futon, when the soft pad of feet reached his ears. His grip on the handle tightened as his door slid open, only to loosen when Ryuuka's tiny figure revealed itself to his activated eyes. She was clad in her usual grey nightgown and clutched at a red and white stuffed dragon that Naruto had given her last year.

"Oniitama?" She hesitated in the doorway.

He deactivated his eyes, and she scurried forward, stealing his blankets and burrowing into his side like some kind of mole. He sighed and didn't stop her. She hadn't done this in a while and today had been very odd. He could put up with it for a while.

"Imouto, why are you here?" he asked as her fingers latched onto his shirt.

"I had a bad dream about the evil weasel," she whispered, pushing her nose into his side. "He was coming to get us!"

He rubbed her hair until she stopped shaking and pretending not to cry. His shirt got wet, but at least she wasn't bawling. It would have woken Mother up, and she had been very jumpy lately. The last thing Kaasan needed was less sleep than she had been getting since the Chuunin Exam.

He had seen her pulling out her ANBU blade every once in a while and studying it with such intensity that it made him nervous. She had been prowling the house at night too. She had woken him up a couple times by opening his door to check on him. It irritated him, but he couldn't say anything, not with the_ disowned man's_ shadow hanging over them. All they had to think of was "What if we had been more careful," "What if we had been more watchful," and "What if…?" and almost any precautions were forgiven. Even putting up with ANBU had become easier with those thoughts flitting through their minds.

"It was just a dream, Imouto," he murmured, lying easily for her. She didn't know yet. Kaasan had said she was too young, and Sasuke hadn't argued.

"Oniitama, who's the Uchiha Itachi guy Tsunade-baachan was talking about?"

"Tsunade-sama, Ryuuka. Only Naruto is stupid enough to call her baachan," he corrected her. "You will call her Tsunade-sama or Hokage-sama." She pouted and repeated her question with the correction. His hand dropped back onto the pallet, and he avoided her eyes when she sat up and clutched at Urei-chan (so called because of the dragon's morose expression).

"Come on, Oniitama; tell me!" He stared at her, considering whether to activate his Sharingan to force her to back off. When the silence extended too long, she whispered again. "Oniitama, where's Otousan? I was playing with Fusae-chan at the park, and she said that her otousan was away on a mission. Is that were Otousan is?"

Sasuke sat up and faced the wall, his fists clenched in his lap even though he knew that Ryuuka was scared. What would Otousan have thought of her? Would he have tried to make her be like Itachi too?

"Oniitama?" Her tiny hand grabbed his sleeve. He picked her up and put her in his lap so she wouldn't start crying loudly. She stood up and glared into his eyes, grabbing his ear as she had seen Riko do many times to Naruto when he was being stupid. "Tell me!" She twisted the ear feebly. He frowned at her and removed her hand, but she was unmoved. "Where's Otousan?" she demanded again, trying to shake his shoulders instead.

He forced her to turn around and made her sit quietly on his lap with her back against his chest, facing his dresser. He pulled open the bottom drawer and dug through his pants until he found the photo he had hidden. He held it in front of her, the moonlight coming through the curtains enough to make out the people in it.

"That's Otousan," he said, pointing out their father, who was standing beside their happier-looking mother.

She reached out with hesitant fingers and touched the glass in front of the image before glancing over her shoulder at him, curious and ready to repeat her question about his whereabouts.

He beat her to it. "Otousan is dead." He watched the incomprehension flitting across her face. "Those graves we go to every year after Naruto's birthday? One of them is his grave."

She stared at him, shocked. There would be no tears. She had never known Father and hadn't even known he was missing until Fusae had brought the lack to light. Ryuuka would not know she was supposed to feel sorrow. It made him angrier than ever, and the image of the one responsible right beside his father in the photograph made the fury froth in his stomach.

"Who's that?" she asked, correctly identifying him and their mother in the photo. "He looks like Akio-ojiisan."

"That is Uchiha Itachi," he told her in the coldest tone he had ever used in her presence. He ignored her frightened eyes and stared fixedly at the wall. "He killed our clan. He is the reason we go visit all those graves every year."

"He killed Otousan?" she asked, her fingers creating smudges on the glass over that hated face.

"Yes."

"Why is he in the picture then?" His mother's warnings ran like smoke through his fingers.

"He was our brother."

"He isn't anymore?" she asked, obviously not understanding.

"No, he isn't. Naruto is more your brother than that man is. Someday, I will go and make that man pay for what he did to our clan, to our father, and to us."

"Pay with money?" That she would have come up with that made an unwilling smile tug at his lips. Maybe Riko-oneesan was a bad influence…

"No, he will pay in another way."

"Can I come too?" she asked, bouncing on his lap. He didn't answer her and put the picture away, warning her with a glance that she wasn't to try and take it out again. She pouted and folded her arms around Urei-chan, strangling the poor dragon. "Come on, Oniitama!" she whined, but he shut her up with a red glance.

"It's time for sleep, Imouto," he told her sternly, settling back on his futon and pulling her into his side. "Promise not to tell Kaasan what I told you?"

She held out her pinkie and locked the promise by curling it around his. He realized that it was useless when he heard soundless footsteps retreating from his door. He grimaced, hoping his mother wouldn't be too mad at him in the morning, and fell asleep surprisingly quickly with Ryuuka there.

* * *

"You called for me, wolfling?"

Kakashi cracked open weary eyes and glanced over at the door, nodding stiffly.

"They say that you got downed with a single glance. I would be disappointed, but they told me who your opponent was."

Her falsely concerned, uneven eyes were equally falsely framed by dark brown strands of the wig. Her thin lips were twisted in a strange sort of smile, as though unused to such an expression. He could see just how much she had committed herself to her namesake. With such grace, sinister though it was, she could have been pretty despite the flaws in her appearance, but there was nothing ogle-worthy about her. There was no point in trying to get a glimpse down her shirt, as he would have if she had been any other woman; such an exercise would have only revealed puckered scars that would have brought up the hospital food he had recently managed to force down his gullet. No, checking Snake out was the last thing anyone wanted to do. She exemplified androgynous in every way.

He propped himself upright better to address her with the semblance of equality. She outranked him enough that it hardly mattered though.

She stood at ease at his bedside, regarding him blankly; he could only see her contempt for him because long experience made him aware of it. "What do you need from me?"

Now that it came to it, he wasn't sure he actually wanted to do this. Poking into Snake's past was dangerous and often futile since her memory had enormous holes in it. Weeks under interrogation and years of injuries, often to the head, would do that to anyone. Kakashi steeled himself though. He needed to know how to fix this. Snake was his best option simply because she knew and she wouldn't gossip.

"How do you break a fear?" he asked, waiting for laughter. He had forgotten whom he was dealing with.

She didn't laugh. "It would depend."

"Upon what?"

"What you fear."

He had hoped to avoid this. "Blades," he muttered at last.

Her stillness hinted at discomfort with this particular fear. This was why he had asked for her: her mutilation had occurred at the edge of a blade. She had conquered her fear and now fought with the weapons almost exclusively. Prying into that wasn't a good idea though.

"Itachi must have learned a new trick. You must tell me of it in time," she ordered.

He nodded, sealing the deal.

"I will help you with this personally."

Kakashi was torn between relief and weariness: Snake loved trouncing competition utterly. He had the feeling she was going to wipe the floor with him even though she was about his father's age. She would see to it that he was battle-worthy though.

He flinched when suddenly her ninjatou was in hand and hovering above some very essential reproductive organs. The desire to run, as he had been unable to in the genjutsu, was almost impossible to restrain. As it was, it was all he could do to keep from curling up in a ball to get away from that sharp steel that had stabbed him again and again and again… He shuddered badly and stared up at Snake, who assessed his reaction coolly.

"We will start immediately," she told him belatedly, her lips twisting into a fake grin as her blade jabbed at him again, this time aiming for his shoulder. His reaction was again disappointing. Itachi had done more damage than Kakashi could objectively appreciate. Maybe the nukenin had been trying to tell him something…

"Fear is irrational," she lectured just to pass the time as she mimed stabbing him again and again, each time only just pulling the blow before it connected. How she knew that the stabbing motion was the problem became quite apparent. The hacking and slicing motion of her blade hardly elicited the same freezing response, though it wasn't too far behind. "As an irrational emotion, you must combat it on two levels. Fighting it rationality doesn't solve the problem; it merely controls and contains it. To remedy this, you must fight it on an irrational level as well. Instinctively, you must reform your reflexes from what Itachi made them. He pushed you beyond what you can spring back from; he bent you. You must bend yourself back."

She emphasized this comment with a brutal thrust at his face that stopped just above his Sharingan eye. The old gift traced every minute quiver of the blade's tip. There were times when he really disliked the level of detail the Sharingan shoved into his brain.

"You already know this though, wolfling. That's why you called for me." She sheathed the ninjatou before he could even blink and turned to him expectantly.

"Mangekyou Sharingan," he began wearily as she took a seat. "Like what Uchiha Madara was said to use."

"Old legends come back to us as truths far too often," Snake said, clasping her hands in her lap. He spared a quick glance at her fingernails, or at what now passed for them at least. The sensitive flesh under the nail was an ideal target for torture. Scarring resulted in cases of severe mutilation. It was not appealing to behold. It was why she usually wore light gloves even when off duty. "Legends seem to be truth more often than we would like. Take the bijuu for example."

He nodded, not bothering to contradict her. She had battled more jinchuuriki over the years than he had. One had been from Suna and another from Iwa. Neither of those battles had gone well for her or her team according to the rumours. Snake had a habit of refusing to die though. She was a stubborn old bitch.

"Continue."

"This attack was genjutsu. I couldn't counter it with my own Sharingan: it was unbreakable. According to Asuma, I was under its influence for less than three seconds. According to Itachi, I spent seventy-two hours at his mercy."

He pulled detachment over his recollections and related the rest in the same detail he had described it to Tsunade-sama and Uchiha-san. The endless stabbing and agony subsided into an event that hadn't happened to him, but rather to someone else in his body. It kept the reactions at bay.

When he finished at last, Snake rewarded him by almost disembowelling him. Both of them hid smirks when his reaction was significantly easier to control. Of course, significant to them was much different than it would have been for say Naruto, whose powers of observation were nowhere near their level. He was satisfied to an extent though.

"Maybe three weeks," Snake murmured as she casually sheathed her weapon again. "Genius though you are, wolfling, your unconscious mind is not nearly as intelligent. Desensitizing you won't take too long though. You should be back on duty in less than two weeks if you push it as I know you will."

"Thank you for your aid, senpai," he said formally. Treating her with anything less than respect would have led to much pain since inflicting it was as natural as breathing to her. Socially, she was a nightmare; only disinterested knowledge of culturally accepted values and the need to blend in kept her in check.

She smiled falsely at him. "It is no trouble, kohai. ANBU isn't the same without you." With that clear request lingering in her wake, Snake turned and hummed under her breath as she slipped out the door.

He wouldn't be surprised if she popped back in at midnight just to test him. Resigning himself, he pulled his book towards him and started perusing the pages for the hundredth time to stave off exhaustion. The dreams that wouldn't stop haunting him were not something he was quite ready to face. Hopefully, reading some escape literature would dull them.

* * *

"Sasuke-bastard," said Naruto as all nine rookies lazed in trees near a river, "will you take me with you when you go?" It was hard to ignore the presence of the ANBU wearing the cat mask. Naruto had to wonder how he had done it before.

"So long as you're ready when I am." There was almost a visible cloud of impatience around Sasuke now. He had trained for hours today with an intensity that Naruto had never seen before. Even Lee had looked unenthusiastic in comparison. Naruto had the feeling that if he got too close to his friend, he would be infected by this new obsession.

"It's a promise," said Naruto confidently, ignoring the foreboding in the pit of his stomach. "I'll make jounin when you do, even if I'm away from the village for a couple years." He was pretty sure he could do it. Ero-Sennin was a jounin, wasn't he? "Hey, Sakura, are you going to come too?"

"If Sasuke will let me come."

He glanced at her curiously. Why wouldn't Sasuke let her come? They were a team; they did everything together. "How about it, Bastard? How about all of the rookies go?" He had to make sure that Sasuke was thinking right and this was the best way to do it. Would Sasuke be willing to share his obsession with the rest of them instead of hoarding it like those dragons did until it drove him insane?

"We'll see," said Sasuke, closing his eyes. "First we've got to pass the Chuunin Exam."

That answer only made Naruto more nervous, though he hid it behind his usual confident grin.

"Tsunade-shishou said that almost all of the votes from the various daimyo are in," said Sakura, plucking a blade of grass and spinning it between her thumb and pointer finger until it became a blur. "There are only a couple runners that have yet to deliver the results. She wouldn't tell me who was close though."

"Kurenai-sensei says that Shino-kun w-will probably make chuunin," said Hinata softly.

"You'd better, Shino! I'll definitely make chuunin at the next exam, dattebayo," insisted Naruto with a big smile. Sakura and Sasuke rolled their eyes, and Hinata smiled softly. He was quiet for a couple minutes. "Hey, guys, it was my birthday while Riko was in the hospital, so we didn't celebrate it. She wants to have a party for all of us to celebrate that and our first attempt at the Chuunin Exam. She'd really like it if you all came."

This was a lie. Neechan was way too tired to organize anything like this, but Naruto figured that she would like it once she got used to the idea. If he had proof that people were actually coming, she wouldn't make as much of a fuss about it. Besides, he wanted a birthday before he had to leave.

"We'll come, Moron," said Sasuke, indicating Sakura and himself. Relief that the bastard had sort of pulled himself out his rut flowed through Naruto as Shino nodded and Hinata smiled.

"You think I'm going to miss free food?" asked Kiba. "Chouji's definitely coming too."

"Tch, I might come," Shikamaru grumbled, but no one paid him any mind.

"If Sasuke's going, then I'm going too!" said Ino, pointing an accusatory finger at Sakura, who scowled at her rival and clenched her fists. Naruto quickly edged as far away from her as he could. He only replied once safely out of range.

"That's great!" Naruto pumped his fist, grinning. "Neechan will be super happy. She's been real quiet lately. This will definitely cheer her up!"

"Is her hip better?" Sakura's interest from a medic's perspective was obvious.

"Nearly, but she's still using her cane a lot."

This troubled Naruto vaguely. He was so used to healing quickly that the time it was taking Neechan was making him nervous. What if something was wrong with her? What if her body didn't heal? Ojiichan had told him again and again that the rate was actually much quicker than usual, but Naruto wasn't sure he believed him even though Ojiichan had never lied before.

"She's really worried too." Neechan hadn't actually told him much, but he could tell. Besides, what good was pumping chakra into his ears if he didn't use them? "Her boss won't cover her medical expenses like Konoha does for us. He's insisting on some obscure fine print that he says means that she isn't covered because of the circumstances that she got injured. He's refusing her sick leave pay too and is threatening to fire her if she doesn't come back to work on Monday."

"Can she do that?" asked Sasuke, a frown wrinkling his forehead.

"She says that she can, but I listened in on her talking with the nurse. She's still supposed to be taking it easy, but Riko says that she'll be sitting in a chair all day, so it should be fine."

"But what about when she has to walk home?" Sakura asked. "We can't be back in time every day."

"Well, she's got two other choices too. Tsunade-baachan offered a position in the Financial Department, and Takara-obaasan says Riko can go to her home village and her family will cover the expenses."

"But that means you get left here alone," Sakura pointed out, far quieter than she had been in a while. Naruto had a sudden suspicion and pushed a bit of chakra into his nose. He really hoped he was wrong, but Neechan had said that it happened to every girl eventually… He forcibly ejected the memory of those biology textbooks she had made him look at out of his head. He was very glad they had gone back to the library. It smelled like he was safe and Sakura was just being weird.

"Nah, I'll be gone too. She'll come back when I do." He sounded very confident when he said that, but Sasuke wondered. Would they both come back if they left?

"I still can't believe you're going away," said Hinata.

"Yeah, it's kind of weird," agreed Naruto, closing his eyes again.

* * *

Snake leaned against her kohai's counter, smirking. "I keep forgetting how clever you are."

Mikoto smiled at her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm sure you could lead even Nara-san around by his nose. How did you know that setting Naruto against those snakes would work?"

"It was flashy." Mikoto's innocent grin made Snake laugh and pull off her mask.

"I bow to you, kohai. Ever a Monkey. Congratulations on creating the perfect battlefield promotion."


	44. Chapter 44

**AN: Yes, this is the elusive chapter 44. No, this isn't "new" material, I know. That's on chapter 63, FYI. Some changes have been made, but rereading shouldn't be strictly necessary, though I do recommend it.**

* * *

Chapter 44: Eight Cracked Staves

"…how can you even consider staying here?" her mother continued to rant now that Naruto was out of the apartment for another training session with his friends.

Miming the words sarcastically with her hands had become obsolete when she had started drying dishes and was boring without Itsuki around to help her mock the one-sided conversation, so Nariko stared between the frying pan she was drying and the cupboard door. Which one would do lasting damage to her head? Making her decision, she bashed her head quietly against the kitchen cupboards a couple times since her mother was safely ignorant and out of sight range in the living room. Nariko needed to get out of there before she did permanent damage to the cupboards or her head, whichever cracked first. She rifled through her brain for any excuse, trying to find something other than the obvious need to give her answer to Tsunade. Her mother would stalk her through the streets and continue to badger her until she had told Tsunade yea or nay.

As she cast desperately for the answer, her eyes strayed to the kitchen table where she spotted Gaara's fox. She almost banged her head with the frying pan for forgetting about the message she had promised to send off. It was sitting on her desk, just waiting to taken to the mission desk. She quickly stashed the frying pan away before she was tempted to use it on her mother and slipped past the ranting woman into her bedroom to grab her coat. She could hear their neighbour downstairs beating on their floor with a broom handle at a menacing pace. It was only a matter of time before she came to the door to holler complaints.

"Kaasan, I've got to go out for a bit," she called, breaking Takara's torrent of words as she snatched the scroll off her desk. "I promised Naruto that I would send a message to Gaara. I'll be back in a bit!"

She shut the door on her mother's ferocious glare and hobbled down the steps as quickly as she could so that her mother wouldn't follow. She could hear her growling and cursing through the floor, which meant her father wasn't having much luck calming her down. She really pitied him.

* * *

Tsunade snapped her head off the pile of papers when the door started to open. She had missed the knock and the announcement of who was entering, so she didn't have time to hide her sake bottle, though she did manage to snag the dish.

Matsuku-san did not look particularly impressed as she hobbled towards the desk, leaning heavily on her cane. She looked odd with short hair. Rolling her eyes, the accountant plucked the sake bottle off the desk and inspected it, noting the expensive brand with a frown.

Tsunade had to snicker at the mother hen.

"Well, it seems Shizune can't keep you in line."

Tsunade smirked. "Of course not, she's my apprentice. She's far too used to following my orders. Besides, she's not a personality with a lot of gumption most of the time. That's why we got along as well as we did for so long."

Matsuku-san nodded thoughtfully and eased herself into the chair before the desk. "That and you felt responsible for her."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at Nariko's knowing tone, but didn't comment. According to the whispers of Intelligence, the woman was nearing the end of her rope. Her company was refusing to honour her benefits package to help her with her hospital fees and her mother was pulling her homewards.

Tsunade wasn't about to let the woman escape after the responsibility she had helped the Sandaime lay on her shoulders.

The girl squared her shoulders and looked Tsunade straight in the eye. "I am a Matsuku. Do you know what that means?"

"I have been made aware of the situation, though I've heard of it before. Your family's work in Suna is part of the reason they attacked us, you know."

The girl was unfazed. "The struggles of a dying beast often endanger those around it."

"You're harder than most of your family."

The girl flinched as though Tsunade had slapped her. "I have become so, yes. Every letter I receive makes me see it more clearly. Living in my parents' company again has only made me more aware of just how much I have changed. But I am still Matsuku."

"Yes, I can see it. What does this have to do with my job offer?"

The girl's muddy brown eyes calmed. "I just wanted to be sure you knew what you were dealing with. I will take your offer so long as my clan is protected from the backlash."

Tsunade nodded. "That, I can do. Why are you caving though, really?"

"I want transparency. I am here to destroy Konoha with truth."

Tsunade smirked at the young woman before her. "Transparency."

"I will make sure that no money disappears where it cannot be seen. There will be no secrets. I will make the world know where every last ryou goes. I will show them. You will not be able to hide every shameful kill behind a smokescreen with me here. I will track everything if it kills me.

"So you will begin the Matsuku's fight this way."

Nariko smiled a smile Tsunade had seen on Nawaki's face more than once. It was an "I'm gonna get you if it kills me" smile.

"Go ahead and try then, Matsuku-san." A known enemy was best, especially when they ended up helping you. "I'll expect you here in two weeks."

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama. I look forward to beginning work." That was a lie now with all the taint of the job yet to be absorbed, but the girl looked terrified of the days to come when it would be the truth.

* * *

Nariko grimaced as her mother simply glared at her and left the room. She should have known it would come to this. Her father frowned slightly and beckoned her to accompany him out on the reconstructed balcony. He settled his bones into a cross-legged position beside Naruto's azaleas, gesturing that she take a seat as well as he stared up at the stars. Silence reigned for a long time, nearly an hour, before he spoke at last. His voice startled her out of the stupor she had settled into as tension drained away in the face of the heavens.

"There are those that wonder about your loyalty to the clan's principles, Daughter. This latest move will only confirm their fears. You stray from the correct path."

She bowed her head and held her tongue, letting him speak in his own way.

"You have grown accustomed to much during your years here. I have observed this. Hotaka noted this as well when he told us the details of his brief visit.

"While I cannot blame Naruto, this is his fault. You follow him blindly, and that worries me. He is trained to murder his opponents, child. Young and eager boy though he is, he has been taught the darkest arts. Whether his victims are good or evil, this does not change the fact that he will kill them if pushed far enough. Their blood will stain his hands and the money he receives for accomplishing his missions. He enjoys fighting. It exhilarates him, and he will stop at nothing to become good at it. He will never follow the clan's path."

"I know," she murmured.

"You failed there, child. That is one strike against you, though it would be forgiven if you had not assisted him along this dark path. That you say you have sworn to continue to help him reach his goal of becoming the leader of this village of assassins worries me more than anything else does. Surely you see how wrong this is."

"I have some hope that Naruto will improve things."

"In what regard, child? He cannot simply decide that his people will not kill anymore. Ninja are paid to kill, to expose themselves to danger, and to wreak destruction. You know better than I do that that is where most of their income comes from. Guarding, retrieving, delivering, all of those things are not as well paid. Ninja will always kill. Such is against clan laws. Killing goes directly against compassion, which is our highest purpose. I cannot condone your choice to involve yourself more in the workings of such a black organization. You taint yourself."

She bit her lip and clenched her fists.

Her father sighed. "Yuuyake told me something once. She said that ninja claim that they are just tools in order to absolve themselves of responsibility for their actions. She admitted that she had done so more times than she could count. Tell me though, Daughter, is the knife any less guilty of cutting you simply because it was wielded by strange hands? Is it suddenly not responsible for the wound it has dealt you because it is a tool?"

"A knife has no way of preventing its use," Nariko replied, knowing where her father was going with this.

"Exactly." He lit up his pipe and puffing at it softly. "Tell me though; does a ninja truly qualify as a tool then? A ninja has a will of his own aside from that of his employer and his own conscience. Can the ninja claim that he couldn't prevent his use?"

"No," Nariko whispered.

"Very true, my dear. He cannot say that. No matter what he might face because he disobeyed orders, the choice is always there for him. As such, he is never exempt from guilt. He chose to follow orders and take the life of his victim. The blood staining his hands is not just the fault of his employers; it is also his own. Whether he regrets or not does not matter, we will always see the stain on his hands. It is never all right, and the only one that could ever forgive him in the eyes of the world is dead by his hand. He has damned himself for money. Tell me, child; is money really worth all that?"

"No," she admitted hollowly, "money, for all that it makes me money, cannot buy peace of mind, not in those circumstances. If attacked though and fending for his life—"

"Still no excuse," he father said gently. "He can choose to simply incapacitate, which hardly any less wrong. Yes, the opponent may come back and strike another day, but what is smart does not always go hand in hand with what is morally right. The choice damns him. We of the clan can be compassionate, but we cannot forgive or forget. It is not our right to dole out pardon for those who were wronged.

"We could not absolve Yuuyake of her sins before she died. We were not the ones she needed forgiveness from, though we gave what we could freely. It was not enough though. Even her husband could not ease her burdens. Her daughter carried them, and they have brought grief to her grandchildren, as you know. That Risako was the one that was made to face those consequences for her grandmother's choice was cruel, but not unexpected."

"Let the dead lie," Nariko said softly, glancing up to stare her father in the eye. She knew why he was bringing up old wounds, but he need not have worried. She was not her cousin, nor had she failed to learn from her mistake. She didn't let Risako's passing fester and taint. She had let it go. Her father must have seen this because he smiled slightly and let the matter drop.

"The point in any case is that I worry what you will bring to us with your choices. You have taken our name farther than is safe and now you intend to link it with aspects of our society that we have long fought quietly. Make no mistake, though the clan accepts ninja, we cannot approve of them in principle. Though we will show them the uttermost compassion for their sacrifices on our behalf, we cannot support their choices should they make the wrong ones. Supporting the person and supporting their actions can be two very different things."

"You are saying I should remain aloof and simply support Naruto as my brother and remain distant from Naruto the ninja."

He smiled sadly at her.

"I cannot do that, Tousan. Naruto is one whole person, not something that can be divided at will."

"I know. I do not envy you the task of rectifying this in your mind. I will continue to follow your lead and support Naruto's adoption into the clan, but remember that all actions have consequences. How far reaching they will be depends upon the size of the ripples. Keep a low profile for the clan's sake."

"I promise. I'll stay my hand as much as possible and keep my name from becoming well-known," she resolved, grasping his frail hand.

He squeezed back, and she hid a wince at how weak he had become over the years that they had been separated. The strength she remembered from her childhood was waning far too rapidly. He had maybe fifteen more years before he left her behind, and that was only if he was incredibly lucky. It was more likely that he only had seven. It frightened her. Curse the short lifespan of the Matsuku. If only he had inherited the longevity of her grandmother's people. She shuffled closer and embraced him as he exhaled some pipe smoke. Understanding her fears, he stroked her hair.

"Everything passes eventually, Raimei-chan. My life is almost complete. I have few regrets, so my passing will not be all that hard. There are many more things in life to fear than death, which is so common that holding it in terror seems to be a futile thing. With a full life, death is not such a hard fate to endure. I have even gotten the grandchild I waited so long for, though not in the way I expected. The pressure is off you now. Be at peace and do not do something you will regret just to satisfy your mother and me. I cannot see any active ninja being a good father considering what the child is likely to do. Following in a ninja parent's footsteps is always more glamorous seeming than following an accountant mother."

"I'll keep that in mind," she said dryly, amused and offended at his suggestion that she would be so stupid. Getting involved with a ninja would never be an option.

* * *

The promised party happened after Nariko's first week of work. Her parents had left as soon as she started her new job, disappointed that their only child would not be returning with them. Nariko's cane was nowhere in sight and her limp was just barely discernable now. Shizune had checked up on her and had healed some lingering damage before her first day, leaving Nariko capable of handling the long hours required at first. As soon as she was up to date, she would be able to settle down again. This probably wouldn't happen for months yet though.

"Hey, Riko-oneesan, pass the shrimp please!" called Kiba from beside Iruka as he watched Shikamaru and Kakashi face off over the shougi board.

Naruto had somehow managed to annoy and con the whole lot of the rookie sensei into coming. The moment Asuma had come in the door with a cigarette hanging off his lip, there had been considerable tension. Asuma had a rule-disregarding attitude that clashed with Nariko's desire to keep her home smoke-free. Luckily, Kurenai had stepped in and laughingly pulled his cigarette from his mouth before Nariko had gotten truly angry. The worried looks exchanged between the rookies must have warned Kurenai-san that Nariko was on a short fuse that day for being bullied into this by Naruto.

Mikoto and Ryuuka had come as well and Kakashi had brought along a youngish woman with long dark hair and a very familiar voice. Mikoto, Sakura, and Nariko had viciously teased Kakashi until he had rubbed the back of his head and had introduced the woman as Uzuki Yuugao, better known as Jaguar. He had mentioned that she was only able to stay until she could visit her fiancé in the hospital. Nariko had shot Kakashi-san a sceptical look before dragging Yuugao away so they could get to know each other better now that they had finally met without an ANBU mask in the way.

"Here, Kiba." Nariko handed him the shrimp bowl before turning back to Yuugao. "Why is your fiancé in the hospital?"

"Hayate got injured on his last mission," she said. "He was sent out of the village on an A-rank mission with two comrades. They got ambushed, and Hayate got on the wrong end of doton jutsu. He'll be fine in a couple weeks. Tsunade-sama was there when he came in, and she patched him up in no time."

"She was at the hospital? That's odd. I thought she was afraid of blood."

"I didn't see any sign of it. Maybe she got over it during her fight with Orochimaru."

"Maybe. Well, if she is working at the hospital, this makes my job a little easier. The more cash she has, the less I'll have to rant at her."

Yuugao laughed. "We'll see. You'll probably still have your work cut out for you."

"I really hope you're wrong." It was strangely liberating to have money to buy basic things with again. Nariko did not intend to lose that freedom again.

"Hah," said Mikoto, sitting down near them and pulling Ryuuka back from grabbing the sand fox, "either way, you should be able to handle it. They wouldn't have selected you if they hadn't thought you'd be able to do a good job. At least you'll have something to keep you busy while Naruto is away."

"Yeah," she said softly, picking her brother out of the crowd. He was laughing as Shikamaru cursed because Kakashi had made a decisive move and Asuma was nagging him about it. "It'll be lonely here without him."

"Well," said Mikoto slyly, "you're not getting any younger. Are you going to try for children of your own?"

"I'm hoping to," she said, not embarrassed, which was what Mikoto had been going for. The Uchiha constantly tried to break through Nariko's wall of non-embarrassment. She had yet to triumph. "I was waiting for Naruto to be self-sufficient. I don't think I could have dealt with Naruto, all his friends, and my own child at the same time. It would've been too stressful, and I wouldn't have had a steady income."

"What are you talking about?" asked Mikoto, frowning slightly. "The father should have provided—"

"Ah, but you see I'm not sure if I actually want the father hanging around. A lot of men don't make good fathers. I don't mind that so long as they mostly stay out of the picture. All I want is the child." She stared fixedly at her hands, refusing to look at those paintings on her living room wall.

"So you're not considering getting married?" asked Mikoto, obviously disappointed. Less teasing fodder now… Nariko was relieved.

"No, not really. I've seen too many marriages go badly to want to enter one without being absolutely certain it will last more than twenty years if death doesn't decide to cut things short." Nariko refused to go into detail about which marriages she was referring to. The other two women quickly withdrew, sensing they had hit a no-go area.

"You're so unromantic," complained Yuugao, setting her chin in her hands and forming a moue with her lips. "I'm ANBU, and I'm still getting married."

"I really am happy for you, but I don't see the same thing happening to me," explained Nariko as patiently as she knew how. She got enough of this from her mother; the last thing she needed was these two on her case. "If it does, that's fine, but I'm not counting on it. I've got other things to worry about."

"Bah, you're no fun!" Mikoto whined, picking Ryuuka up, who had slipped away to grab the rabbit statue from the living room. "How am I supposed to tease you about your crushes if you're so determined not to have any? At least Kurenai-san can keep me amused."

"Yeah," said Nariko, "that relationship isn't well hidden at all."

It amused her to no end to glance over at them out of the corner of her eye and watch as they strove not to touch each other in any way, shape, or form as they sat next to each other in front of Naruto's thriving bamboo. Yuugao and Mikoto shared her amusement at the sight.

"They won't admit to it, you know," said Yuugao with a leer. "They'll blush and come up with horrible excuses if someone confronts them about it on the street."

"Really?" gushed Mikoto as Nariko rolled her eyes and smirked at their antics, "How cute!"

"Yeah, Anko's got loads of dirt on them though. She says that they'll probably get married in the next year or two. They've been going pretty steady."

When Kiba shot them a disgruntled look at the way they were talking about his sensei, Nariko squeezed his shoulder and indicated that the other two had to be joking. Kiba was hardly reassured. Nariko hid a smirk at his typical behaviour and gestured that he should just ignore them. He did so with one last wary look, hunching his shoulders as though trying to ward off their strangeness.

"They'd have beautiful kids," Mikoto mused. Kiba twitched, and Nariko almost sniggered. So much for ignoring them… "Kurenai is quite beautiful, and Asuma isn't bad looking. All their children would be dark-haired. Hey, Riko, what colour hair did your mother and father have before they went grey?"

"Why?" she asked warily: Mikoto was up to something.

"I'm wondering what colour hair your kid is likely to have."

Nariko shot her friend a sceptical look that Mikoto brushed off with an innocent pout. Yuugao glanced between them, amused.

"My mother was a brunette, and my father had a colour such a dark brown it was almost black. My grandmother on my mother's side was blonde though and my grandfather on my father's side was platinum blonde. The gene comes from the far West for my grandfather, and my grandmother was from one of the northern villages that often got immigrants from countries like Snow and Lightning."

"Hmm, so there's the chance that you might be carrying a recessive gene…"

Nariko narrowed her eyes at them, trying to figure out what they could be referring to and just what they were going to do with the knowledge she had given them. "Don't even _think_ about matchmaking." Why in hell had she opened her fool mouth? This was _bad_. Mikoto was getting ideas. Her very limited danger senses were screaming that she wasn't going to like whatever Mikoto came up with.

"Oh come on! It's so much fun!" insisted Yuugao. "You aren't even sure who we're talking about."

"I am not, but that doesn't change the fact that this is—" _bad, bad, bad, and worse_; at least that was what her stomach was telling her. Her stomach had to be smarter than her because it always seemed to know…

"Fun?" asked Mikoto with a sneaky grin that widened when Nariko narrowed her eyes. "Come on, you can't fool us. You're blushing." She completely ignored Nariko's muttered "Am not," and all the evidence that supported that claim. "Next time we'll have a girls' night out at my place and invite Kurenai and Anko. We can tease you three unattached ones to death then."

Nariko laughed in spite of herself and shook her head. She had never been able to win against Mikoto and it was unlikely she would start now. Mikoto outclassed her in all areas except math.

A smattering of applause caused her to turn back and observe the game. Shikamaru had just made a decisive move, taking one of Kakashi's best remaining pieces. While everyone around them looked impressed, Shikamaru and Kakashi were still sizing each other up. Shikamaru looked a little nervous as Kakashi began his move. Everyone held their breath until the very end, the game was that close. Though Kakashi was a genius in his own right, Shikamaru had been playing shougi for seven years now. Nariko fully expected that he would win and was shocked when Shikamaru slumped a bit before making his next move. It would turn out to be his last. Kakashi moved his piece and cheerfully announced that he had won.

Nariko blinked, astonished, before getting up and moving over to the board, all the genin making way for her. "Explain," she commanded, fascinated.

Shikamaru sighed and obliged, pointing out some of the various tactics that the jounin had used to entrap his king. "He caught me. I was feeling a little too comfortable because I've played for so many years and Kakashi-sensei said he hadn't played this before."

She shot a shrewd glance at the teacher, who merely crinkled his single visible eye into a sort of embarrassed smile. It was so patently false that she scowled at him.

"Hmm, why should he tell you the truth about that?" she murmured for the benefit of those eavesdropping since she was sure Shikamaru had already figured this out. He was too lazy to explain this to those not in know, namely Naruto. "He's the one that's always preaching the way of 'looking underneath the underneath.' Why would he lie?"

Shikamaru looked as though he wanted to smack himself. "I thought that too," he said, "but he played so simply at first that I relaxed my guard."

"That's how he got you." Nariko sighed, disappointed that Shika, who could beat her in five minutes now, had lost to the pervert.

"Yeah, I know. See, he took my most limited pieces, but the ones I was left with at the end couldn't catch his piece before it got to my king. That's why he won." He glared at Kakashi. "You're a sneaking bastard, trying to teach me strategy at a party."

Kakashi chuckled and was about to beat a hasty retreat when Mikoto stood up and indicated he should sit.

"Wait, Kakashi-san. I want to see if you can beat Riko too."

"I'm no genius," she protested, "Shikamaru has beaten me more times than I can count. He says that I lose about as quickly as Asuma-san does." Said jounin looked quite offended when quite a few of those assembled laughed at his expense.

"Just do it!" Yuugao laughed. "If what you say is true, then the game should be done by the time I have to go."

"Fine, but only if we play chess."

Kakashi shrugged and let her change the board.

"Have you played this before?" she asked him as she knelt down carefully and thanked Naruto when he passed her some shrimp and an extra cushion.

"Not really," he said, but she didn't reply, knowing that probably meant he had studied the game in detail. Her slim hopes of surprising him faded to nothing. He was white, so he made the first move. His queen's bishop's pawn jumped forward two spaces.

'_Yup_,_'_ she thought, _'I'm screwed_._'_ She refused to let it get to her and played her favourite game, favouring the manoeuvrability of her knights and leaping over any impediments to snatch any pieces within range. He favoured his pawns and his queen, which gave him advantages in favoured moves until most of his pawns fell as prey to her knights and occasionally to her rook. Even with her whittling down of his pieces, the loss of his queen didn't faze him enough to allow her to win. He caught her king at last in an intricate trap she had seen too late to prevent.

"Check."

"For now." She sighed and sent a bishop that had been holding another of his captive in to take out the offending rook. She could have sworn he smiled under his mask. Two moves later, she was checkmated. "I yield."

* * *

Sakura muttered a similar phrase, which caused Naruto to shout with glee until a librarian came over and shouted at him. "So you'll help me look up information on them?" he asked for the thirtieth time, as though not quite believing she had agreed to this. Sakura had to admit that she couldn't quite believe it either. She had so much studying of her own to do, but Naruto had asked her for help and he was going away in a few days…

"Sure," she said and led the way over to the catalogues to help him begin his search. When at last they managed to dig up the scrolls he needed, she took three of his nine scrolls and helped take notes of the subjects he specified. Bookwork that was so easy for her always took him much longer to do. Helping him out wouldn't take too long. It wasn't as if he were asking for essays on these creatures, just some notes of their abilities, appearance, and history. She didn't know why he needed this information, but he was odd like this sometimes.

* * *

Naruto pushed Ryuuka on the swings for the last time. He would be leaving on the morrow: Ero-Sennin had come and reluctantly agreed to take him on. Thus, this would his last chance to cause Sasuke-bastard some trouble. Riko-nee wasn't very good at playing pranks—he had never actually seen her try—and Sakura would never take up the challenge, so bugging Sasuke would have to fall to Konohamaru and Ryuuka. The former had already been briefed on his mission and he was planning the exact details with his two partners in crime, but Ryuuka had had to wait because Sasuke was such a suspicious bastard. Sure, Naruto admitted to teaching the dragon girl some of the interesting language he had picked up from adults, but that was hardly a reason to try to shove Chidori up his ass! Sasuke was going to drive the dragon crazy someday; Naruto was totally convinced. Until then, he had plans to make the reverse happen.

"Hey, dragon girl," he said as he gave her another push from behind.

"Yeah, Niichan?" she hollered back, the wind whistling in her ears making her think that she had to speak louder than ever.

Naruto cursed under his breath and pulled the chakra away from his ears. It was an almost fatal habit to have around her. "I need you to do something for me while I'm gone, okay?"

She pouted at him as she clutched at the ropes before she reluctantly nodded.

Naruto moved in front of her and pushed her sandals to keep the swing going. "I need you to annoy Sasuke for me."

"You want me to annoy Oniitama?"

"Yeah. You know how sometimes he gets all quiet and he frowns?"

"Yeah, he does that a lot!" She giggled, looping her elbow around the rope and flapping her hand to indicate just how much. "He does it more than ever now that the Itachi came and went!"

Naruto's eyebrows rose. Sasuke never talked about Itachi out loud. Never. He brooded about him all the time; it was Naruto's personal mission to interrupt these angst sprees whenever possible. He considered it his contribution to humanity. However much Sasuke hated his brother in his head, he never talked about him out loud though. "Dragon girl, do you know who Itachi is?"

"Yeah, Oniitama told me that he's not our brother anymore. He said that you're more my brother than he is."

Her words made his best grin creep up over his face despite his impending departure. "Thanks, dragon girl."

She tilted her head to one side at him and tried to cock an eyebrow like her mother did. It didn't work out very well: she looked more surprised than sceptical. Naruto pointed and snickered, which of course caused her to explode.

"Niichan!" she bellowed, her face going red even as her eyes squinted menacingly.

He looked over her shoulder to keep himself from laughing at her expression. Trees, trees weren't funny and there were a lot them around to look at instead of her. Oak, ash, hawthorn, beech, aspen, tara-no-ki, and hornbeam were the most common types of trees around the park. Naruto didn't know if they had been planted or not, but he knew that a couple of those species weren't native to the forests around Konoha. He wondered idly where the saplings had come from as Ryuuka kept shrieking complaints.

"What's all this?" called a familiar voice, breaking Ryuuka out of her screaming fit. Naruto was grateful to Haku.

"Niichan was teasing me!" whined the girl, pouting impressively at the pretty-boy, who managed to look sympathetic despite his obvious amusement.

"How horrible of him," Haku agreed, pacifying Ryuuka at a speed that awed Naruto. "Perhaps you should ignore him as punishment. I'll make sure he doesn't bother you for five minutes."

Ryuuka turned her face away from them even as Naruto continued pushing her on the swing.

"You seem to have a knack for getting into hot water," Haku mused aloud with only the slightest of smiles.

"Hah, it follows me. That's not my fault. How's the old butcher?" Naruto asked, referring to the meat cleaver that Haku's chosen mentor carried.

"Zabuza-san is very restless." Haku smoothed the drape of his drab grey-brown peasant tunic. "This forced civilian status is not agreeing with him. He longs to return to the field, but the seal the Sandaime placed upon us still holds. He is not enjoying being powerless. Working at a civilian position is hard for him."

"At least he gets to chop things up."

Haku managed a small smile of amusement. "True. It does not bother me as much. This peace is fine, though being powerless during the invasion was not pleasant. The civilians in the tunnels were not very rational beings to share space with. Their faith, though unshakable under most circumstances, was severely tested by the darkness and the complete ignorance we were kept in. It was very hard.

"This new Hokage may end Zabuza's suffering earlier than anticipated. The losses Konoha sustained have forced her to consider taking up our offer of joining her ranks. We shall be under severe probation, but we will be allowed missions under supervision. Maybe in a few years we will be able to wear the same symbol you do."

"That's awesome, Haku!" Naruto gushed, bouncing around so much that Ryuuka glanced at him curiously. "So you'll start training again soon?"

"If the seal is changed, yes. As it is, we are limited to only the most basic taijutsu. I cannot even manipulate water, which was innate for me before. It is odd to be denied chakra after coming to rely on it instinctively."

Naruto got him to explain a bit more as an idea brewed in his mind. "Hey, Haku, you know I'm going away, right?" He stared over the trees surrounding the park at the Hokage Monument that he had once defaced so easily. From here, it almost looked like the Yondaime was looking right back at him. He really wished that the carvers had done a better job with those faces, but they had been done hectic times. He was sure the carvers had been more concerned with whether or not they were going to survive than whether his dad's nose was quite the right shape. He couldn't really blame them.

"Yes, I heard about it from Sakura-san only a day ago. It is why I sought you out today."

"Can you do me a favour while I'm away?"

Haku arched a single eyebrow at him curiously, which somehow made him look more feminine than ever. "Perhaps. What is it you want from me?"

"My sister, well, she's working for Tsunade-baachan. She doesn't know how to fight at all; she's not strong that way and beating an assassin up with words isn't going to work. If she ever tries to learn how to defend herself, can you practice with her? I'd do it, but I'm not going to be here. She's going to be stupid about learning: she says it's not right to hurt people, but I know she'll figure it out. When she does, can you make sure she gets it? Can you help teach her?"

"Why ask me? Why not your sensei?"

"Ah," Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I'd ask Kaka-sensei, but he and Riko-nee don't get along very well. Kaka-sensei annoys her, and I'm scared he'd get back at her for screaming at him about his books if I try to get him to train her. Sasuke-bastard isn't patient enough (they'd fight and I don't want them doing that unless I can watch) and Sakura's going to be too busy. I'd ask the other guys, but…"

Haku nodded his understanding. Genin and chuunin were severely overworked at the moment.

"Besides, you get along pretty well with her and you're really good!"

Haku smiled wryly at the manipulative compliment. "Very well, if she gets instruction, I will help her along. I do not think this will happen for a very long time though. She is as stubborn as you."

Naruto scowled and almost flipped Haku off, but Ryuuka was watching him. Sasuke would feed him dirt if Ryuuka told her brother where she had learned that hand gesture. "Thanks, Haku. Baachan will let you and the old butcher start working again for sure!"

Haku smiled peaceably and settled against the foot of a tree, allowing Naruto to begin instructing Ryuuka in the finer points of breaking Sasuke out of brooding. The little girl was exceptionally quick at catching on and her smirk grew steadily eviller as he explained various annoyance tactics to her in terms she could understand.

"So can you do that?" he asked, almost shivering at the menacing aura around her three-year-old frame.

"Sure thing, Niichan!" she crowed, clapping her hands and giggling balefully. Haku looked faintly frightened, and Naruto could sympathize. What the hell had he just done?

"I have this horrible feeling this is going to be the end of me," Naruto confided in Haku.

* * *

Similar foreboding phrases ran through Nariko's mind as Naruto packed his bag and Jiraiya sipped tea at her table. There had been another party the night before to wish Naruto well on his journey and she had lost yet again to Kakashi and Shikamaru. It had become a biweekly thing to play board games in her living room while a whole group of friends watched and sometimes called out advice when they weren't chatting in small groups. Her poor ego was taking quite beating at the hands of those damn genius ninja. Even Asuma had beaten her.

She wondered if that would end now that Naruto was no longer going to be around to blackmail people into doing such things. Even Neji, Lee, Tenten, and Gai had started coming in late November. She hadn't been entirely happy about these meetings sometimes: Naruto certainly hadn't been the one doing most of the food preparation and cleaning and Gai-san's enthusiasm had damaged one of her favourite chairs, but sitting on the sidelines and watching the camaraderie had been nice. Naruto had been the common thread that had held them all together. With him gone, it was likely that this would unravel.

"Don't look so worried," said Jiraiya. "I'll take good care of him. Besides, he can handle himself."

"Yeah," she muttered half-heartedly as she washed some dishes.

The desperate ache in her chest made her eyes burn and a lump blocked her throat. She sat down at the table to try and stall her tears through the need to maintain her dignity. She managed until Naruto came out of his room carrying his pack filled with shinobi gear. The burning went from mild to intensely painful within seconds, and she buried her face in her hands to hide the salty streaks. Sobs shook her frame when Naruto wrapped his arms around her.

"Gods, I'm going to miss having you around," she whispered when she had mastered herself. Raising her head, she saw that all of Team 7 had witnessed her loss of control. It hardly mattered. She got to her feet and followed Naruto and Jiraiya out the door and through the streets to the gate, working hard not grab him and drag him home. When they stood on the threshold of Konoha at last, the crowds moving around them ceased to matter.

"Hey, don't worry," said Naruto easily despite the suspicious glimmer in his own eyes, "I'll send you lots of letters by toad. I'll even get Ero-Sennin to let me visit Gaara, so he can tell you how I'm doing if you don't believe me."

"That's true," she said. "If you forget to write for a long time, I'll track you down or I'll send someone after you."

"Hah, I won't forget. Take good care of my plants and write me if any changes need to be made."

"I will. Don't forget your plan."

"How could I?" He let her squeeze the air out him, both of them trying to memorize each other's scent that they didn't smell anymore because it was so familiar, before he said individual goodbyes to his teammates. Stinky as Naruto usually was, the heavy smell of wild creature and foliage just barely registered with her as he moved away.

* * *

When he came to Kakashi, he motioned that the much taller man should kneel down so he could whisper in his ear. "You'll make sure she doesn't get into trouble for me?" he asked and almost laughed when Kakashi merely shrugged. Asking this of his sensei was his way of making sure that Riko-nee wouldn't stop doing things just because he wasn't around. His sensei irritated her to no end, so his occasional presence would force her to keep going. Besides, it was fun to annoy Kaka-sensei.

"I can't say for sure. I'll probably be taking on a lot of higher-ranked missions with you gone, Sakura training with Tsunade, and Sasuke training under his mother to attain mastery of his Sharingan. I'll probably end up in ANBU again, but I promise to try to check in every once in a while."

"Thanks, Kaka-sensei." He then hugged Sakura awkwardly and extracted a similar promised from her before she pounded his head "for good measure" and let him go.

Last was Sasuke. "Kaasan, Ryuuka, and I will keep an eye on her even if Kakashi doesn't," his best friend assured him.

Naruto studied him for signs that Ryuuka had begun her campaign and was satisfied by the slight twitch around Sasuke's eye. Naruto could tell that when he got back his friend was going to kill him. The thought brightened his mood. At least that would be normal. "I know; I'm counting on that. You'll make sure she doesn't make me an uncle until I get back?"

Sasuke looked a bit disturbed by this, but obviously, he had heard his mother going on about it too. It had freaked both of them out for a bit until Sasuke had insisted his mother had to be joking. Naruto knew she wasn't. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Sasuke smirked a bit, obviously figuring that Naruto was joking too. "I can't promise that, Moron. My mom's pretty determined to become a godmother. You'd better come back ready to try for jounin with the rest of us."

"No duh, Bastard," muttered Naruto sarcastically, imitating Sasuke's tone so perfectly that even he could tell. Sasuke's frown was as threatening as ever. Naruto was suddenly very glad to be leaving. "You'd better make sure that Sakura makes it through the next exam. I'm counting on you to keep everyone together for me." He had to be delusional. There was no way Sasuke-bastard was going to manage this. Only he, the amazing future Hokage, could do this. It was a good idea to get Sasuke to try though. It would force his friend to stop brooding like a chicken and training himself into oblivion.

"No problem, Moron. Don't screw this up and get killed." With one final grip, they released each other and Naruto followed Jiraiya out the gates.

* * *

There was a haze of finality that made those remaining stand in place, trying to affix the moment into memory. Nariko stood frozen for several moments with Team 7 watching her nervously. She shook her head and smiled wryly at them, stiff enough that her act was evident. Sasuke and Sakura, visibly relieved by her attempt to feign calm, went their own ways, while the adults headed for Admin, an unspoken agreement keeping them from going separate ways.

"What are you going to do now that your team has practically split up until Naruto gets back?" she asked as the safety of the side streets embraced her.

"I'll probably re-join ANBU. They've been a bit shorthanded lately. Being a jounin sensei isn't conducive to staying in top form, even when your students improve in leaps and bounds." They parted ways on the ground floor: it seemed that Kakashi wasn't going to waste any time before picking up his mask again.

"Keep safe," she said idly, her mind already up at her desk or following Naruto away from Konoha, "Naruto would never forgive you if you got yourself killed while he was away. Be sure to drop by if you need anything. I still want to see if I can beat you at chess."

He laughed only to turn around and find an unpleasant observer by the stairs into the bowels of the building.

"Wolfling, crawling back into hell so soon?"

* * *

"Tsunade-sama!" Nariko gasped, flinging the doors open and watching Tsunade snort and jerk awake in response. She snickered, and Tsunade glared.

"You were less dramatic this morning," she drawled as she rubbed ink stains off her face. "Has Naruto left already?"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama. Jiraiya took him with him not an hour ago. He'll be sending you official reports?" Nariko really envied Tsunade-sama the view of Konoha from this office; it was spectacular. If she hadn't known that it was the alcohol and not the view that was causing her boss to fall behind, Nariko would have been a lot more sympathetic.

"Yes, he's agreed to do that. He won't tell me where they are, but I'll know about Naruto's progress."

Nariko nodded and collected the papers that had been left on the side desk for her department.

"What's in store for today?" Tsunade asked wearily.

"Well, there's been a request for funding for an apprenticeship program like the one you have with Sakura." Nariko really felt like a glorified secretary at moments like this.

"Really? Who is it?"

"Shizune is applying for permission to take Hyuuga Hinata on as a medic-nin apprentice. She is requesting shorter hours so she can see to Hinata's training. The fund can support this: the hospital has pledged three percent of their budget towards funding the training of iryō-nin.

"The only thing is that Shizune is invaluable in the office in keeping you organized and on task. She is your main advisor and as such assists with almost every aspect of administration. If you approve her request, another advisor or aide will have to take on more of her duties or you will have to load your secretary down with more work. Hiring someone else is an option, but it would be costly. The training fund wouldn't cover that.

"There's also Yamanaka Ino's request for medical training to deal with. She hasn't found a med-nin instructor and Asuma-san isn't qualified to teach her, but I'm sure that the fund could pay for one if a volunteer could be found at the hospital…"

"I'll approve it even if we don't have the funding necessary," insisted Tsunade with a pained look on her face. Her calligraphy brush cracked in her grip. "We need iryō-nin in the field to prevent deaths."

"Of course, Tsunade-sama. Now, in regards to paying for those twelve convalescing ninja that were injured on those five botched A-rank missions…"

It seemed that the world didn't stop even with the future Hokage's departure from Konoha.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45: Ashes of the Hierophant

They sat side by side; neither speaking nor making any motion that indicated that they were aware of each other. Teuchi watched them sadly, silently estimating how cool their ramen was now.

It had been like this most days since Naruto had gone away. The boy always came first since his lunch break started earlier. That scamp Kakashi was teaching the kid and liked long breaks, so the Uchiha boy had plenty of time to get a seat at the weathered counter. He always ordered a small bowl and never really finished it. She came later, appearing out of the lunchtime rush like a ghost. She would sit wherever there was room, order a small bowl of beef, stir the noodles around, and smile sadly. When his lunchtime customers had mostly faded away, she would scoot closer to the Uchiha boy to sit in silence by his side while he slurped up what noodles he could stomach as she continued to swirl hers around in mindless, heartless circles. For two that didn't really get along that well, the respect and mutual, silent support was palpable to Teuchi's eyes.

Sometimes the Academy teacher joined them. He would sit on one side or another, but never in the middle. He seemed to understand that that space was reserved for the one that was missing.

The Sakura child came more often than Iruka. She would try to sit on the Uchiha boy's other side, but even she would hold her tongue and eat her shrimp in silence, inspecting the naruto pieces with a thoughtful look on her face. She always looked exhausted, so Teuchi wasn't surprised that she ate with more appetite than the other two. Of all of them, she was the only one with optimism about her, bruised though she was. Dusty and dirty, she always arrived with a satisfied air. Over the weeks, her energy infected the dark boy to an extent where he would finish his bowl once in a while and would arrive with fresh tears in his clothing and wind-whipped hair. The woman remained unaffected though.

Rain or sleet, bitter winds or balmy days that broke winter's chill, they came at least once a week to hold a silent vigil for the one that had held them together, hoping that someday he would come back to bring the noise again.

* * *

Tsunade frowned as a finance aide walked into her office. The January winds screamed just outside her windows and probably would have blown this frail girl away if the heavy shoulder bag she carried hadn't kept her fixed to the ground. She didn't remember this girl ever having been _this_ skinny. Under that drab brown, long coat, Tsunade had the feeling that every single one of Nariko's ribs were sticking out through her skin.

She hadn't taken her brother's departure well, and she wasn't coping with the self-inflicted guilt very well either. She always looked as though she was only half-present, as though most of her spirit had been ripped away and gone with Naruto. Her work was better than ever though. Tsunade had been astonished when Shizune had told her that the finances were basically all caught up from the turnover of power and the invasion. Initial estimates had placed that occurrence to be in July at the absolute earliest. Work was all Nariko did though.

If Nariko's work had been affected, Tsunade would have had no problems barging in on the problem. As a fellow older sister, she could understand what Nariko was going through. Losing Nawaki had been much more permanent and traumatic, but the emotions were similar. With her like this, Tsunade couldn't even work up the required indignant anger to order her subordinate to get basic training in self-defence since there were no guards to be spared. It had made her wonder if Nariko was doing this on purpose, but the girl wasn't that crafty. She was only a civilian, so there was no way the girl could have manipulated so subtly.

When the girl finally left with a stack of freshly signed documents to present to the top aides in her department, Tsunade sighed and turned to stare out the window. Konoha was dreary looking this January. The spark of life and fire that made it such a wonderful place was absent. The entire village looked grey-scale with the sun in hiding. The fierce winds only brought another wave of clouds, dead leaves, and dust. She hoped it would rain soon and make everything fresh again. Spring seemed so much farther away with everything buried under a dusty film. At least the last of the fire-gutted buildings were being rebuilt and replaced now. Their blacked bones had darkened many moods and brought up painful memories. A flick of a finger brought in the shadow that had been waiting patiently for Nariko to leave.

"What is it this time?" she murmured, staring at the reflection of the green and red marked tiger mask.

"There has been activity on the borders," whispered the agent with no inflection marring his voice. ANBU took emotionless to a whole new level sometimes.

She wondered how long it took the average agent to break. No one had ever bothered to study that. ANBU agents were damaged mentally by their service; it was a fact of life. How long this breaking took depended on the individual. Everyone had a weak spot of some type; every ANBU got a mission that hit that Achilles' heel eventually. Some became cold, some developed a secondary personality to relieve the stress upon the psyche, some learned how to compartmentalize their emotions very quickly, and others simply shattered into pieces and dropped out to piece themselves slowly back together as normal chuunin and jounin.

It wasn't as bad during the peacetime: there weren't as many suicide or assassination missions to do. The psychiatrists in Konoha weren't in danger of going out of business though. Tsunade smirked bitterly to herself. Ninja populations drew two things like dung drew flies: accountants and psychiatrists.

"What sort of activity?"

"To the north, Orochimaru has retreated back into Rice Country. The exact location of his bases and the numbers of his followers that made it back are unknown as of yet. Orochimaru is taking no chances, so tracking him or any of his people is difficult. Even Dog-12 and Dog-25 didn't find any traces. It seems he's keeping his people in his bases for now for the most part."

"But?"

"But there have been some incursions over the border," admitted Tiger. "They were quite skilled at hiding their tracks. We lost them forty kilometres south of the westernmost point of the border with Rice Country." She heard him place a map on her desk and place a pebble on the location. "We anticipate that they will loop around Konoha, heading more towards Tanzaku Gai before turning towards the village. Four of the fastest agents—Rat-32, Hare-2, Dog-12, and Dragon-63—are out attempting to intercept them separately to increase the chances of running across their trail.

"We haven't heard from Rat for a long time, so we anticipate that she has been taken down."

Rat-32 had been taken down? That surprised her: the woman had been one of the newer agents, but she had been skilled and as paranoid as they came. What sort of freaks was that snake sending out?

"Rat-43 was sent out to deal with her body in case Rat-32 failed to erase her existence. Dog-12 last reported that he thought that this group is merely the first of many. It is likely that their target is what you anticipated."

Tsunade sighed and rubbed her forehead before brushing loose blonde strands out of her eyes. That snake was entirely too obsessive. She knew that she should have killed him there, but he had been even cannier than she remembered. She figured that he had to be since dodging the will of the Shinigami couldn't have been easy. She would have to poison him somehow. Letting him live was too dangerous.

"Anything else?" she asked, her lack of comment on the Oto issue indicating she was satisfied with his efforts for the moment. She had to be; ANBU was entirely too shorthanded.

Losses during the invasion had been heavy. Regular forces would have to take up the slack even though they too were quite depleted. She could feel a headache building behind her eyes. Where was she going to get the numbers required to bring the ranks back up to their normal levels? It would take ten years to get even halfway there. Standards for passing genin would have to lower to allow the ranks to regain some ground.

"There have been signs of Akatsuki activity on the border with Rain Country. The border guards enforcing the isolation of the country are refusing to comment, but they are nervous. Shall we break the cordon and try to investigate?"

"No, not yet." Tsunade stared at the genin team that had been unlucky enough to be assigned the mission to clean the Hokage faces. They were scrubbing at the old stains from the smoke with some difficulty. She smirked as one almost lost control of his chakra and slipped four metres down the Sandaime's nose before his teammate caught him.

"Konoha isn't strong enough yet to take on Ame and survive the vultures that will gather if they decide to take offence. Hanzou has been too quiet for too long. For all we know, something big could be happening there. Their numbers could have tripled if the number of border guards is any indication: their ranks have increased by more than tenfold. No, we'll wait; we'll hold our cards until the last possible moment in hopes of getting a better hand. Keep all agents well clear of there. Poking around in River and Grass will be tolerated by Rain, but any closer and they will start feeling threatened."

She watched Tiger nod in the window. He would spread the word to the other agents and bypass that bastard that kept sticking his nose where it wasn't wanted. The ANBU commander had been complaining about having to deal with that man lately. She couldn't blame him; even Sarutobi-sensei could be irritated by that man's attitude. She had half a mind to simply punch the living daylights out of the prick's wrinkly hide and to have done with it, as she would have if he hadn't been part of the village…

Tiger's shoulders twitched slightly, telling her that he still had more to say. "Besides Akatsuki, there have been hints from Earth that some interesting artefacts were found, some that perhaps should be with their proper owners." She raised a brow at his reflection as he set a quartz fragment on a location on the map near Iwa. "They say it's something associated with the—"

"No need to say more than that." There were always ways of listening in even if she sealed her office. To risk talking about _that_ out loud was foolish. "They always were interested in our heritage after that war. Too interested. We'll wait a bit. Hitting them now is out of the question considering the state of the treaty with Suna. Besides, they know better than to try and add their own people to the list, not when we have the ruler. It should be safe until we can bring it back. I'll consider sending a team after it when things calm down. With Naruto gone, the pressure should move away from Konoha."

His shoulder twitched again, and she frowned. He disagreed? He had better have some good reasons or else he was going to answer for his lack of faith in her…

"If I may," he whispered hastily once he spotted her ugly expression in the glass. He took out a tiny, reddish pebble and a fragment of granite. He placed the granite on a spot on the map about fifty kilometres southwest of Frost's border with Lightning. "That is the last place we marked Hoshigaki Kisame before he dealt with Ox-16. Snake-28 was sent out to replace him. Snake hasn't found the nukenin yet. However, we do know that Kisame was alone."

He rolled the red pebble in his gloved fingers. "We don't know where his partner is. We found Ram-9 caught in that genjutsu used on Dog-12 and checked her into the hospital only two hours ago. She was found in front of Konoha's gates." He placed the red pebble on top of Konoha. "I think it's likely he's still around."

* * *

Mikoto stopped just outside the hospital and froze. There were no obvious signs, but she could tell that something had desecrated what little calm this house of the wounded and dying possessed. She grabbed Sasuke's shoulder, stopping his forward motion, and pushed Ryuuka into his arms.

"Sasuke, go to the Hokage's Offices. Find Riko there and stick to her like glue. Don't leave the office even if she does."

He stared at her with wide eyes even as Ryuuka pouted. Only the afterimage of his pale face was in her mind's eye a moment later. She smiled grimly at how much his speed had improved and walked quietly into the hospital, into the chaos.

Nurses were hysterical, doctors were frantically trying to restore calm, and ninja were zipping through the halls at terrible speeds with the sort of energy she remembered from all the wars she had fought in. It was the black ops all over again. She fortified the mental wall against those memories and halted a terrified looking chuunin. "Report," she murmured in the hoarse, whispery voice that all ANBU adopted to hide their identities.

The chuunin responded to that tone. She was an older woman that had obviously been serving Konoha for a long time. "There was a murder in the hospital."

Mikoto listened with half an ear, her hands rapidly forming signs to communicate with two jounin she had worked with before. In this way, she managed to get all the information that was available and secured permission to scope out the murder scene. It took all of her willpower to use Shunshin to get to Ward 163. A tokubetsu jounin was going over the room for any evidence. It was a useless operation. She already knew who was responsible. He slid the door open for her, sympathetic eyes staring out of a carefully blank face. She nodded to him and walked into the horribly motionless room that she had only visited yesterday.

He had been recovering. His charts had said he was to be released to return home in only four more days. It had only been a mild stroke. The heart monitor that had beeped steadily yesterday afternoon was now silent. The iryō-nin examining the corpse bowed respectfully to her and moved aside so she could see the damage.

She glared down at the precise slice through his throat that was visible through the blood that was just beginning to congeal, the sharp red creating a harsh contrast with the pale sheets it was splattered all over. The blade had broken through the skin, the carotid artery, the jugular vein, and cartilage protecting the trachea without problems. The cut was clean: Akio had not resisted in any way. Tsukuyomi was too powerful for a three-tomoe Sharingan to resist under most circumstances if the user was weakened, as Akio had been, even for a user of the bloodline as wily as her great-uncle had been in life.

This was the only time she allowed herself to acknowledge her bond to this man. If she didn't try to block it out now, she would fall into a deep pit that she wasn't sure she would be able to climb out of. This man had been dead for maybe forty minutes. His killer might still be around. She couldn't afford any distractions.

"Was there a message?" she asked in the calmest tone she could summon even as the ANBU in her pushed at her again, beating against the wall in her mind.

Gloved fingers pointed to a simple black feather on the bedside table.

She closed her eyes for a brief moment before leaping out the open window towards the compound, aware of the four ANBU trailing her. She motioned that they move up beside her. "Was he there?" she asked through hand signs.

Monkey-san held up two fingers. Two others had died. Only her family and one last old man were left then.

"In the compound?" she gestured.

Monkey shook his head: outside, in the village, just like Akio. It was a message. He was advancing towards them slowly. He didn't need to touch them in the compound to destroy them. Nowhere was safe.

Itachi was only biding his time. He would strike on his terms and there didn't seem to anything the village could do to stop him.

They lived only on his sufferance.

* * *

The bitter winter wind did not let up for the three funerals. Sasuke didn't bother to fight with his bangs, though Ryuuka battled with her longer hair even as her kimono sleeves flapped like raven's wings, starkly black against the lacklustre backdrop of Konoha in mid-January. He was strangely relieved that she cried for Akio-ojiisan as she had never cried for Father or any of the others. He had had the strangest feeling that maybe she couldn't cry for the dead. At least he had been proven wrong.

Three old men were being buried today. They had died ingloriously: not one of them had put up a satisfactory fight.

Akio had been murdered in the hospital. That had been the most telling strike. The hospital was heavily guarded because of the ease enemy ninja would have had if they wanted to pick off a rival there. That _that man_ had bypassed all of those precautions so easily and so quickly had caused pandemonium. ANBU's watch on the place had been tripled at the insistence of the entire village.

Another of his relatives had been killed on the patio of a teashop. Manabu had been reading poetry and sipping tea when the kunai had lodged in his throat. He had been finished even before the second kunai thudded through his left eye into his brain. Screaming patrons had done a lot of damage to the premises as they fled from the murder scene, and shop owners had been hysterical. Six ANBU had been needed to help regular jounin calm the crowds there.

The last had died at the park that he had played with Ryuuka at so many times. Isao had been casually gutted. Itachi had obviously tried to mine him for information, but had miscalculated just how weak these men had become over the years. Isao had died before he had spoken as far as anyone could tell.

Their only other relative was huddled very close to Kaasan, plainly terrified. Seiji had never been the strongest of the survivors, but he had been the one that had arranged the fortunate meeting at that bar that had saved their skins. As the last one standing, he had good reason to be afraid. He had only ever ranked chuunin before he had retired due to the loss of his dominant arm, and he had spent most of his time as a secretary chuunin under the Sandaime in the magistrate office, passing judgement on civilian cases. Seiji would have no chance against _that man_.

Kaasan knelt before the tiny shrine and lit three incense sticks with a tiny flicker of flame from her lips. Only she would honour the fallen Uchiha that had died with the jutsu that had wrongly named them men. He frowned behind his high collar. Not one of these men had managed to fight. Even Akio, who had been the strongest of the survivors despite his advanced age, had died without a struggle. It made Sasuke sick. Was _that man_ so strong that no one could touch him?

He found an unexpected answer to his thoughts when he turned around. Kakashi and Sakura were waiting at the edge of cemetery for him with the rest of his friends. They would have come in, but they dared not tread upon Uchiha ground without permission even under normal circumstances. These deaths were a family matter, so they had been denied entrance. They had waited for him though. It made the bitterness fade a bit. Moron would have been here too. Even Riko-oneesan, who wasn't _here_ half the time anymore, had walked with them to the ceremony before quietly slipping away like a wraith to go back to work.

Kakashi answered his question. The eye hidden behind that tilted forehead protector had managed to hold off Itachi to an extent. His sensei had even managed to fight _him_ off for a bit before he had fallen to Tsukuyomi. If this Hatake genius could hold off _that man_ with a borrowed eye, then Sasuke was sure that he could do the same if he worked hard enough. And his mother had battled his brother as well and had not fallen until after _he_ had run away.

A grim smile found its way onto his face as Ryuuka latched onto his leg and demanded that he drag her home. He smirked and held out the black feather found near Akio-ojiisan. Turning back towards the graves, he held it up for the eyes he was sure were watching with silent, cruel satisfaction. Sasuke took great pleasure in summoning the smallest bit of chakra and reducing the feather to ashes with the only jutsu his father had ever taken the time to teach him. The ruins of Itachi's message scattered on the wind.

Itachi lived only at his sufferance.

Ryuuka took this moment to pelt him with a beanbag that exploded into partially pulverized tomatoes. He had no idea how she had made it or how she had hidden it from him, but he blamed Konohamaru. The mashed fragments of his favourite food coated his hair and slimed down the back of his shirt even as a couple seeds slid down into his eyes and ears. His left eye twitched as Kiba snorted, Chouji stifled a grin, Shikamaru yawned, and Sakura giggled despite the seriousness of the occasion. He must have been a hilarious sight because even Shino cracked a smile behind his high collar.

The moron lived only at his sufferance as well.

* * *

Naruto bounced along in Ero-Sennin's wake, enjoying being on the road, though he had the oddest feeling that his days were numbered. He had thought it would be harder to be away from home, but it was almost dreadfully easy. Sure, he missed everyone to bits and the letters only helped a bit, but there was so much to see and do out here! It was like discovering Konoha all over again as a kid.

Ero-Sennin was taking him around the smaller towns in north-western Fire Country. It was cool to watch all the different trades going on out here. The biggest job centres were in forestry and in farming: wheat production followed the encroachment of the forests around the small towns struggling in the shroud of the mighty trees. Those towns that mostly had lumber were far more rustic than the ones that had acres and acres of established farms.

He liked those rustic towns better. The language was more interesting there because not many families lived there. Only brutes of men walked those muddy streets since they were the only ones that could handle the heavy axes and the two-man saws. He had had to use a butt-load of chakra to lift one of those things up. The bastards had laughed at him until he had tossed the blunt instrument at them, bowling them over. He had casually told them that maybe he would have to buy one of the axes off of them for a kunoichi he knew. Tenten could always use more weapons.

Speaking of weapons, he had seen _a lot_ of evidence of ninja weapons during his northern tour. Ero-Sennin said that most of the open places they passed through were the result of heated ninja battles. In the east, the signs were more recent: rusting kunai and mouldy exploding tags could be found from the Kumo-Konoha war. Out west, where they were heading, the signs were not so clear.

The earth was more affected. Naruto had the feeling it was because Iwa had been the enemy then and they were bound to know lots of doton jutsu. Grass Country's border was within a fifty kilometres, but Ero-Sennin said that things got a lot more obvious when you were actually in Grass because it had been the primary battleground. The earth wasn't the only indicator though: Naruto saw civilians missing arms, legs, or eyes who had obviously been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ero-Sennin had made him take his forehead protector off around those people. Neechan's story about how her village didn't like ninja began to make a lot more sense.

"Hey, gaki," said Ero-Sennin, "hurry up, will you? We've got to get to the next town before dusk."

"Hah! You only want to go there because there's a public bath there! You're going to do more stupid research, and we'll get chased out of town again." The last complaint was made in an aggrieved tone: Naruto had had to sleep in a tree after that incident. They had abandoned packs in the hotel and hadn't been able to go back and get them until the next day… Suffice it to say, he had not been a happy camper.

"Shut your trap," Jiraiya groused as he adjusted the straps of his bag. "You can write another letter when we get there so long as you keep quiet."

That prospect brightened Naruto's mood. It had been quite a while since he had sent off his last letter with Gamakichi. If he didn't get another one off soon, Riko-nee was going to send somebody to twist his ear for her. He rubbed at the poor appendage and began figuring out what to tell her and what was better to leave unsaid. Ero-Sennin's trip to the bar was definitely not going to be included. That would just be asking for trouble.

When he finally made it out of the baths and to his room, wrinkled as a prune, he pulled out one of his precious blank scrolls and pulled out a pen. Where to start? He grinned when it hit him.

"Dear Neechan, Ero-Sennin is being himself, as usual. We might need you to bail us out of jail…" He cackled as he continued his introduction. Riko-nee was going to flip out when she read this. He wouldn't be surprised if Gamakichi brought back a whole bunch of angry letters from Neechan and Baachan.

* * *

Mikoto had recovered to an extent from the triple loss by the first week of February. The guilt had been crushing at first. If she had just managed to kill Itachi that time she had managed to interrogate him, none of this would have happened. She knew that she was incapable though. Itachi had advanced beyond her level of skill. It was hard to admit, but it brought her a measure of peace. She celebrated the first day of this renewal of self by stalking over to her oddly absent friend's house. She didn't bother knocking: picking the lock was good practice and would give her a better idea of just what state her layabout friend was in. When she opened the door and looked over the sitting room, she wasn't impressed.

Papers littered the floor, doubtlessly highly confidential documents detailing tax records and Konoha's most private accounts. Riko had piled them haphazardly according to logic only she would understand. The desk against the wall was buried beneath piles twenty centimetres deep that were meticulously organized. The floor looked like it had suffered the lack of a broom for five weeks under all those pristine documents and folders.

Barely nibbled plates of food were beginning to go mouldy: green or black fuzz tainted the surfaces of untouched sushi rolls and a strange whitish species was decimating some bread rolls. The curtains were only half-open to let in the grey light of the wintry morning and as Mikoto carefully navigated around the piles she saw that the sink was full of unwashed dishes. The only things besides the papers that looked as though they were being cared for at all were Naruto's plants, which were in pristine condition and flourishing despite their caretaker's absence.

Mikoto scowled down at the pile of bones wrapped in flesh passed out on the couch with a pen in hand. Partly completed forms lay stacked on the nearby table. Now she understood why Riko had taken Naruto in. The girl must have known how much she needed somebody else around in order to take care of herself. It seemed that Naruto had given her a reason to continue operating at a basic level of cleanliness and orderliness. This lack of self-will disgusted Mikoto, as nothing else her friend could have done would have. This desperate dependence upon others was revolting. True, no one had been by in weeks because Naruto had been Riko's tie to everyone, but still…

She rested a hand upon the girl's forehead and frowned. A fever burned its way through her. Not an especially dangerous one, but one that could have been prevented by feeding herself. She slapped Riko to pull her out of her sleepy delirium when the girl muttered something about not knowing where he was, a comment addressed to Itachi.

Mikoto glared into Riko's hazy eyes. "What are you talking about?" she growled, taking hold of her jaw, ignoring the slight sheen of sweat. "Why are you talking to _him_?"

"He was here," Riko murmured, not really awake yet. "He asked me—"

"He can't have been," bit out Mikoto, her grip tightening. "There's a guard just on the next building's roof. He would have seen…"

"He was here," she insisted, now realizing that this wasn't some fever dream. "He asked where Naruto was!"

Mikoto slapped her again, breaking her out of her rising hysteria. It had to be some hallucination. "Stop it! You're being stupid and not just this way. Have you eaten a full meal at all in the past few weeks? Do you do _anything_ other than work?"

Riko's blank and frightened stare told Mikoto all she needed to know. She slapped Riko hard and pulled the skeleton to her feet before she could recover from the blow. "Get dressed. You're coming with me. I want to go get drunk. You're going to eat, watch out for me, and get me home in a state that won't frighten Sasuke and Ryuuka when they get back from the park. Understand?" Riko didn't have time to do more than nod before Mikoto wrenched open the door to her room and shoved her inside. "You have three minutes to get some clean clothes on," she said through the door and began counting off.

Half an hour later, Mikoto sprawled across the bar before tossing back another dish of sake. Riko sat warily beside her, devouring the barbeque pork, rice, and snow peas she had ordered. She had only started eating after Mikoto had forced a couple dishes of sake down her gullet. Mikoto smirked as the barkeeper refilled her own glass. She loved being right, especially when she was dealing with Riko.

"You know what your problem is?" Mikoto hardly minded that her words were finally beginning to slur, "You bloody care too much. You can't do anything for yourself."

Mikoto was astonished when Riko successfully stole her sake dish and tossed it back with just as much vigour as Tsunade did. Astonishment morphed into disgust when Riko shoved her bare plate aside, sprawled across the counter next to her, and belched right in her face. Mikoto almost fell off her chair in the desperate struggle to get away from that breath. Had she been living off of white out and mouldy bread? That would explain the smell…

"Nah," announced Riko in the most cheerful voice Mikoto had heard from her since Naruto had gone away. "I just didn't want to. That was payback for slapping me, by the way. Work was more important—"

"Like hell it was!" Mikoto slapped Riko on the back and laughed. "You were totally sulking!"

Riko finally stole her sake _again_ and grinned after she had tossed it back. Mikoto silently bet that her friend was a total lightweight. It seemed she was right: the fever, overwork, and general malnourishment felled Riko with only three dishes of sake in her system and two more now in her gut. The giggle told Mikoto all she needed to know.

"Yeah, you're right. I was pouting, I guess."

"Well, stop it! Go find some poor brat to take care of before you kill yourself," Mikoto said with another slap on her friend's bony back. She could feel every rib and vertebrae through the thin skin and tunic. The disturbing experience had the ANBU memories beating against that wall. Another shot of alcohol sent them spinning back into oblivion. "If you start moping and brooding like my son, I'll never forgive you! At least Ryuuka and Sarutobi Konohamaru are keeping him on his toes. Did Naruto sic them on him?"

Riko brushed aside hair that desperately needed washing when it fell into her face. "It was part of his elaborate going-away plan. He told me he was going to make sure that Konoha didn't fall apart in his absence."

"He did a pretty good job. He only forgot about you."

"Nah." Riko tried to steal the freshly refilled dish again and instead made the contents spill all over the counter. "He knew that you'd be around to slap sense into me, though I don't think he was counting on you doing it in such a literal sense."

Mikoto slapped the girl's back in retaliation for wasting the alcohol and ordered another refill. She didn't plan on going home until she had properly ended her period of mourning by almost getting completely wasted: anything to keep those damn memories at bay. She damned Orochimaru for bringing them back up with his thrice-damned attack. She had been coping just fine until he had sent all of those men after her children.

"You're just a wimp." Mikoto cut Riko's future attempts at having sake off by ordering the bartender to deny the girl any. A bribe kept a smile on his face and kept any alcohol away from her flimsy friend. "If you don't start coming over for longer than ten minutes every weekend like you used to, I'm going to incinerate your living room and to hell with all those damn papers."

"Yes, ma'am!" Riko laughed, snapping a mock salute. "But only if you stop pulling out that damn pig-sticker on me! I thought you were going to gut me with it the last time I saw it."

"I will if you don't clean up your damn house! You're coming over for that girls' night out on Saturday that I promised in October. We never did get around to doing that…" Mikoto grinned when Riko whimpered at that prospect. Ah, the teasing would be wonderful and it would keep the paranoia and utter rage and despair at bay if only for a few hours.

"You've been… down lately," Riko murmured once she got a hold on herself. "What was it besides losing family?"

Mikoto glanced at her friend out of the corner of her eye and sighed. Maybe she shouldn't have taught Riko how to manipulate with body language. It was damnably effective, as usual. Mikoto's had affected even one as twisted and cold as her former son. If an ice cube like him could be twisted by posturing, then who knew who else could be? Certainly, she wasn't immune.

She swirled the contents of her dish around. "It's my fault. They didn't have to die, none of them. I had him in my sights. I could have slit his throat, and it would have all been over. I couldn't though," she said hoarsely, the alcohol loosening her tongue more than it should have. "I needed him to talk. He knows why it happened. I needed him to tell me so that I could fix it."

"He's also your son." Riko set a hand on her shoulder. "No matter how he has betrayed you, you want him to be guiltless and your little boy again. No mother wants to hate her children. It's a horrible thing to hate what is such a part of you."

Very quietly, very deep down inside, Mikoto admitted that Riko had a valid point. She didn't want to kill her baby. Some part of her had gone with him out into the world with him. Ending his life would destroy that forever. She didn't quite have the strength to do that. Never that.

* * *

"Come."

Yuugao blinked at the mask that hadn't been in front of her on the dark street two seconds ago. "I'm sorry, captain, but I—"

"You owe me a life debt of a sort. Come with me."

When Snake-28 put it like that, Yuugao grimaced. She hoped Hayate would forgive her. He had insisted that tonight was important, but…

* * *

Kakashi shook as he walked through the streets, desperately trying to push the memories aside to no avail. Not twenty minutes ago, he had finished debriefing after a harrowing solo ANBU mission that had taken him into Earth Country. He still wasn't sure how he had managed to drag himself home. Even now, the memories were causing old scars to burn.

Tsunade-sama had taken one look at him and had informally recommended that he go either get very drunk or talk to someone. That she had been able to discern the extent of his problem despite his porcelain dog mask demonstrated just how disturbed he was. Shizune had recommended the latter of Tsunade's suggestions as he had left the Hokage's Tower. Why couldn't he stop shaking? Why couldn't he focus?

Missions like these usually didn't bother him, but even he admitted that Itachi's Tsukuyomi attack had damaged something in his mind. A mission very much like this one had prompted him to leave ANBU the first time. It had also been a solo mission, so there had been nobody to commiserate with when it was over, and the parallels between that mission and another one that had gone so badly had driven him to drinking. Finding himself with a hell of a hangover and draped over a stranger's couch had not been comforting, but he had kept at it until he had forced himself to retire in order to regain his equilibrium. A genin team had seemed just the thing, but for years, none of them had measured up to his high standards until Team 7 had come along. With them as his anchor, he had managed to regain enough ground that he had felt comfortable re-joining ANBU. Now he wasn't so sure that this was a good idea.

"Senpai?"

Shit. He tried to push away from the wall he had been using to stay upright and feign lazy motives, but Yuugao, dressed for a night off duty, dropped into a crouch in front of him anyway. She glanced up at someone, and he followed her gaze. And here he had thought this couldn't get any worse.

"Remember, she owes him. She'll help you if you cannot stay."

Yuugao nodded, and Snake disappeared. "Senpai—"

"I'm fine."

Yuugao ignored him and grabbed his bloodstained upper arm to better drag him along behind her. "I didn't know you could stutter. You have horrible timing. Hayate—"

"Yuugao, just go. I'll be fine."

"At least you're not lying so badly this time." She continued to haul him through the streets. That she did so easily was beyond embarrassing.

He was one jot of panic short of hyperventilating. This was ridiculous. Shivers were running through his entire frame, making it difficult to stay upright as muscles swayed in and out from under his command. One second they were firm beneath him and the next they were spasming uncontrollably. His thoughts were running in panicked circles around his head, and he hoped he wasn't as terrified looking as he felt.

This was stupid. The worst part was that he was both experiencing this terror and yet observing it within his mind at the same time. Some part of him, some hardened veteran mentality fragment, was completely unaffected by what had unhinged him so badly. Unfortunately, the schism between those two extremes was too wide for him to broach without some sort of alcohol or purging of another sort.

Yuugao's harsh knock on a door dragged him out of the haze. She continued rapping until he heard someone stagger down the hall, complaining blearily about the late hour.

"What are you going to bed so early for?" said Yuugao. "It's barely eleven."

"Unlike some people," Matsuku-san growled as she fiddled with the lock, "I have work tomorrow." She froze when she saw just who was on her landing and blinked. "What about Hayate?" she asked when she finally regained her aplomb with Kakashi's angry and embarrassed glare helping her along.

"That's why I'm here."

"Ah. Come in."

Ignoring his protests, they stationed him in a chair at Nariko's table. Yuugao abandoned him to futile attempts to collect himself.

"What happened?" he heard Nariko ask Yuugao.

"I don't know. One of the senior agents intercepted me on my way to the restaurant and led me to him. She said that you'd help when she realized that I had prior engagements."

"Dammit. She must have been watching… Frick."

"I'd be worried if you started jumping for joy. Will you help him?" A pause. "Ah, sorry. I forgot who I was talking to."

"Now isn't the best time to mock me, Yuu."

"What better time? Here's the kettle."

"Thanks. Can you reach that…? Thanks. Oh, you're bleeding!"

"No, it's his. Can I…?"

"Don't insult me by asking. Gods, go already."

He glanced up and saw Yuugao slip by the table to head down the hall into the bathroom. To make matters worse, Naruto's sister sat down across from him and stared at her folded hands. The contrast between them at this moment would have been amusing if he hadn't been on the short end of the stick: she was calm while he was still almost rattling his teeth out of his skull. He liked it better when it was the other way around. Damn pushy nun with a steel rod up her ass, what had his book ever done to her?

"Should I ask?"

"N-n-no." Humiliation burned.

"Okay then." She fiddled with her fingernail. "Umm, I'm going to talk. Jump in when you're ready." That she assumed he would spill was galling.

Her talk was harmless, yet effective. He had expected stories about Naruto's exploits to slide right beneath his panic, but instead they slowly dragged him out of the mess in his mind. Naruto's pranks and progress were unrelated to his current woes. She determinedly kept the one-sided conversation going despite his lack of encouragement as she made tea and set a cup before him, missing how his hand shook when grasping the cup. She glanced away, granting him privacy, as he fumbled with his mask to drink, but did not stop chattering, moving on to what Tsunade-sama did at work sometimes, blackmail material he would have cherished at any other time.

Yuugao returned, accepted tea, and shored up Nariko's dialogue. They began prompting him without seeming to, giving him opportunities to join the conversation without the pressure of needing to explain his state.

When he did, he regretted it. He had the awful impression that he sounded like he was going through puberty again: his voice was jumping up and down the scale and breaking at the oddest moments. Had it been Sasuke or Naruto, he would have laughed. As it was, it wasn't funny in the slightest. Nariko didn't seem to notice, obviously deaf as well as blind, and Yuugao spared him.

"Senpai," she said hesitantly when a lull persisted. He glanced at her, but she lapsed into silence.

"Obito's eye weeps," Nariko said for Yuugao, her utter bluntness a blow.

He flinched, memories renewing their assault. Almost self-consciously, he reached up and wiped away the moisture seeping from the fabric and dripping over the skin, towards his mask. Obito was such a damn crybaby…

"How did you…?" Yuugao asked Nariko.

"Sandaime-sama told me a story once."

Kakashi wasn't surprised. It was a favourite tale of the old man's.

"This mission had something to do with how Obito-san's eye came into your possession."

"Riko, don't—"

"Yuu, I'm not going to force him. Calm down. I don't know the details, if that's what you're worried about."

"Yuugao…"

"Senpai?"

"You're supposed to be having dinner with Hayate-kun, aren't you?" The steadiness of his voice relieved him.

"Senpai, I'm hardly going to abandon you—"

"Yuu, go. I'll handle it. Gekkou-san is probably pulling out his hair by now."

"But I—"

"You hardly need makeup. Just go." The struggle on Yuugao's face was evident, but Nariko smirked. "Do you really want to miss this?"

Yuugao bit her lip and slid out of her chair. "Senpai—"

"I can make it home—"

"I'll watch over him—"

He and Nariko shared a glare, hers stern while his was unfortunately petulant.

Yuugao laughed and shook her head. "Riko, I'm counting on you."

"Go already!" Once Yuugao had fled Nariko's mock wrath, she turned the real thing on him. "You should stay."

"I'm going."

She rolled her eyes at him. "And I thought you were supposed to be intelligent. Do you honestly think you're well enough to cope with what's coming alone? I've never seen a grown man cry with one eye, but I doubt things end well for him. No, I don't know the entire story, so, no, I won't judge, but you aren't at peace. Since you're not inclined to tell me what's wrong, it's my personal opinion that you aren't well and shouldn't be left on your own."

If his muscles hadn't been watery, he would have been out the door before she finished. "I'm fine."

"Really now?" The sarcasm was so obvious that he winced. "Prove it." She pulled out a familiar board and dumped a set of pieces on the table. "Black or white?"

If there ever was a way to prove just how much of a bitch she was, this was probably the best. He still couldn't focus, he had long dead memories beating at him, and she forced a chess match on him. "White."

She smirked and proceeded to batter away at him. He was in the middle of castling his king when she said, "One has to wonder how Obito-san got into a position where he was willing to sacrifice his sight for you."

Memories engulfed him. She subsequently nabbed both of his bishops.

When he noticed, he glared at her. She tilted her head and smiled very slightly, rolling a white bishop between her fingers before dropping it on a pile of his pawns and an unfortunate rook. "Working under Tsunade got to you. That was cruel."

Her smile fell off her face, but she didn't let up. "You know, I overheard Tsunade-sama and Sarutobi-sama talking once." She pointed at her king. "He told her to remember who the king was when making decisions that affected the village. If the king represents the children who always inherit, what are you? What am I?"

He axed her rook. "You aren't on the chessboard, or at best you're that pawn."

"Tsunade's pawn, hmm, one of many. And you?"

He glanced down at the pieces and shrugged.

"I'd say you're the rook, but you're a little too fragile at the moment to qualify," she taunted. "So, what's left? The knight? Now that would suit. A gift horse to ride upon…"

He narrowed his eyes at her implication, seconds away from true anger.

She smiled again and moved. "Check."

He glanced down at the board. Determined to do away with the game, he rushed towards the finish.

That lack of focus proved unwise. "Checkmate." She sounded a little surprised.

Embarrassed, he glanced up at her and was relieved by her lack of gloating. However, the obvious worry was hardly any better.

"You aren't well and you shouldn't go." She got up and snatched a couple towels from the linen closet. "Go take a shower before you get blood all over my house. I'll clean up in here and open up the guestroom. I'll see what I can do about clothes."

He prepared to argue, but she flicked his king over and let it roll off the table. The rap of its collision with the floor shut him up, though the resentment and rebellion couldn't be kept off his face.

She huffed and assumed a pose a little too reminiscent of Tsunade-sama for comfort. "Go." Even her voice mimicked the Godaime.

He went.


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Luna's Ghost

_Of all of Michi's relations, I think that Yasu-kun amuses me the most. He's this little owl, too big for his own good. I make certain to correct his posture every time he crosses my path to thwart his efforts to disappear into a scholar's slouch. A shepherd's daughter overheard us in town once and now helps me in my endeavour to make sure this owl will grow up to have good posture, unlike his father and his older brother. Takara-chan is a very good little helper: she knows how to push Yasu's buttons. She actually made the wise little owl yell once. He worries me though: he looks at me as though he can see the blood too._

* * *

Slender fingers, unmarked by the scars that speckled the rest of the body—the mistakes and the lessons learned so painstakingly—were still. It was wrong. Shaking, expected, was absent, glaringly so. The clothes soaking off bloodstains in the sink should have caused much trembling. She supposed that she was used to blood; she was a woman. This blood wasn't hers though, and it certainly wasn't part of a cycle, unless the cycle of death and vicious destruction counted. She didn't like to think it did, but her hands, so useful and usually dependable for gauging her mood, didn't agree.

He had caused great harm acquiring this blood. She shivered to imagine it, but her hands stayed still. Why wasn't she bothered? She had thought that the ridges on her fingers would always stay the same, that no scars could truly alter her fingerprints. The scars had come slowly, layering up over the years, but mostly in the last few months. She glanced down, watching as her fingertips of the first two fingers of each hand met oily resistance and ridges as she slid them over the opposing thumb. Sound, from her for once, not from him, reached her ears, the sound of the scraping of ridged flesh. Damn double standards; her father was right. She really was a blind sheep now, too trusting to question the drums.

Done listening for proof of her existence, she let the muffled noises of his disquiet into her mind again. She had wanted the shaking as an excuse to be repulsed and be free to stay her hand. Since she was unruffled by the tale of horror that had been written on his face, she was without a barrier to keep her conscience at bay.

_Move_, it told her ferociously, sounding more like her karma-driven aunt than like her. _Help or be disgraced. Hatake, though a nuisance to you, is important to Naruto._

How to accomplish this though?

Keeping him off balance was the best plan if she wanted to keep him from dwelling on things. She had only to look at herself to know this. This presented a significant problem though. Several facts needed to be evaluated: Hatake was a ninja, smarter and stronger than she was, and a pervert if his obsession with those books was any indication.

Her chances were not looking good.

Several other facts were also true though: she and Hatake had never gotten along, thus he didn't know her very well; she was far more complex than he gave her credit for being; and she knew more than he did about how to deal with close family, the discovery of which would make him supremely uncomfortable if her guess was right. According to the twisted logic all siblings used when forwarding campaigns, she had the advantage. She could not squander this.

The less tactical part of her mind did not agree. This was insane. She would never survive this. It pointed out that something about the operator in between "herself" and "Hatake the ninja and the pervert" was very wrong. Perhaps that greater-than sign should be reversed… Pulling away part of the mask wouldn't make that equation any better.

The sibling tactics expert part of her mind knew better though, and it grinned, secretly agreeing that this would be excruciating, insufferably embarrassing, and potentially not worth it. Kunai in the eye, she reminded herself as she closed the door on the evidence of her twisted morals.

One thing was certain though: she should have slammed the door in Hatake's face. Nothing good ever came from meddling in the affairs of ninja.

She would definitely come to regret this.

* * *

His pillow was warm. How could his pillow be this warm and so much more sinewy than it had been the night before? Besides, pillows didn't have hands that threaded fingers through hair, which was what his pillow was doing to him, or rather what his pillow had done. Those hands were limp and unmoving now, but still warm enough that they didn't remind him of the chilled flesh of the dead.

Realizing that whatever his head was resting on was no pillow, he cracked his eyes open and blinked at what he saw: his head was resting on Nariko's knees since she was kneeling at his head, keeled over against the wall at a painful angle. The reason why she had taken the place of his former pillow became apparent the moment he turned his head to the side. He grimaced; he would have to pay for that. Maybe carrying kunai all the time wasn't a good idea…

How had she managed to keep from receiving the same treatment? More importantly, how had she managed to get so close without waking him? He realized that those fingers on his head were placed to restrain him rather than to comfort; the hand tangled in his hair had obviously been fisting it to keep him in place before she had passed out. There were deep bags under her eyes as well as a bruise on the underside of her jaw. What on earth had happened?

He needed her to go away since her stranglehold on his hair prevented him from taking action. He cautiously shook her shoulder, and was startled when she came awake immediately at his touch despite her obvious weariness.

Her uncomfortably blank eyes focused on him the moment they opened. "Ah, you're awake this time. Good. Do you remember what happened?"

Dirty thoughts ran through his mind in an attempt to deny what had probably happened before he jerked himself back to the obvious answer. Denial was fun, but she wouldn't appreciate it, especially when it looked like she was beginning to regret letting him in her door. If he had hurt her as he suspected, then Naruto was going to kill him. The prospect, normally laughable, didn't seem quite as funny with that bruise heading towards purple. He hoped that the villagers that still hated the air Naruto breathed were responsible and that he had simply missed its presence because of his state the night before.

"No, not really," he admitted.

"I'm not surprised. You must have blocked it out, but you might remember eventually. You were plagued with dire nightmares the moment you went to sleep. You were shouting and tossing, so I came in to see what was going on when you didn't answer me. I had figured that something like this was going to happen. I doubt you would have been able to stay asleep if you had been on your own. If you had, you still would have made my neighbours come hunting for my blood.

"As far as I can tell, you were talking with some people: Obito and others I've never heard of. Anyway, I stayed in here because you seemed to be quieter when I treated you like a fever patient. The delirium seemed to have less of a hold on you. I'm sorry if my actions offend you."

She sat up and winced, aborting the attempt. _Why was she lying, couching events in euphemisms?_

She hadn't moved yet. What was the best way to drive her away? The obvious answer hit him. He would have grinned evilly had he not needed her to move away _now_. Ninja-trained reactions were getting harder and harder to hold at bay. "You know," he said in a falsely bright tone. "I don't quite think I believe you."

"Oh, do elaborate upon this genius conclusion of yours." She was obviously not amused, distinctly uncomfortable, and on the verge to pushing him away or beating him senseless. He really hoped she chose the former option. _Maybe just a little more of a nudge…?_

"Well, I was thinking that maybe you're just as perverted as—"

She burst out laughing and sharply (cruelly!) tugged his hair with the hand threatening his poor scalp. Civilians were evil! Only they would threaten hair in a situation like this. He suddenly understood why Snake-28 kept her head shaved even though she wore a wig in public.

"Oh, of course! Who would pass up the chance to see you sweaty and crying?" _Ouch, low blow…_ Lack of sleep obviously made her malicious. "By the way, you're going to need another shower. You stink."

That remark demanded retribution. He put in his two cents as she finally began to move away. She was spiteful! She had let his head hit the floor! He was almost positive his next remark would send her into a towering rage. "As I was saying, I think you're just as perverted as me."

She shook her head and patted his as though he was an exceptionally slow math student of hers. Did civilians really not understand how much ninja needed those personal boundaries? He forced his hand away from the kunai it had gripped at her motion. Her reaction bewildered him. Wasn't she supposed to be this nun that screamed at him whenever he read his precious books? "I always knew you were a genius," she said, "but your true brilliance only shines through at this moment."

This was just eerie. Had she been drinking or something? It didn't smell like it… Wait, what had happened to that wall she had been leaning against? He was sure there hadn't been a dent in it last night… Why had she hidden that from him with her body? Damn, he was going to have to pay for that too… There went his book money.

She rapped his forehead with her knuckles, and he sat up. "Every adult is perverted; heck, most children are perverted. Women are just better at hiding it usually. Have a shower before you stink up my kitchen," she called over her shoulder.

She left him gaping at the door, full of questions mostly revolving around why the hell she thought it was okay to terrorize him when he was indulging himself if she was just as bad. He was determined to get that all-important answer, so he ducked into the shower.

* * *

"Yeah, he's here," she said into the receiver while he eavesdropped. "Yeah… No, I don't have a clue why… Oh, that makes sense then. I know… _No_, nothing like that happened, just talking. What kind of person do you take me for? Geez, you and Mikoto should start a club or something. You look meek, but you don't fool me… Yes, he took your advice, Shizune. I _think_ he's okay now, but I can't be completely sure… No. I don't think so… You want what? Oh, okay, I'll tell him. Okay, then I won't be in until three… Yeah, I'll see to it. Bye."

He waited a few seconds before entering the kitchen. She jumped violently when she spotted him. Being silent was an innate skill that she obviously couldn't appreciate after living with Naruto.

"Don't do that to me, you bloody idiot!" She looked uneasy. Perhaps she regretted her odd behaviour in the guestroom. She had never acted like that before. She always had maintained a barrier of propriety and moral uprightness between them when she hadn't been actively trying to rip him apart with words. Now, randomly, she had torn it down. It was as though she had torn a mask off her face. Why was she doing it? He barely had time to mull over his humiliating reaction with her acting like this. He wasn't sure what she was going to do next; she had lost her predictability.

He frowned at her insult. "What's wrong?"

She turned to fish something out of the fridge. "Shizune called to tell me that I wasn't needed until three. I told her you were here. She was worried because you weren't at home or at the monument." She set a jug of milk on the table and buttered some toast. "Do you want something in particular? I was going to make fried eggs."

"Don't bother; I'll make myself some scrambled eggs when you're done." He poured himself some coffee from a pot she had bought so she could serve all of those that liked it. She hated the stuff, but she had made a pot for him, something that would have raised her to a goddess' status if she weren't so bizarre for disliking it.

She grabbed a jar of blueberry jam and spread some on her toast as she sent him an incredulous look. "You should know by now that I always trouble myself. It's how I was raised. You met my mother; you should know that anyone that didn't do everything possible to make their company comfortable was berated and browbeaten."

She snorted at his shrug and hopped up on the counter, still only clad in the overlarge shirt and shorts that she used as sleeping clothes. She poured a bit of water into the frying pan and covered it with the lid to her egg would steam cook on the top. She glanced at him through her untamed hair, which was still growing back and had only just begun to curl around her ears. She seemed more feral like this. He had a sudden foreboding that he was going to be made to pay for her help.

"Why didn't you keep me updated about Naruto? Mikoto says you were over to talk to her quite a bit, and Sakura says her parents get fairly regular updates from you."

He took a large gulp of coffee, hoping to delay having to answer this pointed question.

"I mean, I know I was critical of you the one time you did come over with those three—that time you all told me about Naruto's first brush with youki. I did apologize and I had thought you accepted it, so it baffled me when you made an effort never to come by again. Sure, Naruto kept me updated on his progress, but his view was hardly unbiased or exceptionally reliable."

"You were always on my case about reading my books," he pointed out, trying to misdirect her.

She waved his suggestion aside, a harsh frown on her face. Shit, he had pissed her off; this wasn't going to be fun… "No, it's something else. Why not just lie outright if you're so worried about my response?"

She was going to make this difficult for him, damn her. Why hadn't he gone to Gai? He knew there was something seriously wrong with him when he reviewed that thought. What might have come of that possibility was almost too terrible to contemplate… He was going to have to try to talk his way out of this. Flattery was the best option.

"Because you'll know. You're almost as good as a trained ninja at detecting lies. Misleading you is easier. Giving you unrelated facts and letting you make what you will of them is not lying."

Now she just looked irritated. "Pfft. That's a child's trick." She waved her hand, suggesting just how much her respect for him had dropped because he had resorted to that. "Naruto tried it over a hundred times on me. It never worked because my younger cousin, Itsuki, did the same thing. Shiro showed me what he was doing and taught me how to catch it. Anyone that has worked closely with children can see through that technique if they are marginally intelligent. You don't provide an actual answer."

He shrugged, watching her swing her bare legs back and forth before she jumped off the counter, scraped her egg onto a plate, and indicated he could use the pan. As he grated some cheese and sliced up some ham to use in it, he felt her gaze burning a hole in the back of his head.

"I've been waiting a long time to get a chance to question you about a lot of things."

_Shit. _"Hmm?" He cursed himself for his habitual questioning reply. She would know—unlike Gai—that he had heard her and would take it as permission to continue.

"You avoid me; don't think I haven't noticed. I may be a civilian, but I'm _not_ blind."

His shoulders stiffened. How come she was always on his case?

"If you'd answered my first question, I would've left this one alone because it's along the same lines," she said smugly. He had the horrible feeling that she was going to be painfully blunt and would expect the same frankness from him. "Am I that critical and hard to deal with? One would think you'd be used to dealing with criticism by now."

Oh, _shit_… There was no good way to answer this: lies would be detected, evasions would be brushed aside, and running… _Shit, shit, shit…_ What god had he pissed off to be subjected to this?

"You are very critical." Honesty just might earn him enough points that she would spare him. Maybe it would make her restore that wall. Something about its absence made him increasingly nervous around her. She was female after all. She had admitted to being perverted. In a way, it could have been taken as flirting… No, she wouldn't do that, or at least the version of her that he had known wouldn't have. This was why her new lack of inhibition frightened him: he didn't know where her limits were anymore. "People like you are hard to deal with," he told her bluntly and was relieved when she almost grinned. At least she appreciated honesty. "Open and normally friendly people are hard to handle."

"Because you're not supposed to knife such people, especially _females_," she added, her tone telling him there would be trouble if he denied this.

He shrugged: it was true. "I'm used to dealing with 'broken people', as you call us. You aren't broken: you're whole and have never truly known pain like a shinobi has. You're… normal."

There was a long silence before she burst out laughing. He lifted his eggs off the stove to stare at her as she leaned back in her chair and guffawed. "You think I'm normal? Poor foolish soul! What god placed that glamour in your eyes? Kakashi, there's no such thing!"

The use of his given name and lack of "san" startled him.

"Here, you are the normal one! I am the odd one here: the majority of the population of this village is trained in the ninja way at least partially. I am part of the meagre seventeen percent that knows squat about fighting, not including the children too young to enter the Academy. Not all of them are ranking ninja, true, because only a percentage of them graduate from the Academy to become genin, but they are trained to fight.

"No, what I am is too innocent. You don't know how to treat an innocent adult. An innocent child you know how to deal with because you were one at some point a very long time ago." He snorted at her. She didn't know the half of it. "But you've never dealt with an innocent adult that wasn't a client and then it was a job and you had shinobi codes to follow. You can't apply those to me though, because I know them all as well as Naruto does. You don't know what to tell me. I should be inferior, yet I look old enough to be burdened with such things."

"That's part of it."

"But?"

He wondered why she looked so smug. He had insulted her and yet she looked as though some master plan of hers was succeeding… "You make people want to tell you things. You do it on purpose."

She grinned and nodded. "Yeah, it's a habit I developed dealing with my younger cousin. My later belief in karma made me decide to always project the same air. It's hard to do good things when you don't know what needs fixing. Mikoto's teachings helped me get even better at it; she's a genius at reading and projecting specific body language. I didn't know that it worked on you though."

"Most jounin look for things like that." He did _not_ sound sullen.

"Oh… that's why. You don't want to tell me things." Damn, now she had leverage. Before, he could have been fairly sure she wouldn't have used it—he was the one that blackmailed people, not her—but now… "I'm sorry. No wonder you avoided me. Does it still bother you now?"

He twitched and set the frying pan back on the element, hoping those were rhetorical questions.

"I refuse to stop it. You can just continue avoiding me—which would be sad because we both know that I'll help when nobody you trust is around—or you can get used to it. I'm not going to be nasty if you don't tell me anything."

_Lies_, whispered some very wise part of his mind.

"It's your story to tell and if you don't trust me with it, that's fine."

Now he felt guilty. This wasn't fair.

"You're not helping." He dished out his eggs and took a desperate gulp of coffee. Her eyes gleamed with mischief and the slightest bit of hurt as she glanced away in respect for his privacy. It was just a little weird how she actively avoided getting a glimpse.

"But that's all I'm trying to do."

He growled silently and devoured his eggs, gathering the courage to ask this strange woman the question that had been nagging at him. "What did you mean this morning?"

She sent him a curious glance, pretending to be confused. _Bitch,_ she knew perfectly well what he was talking about; he could see it in the very subtle curve of her lips and the suggestion of a crinkle in the corners of her eyes. She had been waiting for this. She had done it on purpose.

"When you said everyone was perverted, but women hide it better."

The grin that sprouted made him more nervous than he had been at any point this morning. Maybe he didn't actually want to know…

"Oh, _that_." Some wise part of his mind quivered at the evil tinge to her smile. "Well, it's true. Some people just like to pretend they're above the need to reproduce, or at least above the 'base' mechanism required to begin the reproductive process." Her technical wording baffled him for a moment. "Society has decided it is horribly dirty thing to talk about, so they distance themselves from it. Me, I have a lot of male relations. There's no way I came away from close exposure to them without at least minimal exposure to their open pervert nature. In fact, I helped correct one cousin that went a little too far…"

A ghastly look came over her. He felt an abstract sort of pity for that unnamed cousin. At least he knew that he could outrun her; that poor relation had probably not even had that… Poor bastard.

"I reprimand you because you're spreading such ideas to impressionable children that are on the cusp, Sakura being the closest, of puberty. Do you know what pubescent teens do when they've been exposed to the kind of things you're reading around them?"

His eyes widened and he shuddered.

"For you, fine, that's okay. You're an adult."

He strove to ignore the muttered "supposedly." He wasn't going to dignify that insinuation with a response.

"Even women have their own set of steamy novels. We just choose not to be open about the fact that we indulge ourselves. I berated you because can you imagine what ideas you could've put in Sakura's head? She was completely infatuated with Sasuke and she's in love with him now, poor child. What do you think she might've done if I hadn't yelled at you so much? What would the rest of his fan club have done?"

It would have been amusing perhaps, but Sasuke's revenge wouldn't have been. That dark student of his was entirely too obsessive. Kakashi had no doubt that if Sasuke had decided to blame him, he would have recruited his mother and all of his friends to find vengeance. The thought almost made him twitch. Mikoto-san had been deadly and ruthless before she had shattered… The corpses that he had seen in the stands around her during the invasion had revealed that when it came to defending her children, she hadn't lost any of that brutality.

"Poor boy might've gotten molested if you'd let her think that the sorts of things you read about are okay to do. She would've been traumatized when she found out differently." She glared at him. "Do you know how much her mistake might have scarred her? Sure, killing on a mission makes it seem inconsequential, but something like that doesn't go away. A person won't forget the horror and the humiliation. She would've been changed and not for the better." She watched him think over what she had told him over the rim of her cup. "Besides, the last thing I wanted to deal with was Naruto getting ideas from you. He's perverted enough as it is."

"Agreed."

She smirked at him as though understanding his thoughts and retreated to her room. When she returned, she had a book under her arm.

"Trade?" she asked, holding out the book.

He stared. What sort of freak shared their porn with the opposite sex? He looked it over carefully. It was nondescript and the author was using a penname, just as Jiraiya did.

He pulled his own book out and snatched her book gingerly, as though it was a collection of exploding tags, as she plucked _Icha Icha Paradise_ from his fingers. He opened her book carefully, feeling as though he were journeying into some strange land that no sane man should have been made to tread.

It was written from the female protagonist's perspective. He couldn't wrap his brain around all the things that she seemed to be considering at one moment and around how much all that thinking crippled her ability to act. Another difference was the historical setting. She read historical fiction? He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. In his books, there was never the worry about propriety or about whether silk was too fancy for a first date. _What the hell…?_ The multitude of seemingly endless rules about something as mundane as dating was almost frightening. Now he understood why women were so difficult to please.

"Is sex honestly all men think about?" asked Nariko from where she was draped across the couch. He wondered where that odd descriptor had come from and glanced warily at the book in his hand. What kind of infectious diseases could this thing spread just through one reading? "I mean, I'm seventy pages in and all that this bloke Taka has thought about is how this woman's ass looks like in a skirt and how conveniently low-cut her top is. He's convinced she's flirting with him when she hasn't even said hello or looked his way." He realized that she actually expected him to answer when she let her head fall backwards over the armrest so she could give him a curious look.

"I can't answer for every man…" As far as he was concerned, she was a filthy hypocrite. She wasn't being particularly modest either; she was the one that had brought this up, not him. If she was trying to keep him off balance, she was doing an excellent job. _Damn her._ "But, I suppose that Jiraiya thinks so."

"Jiraiya-sama? What does he have to do with…?" Her eyes narrowed as she put many isolated facts together. Confusion morphed into dismay. "No, it can't be true. I can't have allowed my brother to spend his formative pubescent years in the company of a self-proclaimed super-pervert."

As far as Kakashi was concerned, her growing horror was the funniest thing this century. He began laughing as she curled up into a miserable ball.

"Naruto, I'm so sorry," she whimpered. "What will Gaara do? Will he become infected too? His poor student…"

"Gaara-kun has a student?" Poor student… Dealing with psychotic teachers was never fun: look what Gai had done to his poor student Lee. Poor misguided boy…

"Not yet. He just became a chuunin at that exam in Waterfall Country, the same one Sakura advanced in with Hinata and Kiba. He will soon though. There's a girl in their Academy that his sister has been hinting he should take on as an apprentice. That poor girl."

"I can't see Gaara being 'tainted' by Jiraiya's books."

She raised her head and sent him a look that told him that he had no idea.

Wisely, he shut up and turned back to her book. Sixty more pages in, he couldn't stand it in silence anymore. "How do you women do anything with all these contradictory thoughts running through your heads?"

She got up, set his book on the table, and read over his shoulder. "Hmm, well, she is a rather ineffective girl. She thinks a little too much. Most women can deal with this common 'thought overload' because we can think and act at the same time. She can't, which is why it's fun to read. It gives me a wonderful sense of superiority to watch her flounder. Mikoto agreed with me when she read it."

He almost slapped his hands over his ears. The thought of Uchiha-san reading this crap was not something he could handle. He wondered how Sasuke would handle the fact and decided to spare the boy the knowledge. As he read on in hopes of coming to a juicy bit he could tease her about her as payback for manipulating him, she gathered up his long-empty plate and began washing up. He relocated to the couch when she began to wash the table, the story having finally shown some promising signs.

"That's it?" he asked twenty or so pages later.

She glanced at how far he was into the book and shrugged. "She's only a county girl. She's reserved and is rather caught up in the thoughts going through her head. Were you expecting her to be a lot more experienced and wanton? Baka, she was a _virgin_. How the heck is she supposed to know what to do? Besides, she was in a lot of pain, or did you not pick up on that?"

He shut up. This was just surreal that he was having this conversation with her. Naruto would never believe that she could talk like this. Hell, Jiraiya would have a field day if he ever found out. About half a hundred pages later, he was rewarded for his patience. He read parts out loud to see if she would blush, but was disappointed. She stuck her tongue out at him and continued sweeping as he pouted.

"Geez, you must think I'm some virgin to try to make me embarrassed with _that_. You really are childish. Aren't you supposed to be this high-level jounin? ANBU too…"

'_Hypocrite_,_'_ he thought. _'You're the one that stuck your tongue out.'_

"Honestly, I told you that I had a whole bunch of randy male cousins. You wouldn't believe the sort of crap stories they told me no matter how unwilling I was to hear them. Do you honestly think that that book can faze me anymore? Even your _Icha Icha_ is tame compared to them in some ways."

"Point taken."

"Good." She started filling a watering can with water from the tap. "You can help me see to Naruto's plants if you intend to stick around here for a bit longer to finish that book. No, I'm not going to let you borrow it. It's not mine to lend. If you'd rather go, I'll tell you now that I don't know if the dreams will hit you again tonight. If they do, you'll probably be up all night.

"You might need to go see a real psychiatrist about this if it persists. Shizune told me that Tsunade-sama gave you the week off to recover and that she might have a mission for you and the remnants of Team 7 at the end of your break to get you back on your feet."

He considered for a bit and reluctantly dropped the book on the table and took the offered pitcher.

She seemed surprised at his choice, but she shrugged it off and grabbed an empty jug to use. "You can water the ones in his room. All of them need it."

He entered Naruto's forest for the second time in many months. It was just as healthy now as it had been then. Naruto would only be able to keep the trees in here for another couple years before they began to threaten the ceiling. He moved methodically through the room, stopping at each pot and filling it. It was odd how despite the fact that Naruto had been away from Konoha for five months now, his room was still uniquely his own. His presence still lingered here in his plants, in the rocks scattered on the floor, and in the other keepsakes lying on the top of his bookshelf. Kakashi glanced suspiciously at the titles, but only found ninja manuals and scrolls on jutsu and a lonely book on calculus and physics, which struck him as very odd. The only other things that Naruto had left behind were spare clothes and his chuunin flak vest.

* * *

Naruto leaned back against the boulder, glad for the shield from the continuous assault of wind and sand. This place was really sort of creepy. If he ignored the slight blur of Suna on the horizon to the south, it looked like the boulder was the only distortion on this sandy ocean. It was a lonely scene, quiet too if he ignored the wind.

In Suna—which he had only ventured into a couple times under a henge since he was supposed to be in hiding from everybody—there was almost the same amount silence. It seemed that the entire population had had their voices stolen by the wind. No wonder Gaara was so antisocial. The place had almost no colour either. Everyone wore brown and grey like his sister usually did. Sure, it was a practical colour for blending into the desert, but it was damn depressing! How did people live here and not go crazy? There weren't any trees, so he always felt exposed. He really missed his room at home.

The entire wasteland would have reminded him of Wave Country's marshy, desolate coasts if the colours hadn't been brown and gold rather than brown and grey and blue and green. The wind was different too: in Wave, it had been cool and moist when coming off the ocean and heavy and warm when coming off the fenlands. Here, it was always scorching hot during the day and seemed to suck the water out of his skin. He had a great tan though, though he had gotten wind- and sunburnt during his first week. He had almost been grateful to have the fox around to clear that up.

The sun beat down on him despite the shade of the boulder. He swore it was leeching the colour out of his hair. The possibility of going white-haired like Ero-Sennin or Kaka-sensei frightened him. He was only thirteen! They hadn't been white-haired when they were thirteen, had they?

Gaara stood, unruffled, watching him with a wry smile in his eyes. The other demon container had changed his shinobi clothes to something a little less sinister. At least that weird sash had gone. Some of the stains on it had made Naruto leery. His nose had told him that the blood had belonged to rabbits, foxes, and other people…

"The desert doesn't agree with you even after all of these months?" Gaara asked.

Naruto only heard his words before the wind ripped them away because of the fox's effect on his ears. He pouted. "It's not my fault that this place is out to get me." Gaara stared back without changing his expression, but Naruto could tell he was amused in some corner of his mind. "It's boring here, though at least Ero-Sennin can't get into much trouble. That got annoying after a while. I'm really glad that the aquifer under Suna is too small to support public baths."

He summoned a bit of chakra and manipulated it in his hand just as Gaara and Temari had taught him only recently. It worked for a couple seconds before petering out into a mere sylph of a contrary gust of wind. He frowned at his failure and was about to try again when Gaara knelt down and leaned against his gourd.

"Why do you want to do this?" he asked, gesturing to the scrolls Naruto had opened up in the shelter of the boulder. "Why do you want to seek them out? What benefit will it be to us? The more who know, the more danger we will be in. It is not as if they will be any saner than I was. It is likely that they will resist, and then how safe will we be? Obscurity is a friend to us. The fewer who know what we are and where we are, the better."

Naruto forced a confident grin: Gaara did have a point. The fox was against this too, though he was against everything, the bastard. The only thing he wanted to do was to blast the world into oblivion. Such a nice, convivial guest Naruto had riding in his navel…

"Look, Gaara; we need to look out for each other. Who else is gonna do it? Would Suna protect you if Akatsuki came?"

Gaara held his peace, his teal eyes as blank and cold as Naruto had ever seen them. Maybe he had been a little too blunt. "My sister and my brother would. "No one else would be moved to. Their faith in me is nonexistent."

Naruto was glad that Gaara realized that his siblings could be there for them if he reached out to them. Kankurou and Temari were a lot more easygoing now that they weren't as worried that their little brother was going to rip out their entrails on a whim. It had done wonders on their personalities. The rest of Suna though, Naruto wasn't fond of them. They treated Gaara like the plague. It set his teeth on edge since they weren't encouraging Gaara to change at all. Their attitude was just making it harder for the Ichibi's container to become socially adept.

"What about that student you're going to take on?" Naruto asked, tracing lines into the sand at his side.

One of his doodles started looking like a cat. He frowned at it and started on a chicken, amused by how much the tail feathers came out looking like his best friend's hair. He would have to tell Sasuke about that in his next letter. The bastard would flip out. It would be awesome to be able to annoy him from thousands of kilometres away.

Naruto really hoped that Konohamaru's best plan was ready and that Moegi managed to get pictures for blackmail purposes. Sure, sending the fangirls after his best friend again was a low blow and Sakura would kill him later, but it would be so amusing! It would be very satisfying to be told about how Sasuke had managed the fangirls without Naruto.

Naruto wasn't sure how Konohamaru was going to get at Sasuke's dresser drawers, but he was sure the brat would figure something out. If he didn't, well, Mikoto would string him up by his entrails. Naruto grimaced and hoped that the Old Man got off his bony ass and protected his grandson if Mikoto did find out.

Gaara shrugged. "I do not know. We have only interacted with each other a handful of times. Loyalty is not something we have decided. She is not my responsibility at the moment. I doubt she would care. She is of a hesitant nature and fears violence more than Riko-san reviles it. She is not cut out to be a shinobi, which is probably why the advisory council is insisting that I take her on. They wish to force her to give up by putting her with me. They assume that my ways will discourage her beyond endurance. They may be right."

Naruto frowned at the other container, tempted to go and kick the asses that made up the administrative council of Suna. Baachan would kill him if he caused a diplomatic incident though. "You take those buttheads way too seriously. What the hell do they know? They're a bunch of assholes if they believe that. You've got to prove them wrong and make that kid into the best shinobi ever, after you and me of course!" He shoved his fist into the air.

His spark of enthusiasm was wasted on Gaara: the other boy simply looked nonplussed. Naruto couldn't work miracles under this sort of pressure. He pulled out his water bottle and poured it on his head, shivering as the relatively cold liquid mingled with the sweat pouring down his back. He shook the water out of his hair like a dog, splattering Gaara. The other boy wasn't amused even when Naruto grinned sheepishly.

"What about you?" Gaara asked instead of addressing Naruto's suggestion. "Would any protect you other than your team and the woman you call sister? Is your situation any better than my own?"

"I have it better," admitted Naruto as the wind sucked the water off his skin far too quickly for comfort. "Some of the higher-ups would protect me, like Baachan, Old Man, Kaka-sensei, and Ero-Sennin, but there are other people that wouldn't care. I'm lucky though; I know that. Not compared to people who aren't like us, but for a container I'm lucky. People care about me. I want the others to be able to say that too even if they can only say that other containers are looking out for them. It would be like having a family."

Gaara blinked blankly at him and then stared at the blur the desert became on the horizon. "You are a strange person, Uzumaki Naruto: always a fool trying to give away what good you have managed to scrounge. You would not make a very successful vulture."

Had Gaara just made a joke? Naruto almost gaped at him. Way cool! Naruto had always been certain some sort of sense of humour was lying behind that impassive and very freaky face that still needed to acquire some eyebrows. "Hah! I'm glad. Those birds are butt-ugly. Why are they bald?"

Gaara blinked at him, frowned, and shrugged.

Naruto almost grinned at his success. Gaara needed something else to worry about in his free time. Maybe studying at the library would help: Sakura always seemed more comfortable when reading over huge jutsu scrolls. Reading up about vultures wouldn't really be the best thing, but it would be a start. Maybe it would encourage Gaara to read up about other things, like the other bijuu. "Look, this is really important. I'm going to try even if you won't help me. Are you going to lend me a hand or not?"

* * *

Mikoto smirked down at the corpses of what had been the last two Oto-nin attempting to get into contact with her son. It was a good thing Hokage-sama had warned her about them. The Godaime had told her that they had probably infiltrated the village as civilians after ANBU had lost track of them at Tanzaku Gai in the crush of all the tourists interested in gawking at the old castle.

Mikoto wiped off her blade on the sleeve of the red-haired woman that had carried a flute, satisfied that it had done the job it had been taken out to perform. It could return to its case in peace now. She slid the ninjatou home and whistled shrilly to summon some ANBU to the alley. She smiled into the ram and tiger masks' eyeholes and gestured to the bodies.

"I did some spring cleaning of a mess that Godaime-sama told me about," she explained when they tensed nervously at the sight of her activated eyes in the alley's shadows. She couldn't really blame them; two red disks with three tomoe circling each pupil restlessly was the stuff of nightmares for her as well. They always morphed into the form her son had told her about before her nightmares turned into a negative landscape of never-ending torment that Kakashi-san had described.

"Those are the ones we were looking for," Tiger-san whispered as Ram knelt down and turned the fat boy's head this way and that. "You took them down without difficulty?"

"These eyes aren't coveted for no reason," Mikoto said as she hefted the girl's corpse over her shoulder. It wouldn't do to leave these bodies where just anyone could stumble upon them. "You can bring a clean-up crew?"

Ram nodded and disappeared, leaving a cyclone of leaves in her wake to settle to the blood-spattered ground. Tiger almost sighed as he knelt to hoist the other corpse off the street. Mikoto smirked at Ram's narrow escape. Tiger's burden was very heavy, but he would manage with some chakra.

The trip to the morgue was quick. She had always hated this place; the stench of death was cloying. Even the prison area was better than this. She would have hated to be one of the ninja that worked here. They never ran out of bodies to investigate. It was said that the hunter-nin received their training in these underground rooms. The only place worse was the interrogation area. Those rooms were very deep underground to keep the sounds of screaming from the population. There were horrible stories that some people had heard the wailings of the inmates through the sewers though… She was glad to have avoided that fate of scanning body after mutilated body and destroying every trace of its existence, though the escape had been a narrow one. ANBU always needed hunter-nin and she had had the skills.

She set the body out on the table the overseer indicated. She couldn't blame this man (woman? It was difficult to tell…) for hiding his identity so completely. It would be hard to keep acquaintances when others knew you dissected dead bodies to discover their secrets. The work of these ninja was invaluable though: half of their information on the techniques of other villages came from these hidden halls. Interrogation accounted for a percentage of this of course, but the information they gathered could never be completely trusted: people would say anything under duress. To work in that group, one had to be very good at separating work from life or one had to be completely heartless. She had heard rumours that Danzou had worked in that squad once, but they had never been verified. She wondered if her breaking would have come earlier if she had worked with interrogation before dismissing the horrible thought as irrelevant.

She made her way up to the Godaime's office, waving at the hassled Riko as she passed through the lower administration levels of the office. The poor girl was going through a huge pile of papers. Maybe being an aide would have broken her just as quickly, mused Mikoto as she got permission from Tsunade-sama's secretary to go into the office. The woman was industriously skimming over documents, something that Mikoto suspected was a spur of the moment action considering the stories she had heard from Riko. She hid a smile and bowed deeply to her Hokage.

"Uchiha-san, what brings you here?" asked the Godaime. Both of them knew that she was inquiring merely out of politeness; Ram had definitely reported while gathering a clean-up crew.

"I've taken care of one of your problems," said Mikoto even as ANBU and triumph battled in her mind. She wished she could simply slap both of them away; neither of them was useful. Maybe she should go talk to that psychiatrist again.

"Yes, I thank you for mopping up that mess ANBU missed," said Hokage-sama. "It was good of you to come out of retirement to take care of that for me."

"It was no trouble." Mikoto settled herself in a chair before the large wooden desk that had to be subjected to more protective seals that the entire Uchiha compound. This desk held some of the most important documents in Konoha. Mikoto also knew that it housed a sizable stash of alcohol from Riko.

The smirk that thought caused just begged to slide across her face, but Mikoto was a jounin. Expressions were something that she controlled with as much ease as she channelled chakra. It was a hard habit to break that had made her and Fugaku's courtship difficult at times… She shoved those memories away. That was it. She was going to talk to that psychiatrist. She alternated between being plagued by ANBU and a riot of emotions she could usually control with ease and drowning in melancholy as better times flitted through her mind. She hadn't had problems like this since she had been broken and ANBU had formed in her mind. She had successfully dealt with it years ago. She damned it for coming back to haunt her now.

"I have heard that you have been having problems." The Hokage probed as delicately as a chisel being used to pick locks. Mikoto would have winced at her leader's lack of tact, but she knew that the woman had been chosen for her straightforwardness and no-nonsense attitude.

"I have been." This woman was her leader; she was owed explanations. "I had just resolved to go and get some help with them."

"Good." The Hokage leaned back in her chair with an air of satisfaction. "I have a proposal for you when you finally are happy with your mental state."

"I'm listening."

"We could use someone with your skill," insisted Tsunade-sama. "Even Inoichi-san has taken time away from his business to take on more regular missions again. I have avoided calling on you because of your situation with Itachi and with Ryuuka being so young, but if you are willing to take on occasional missions that would be very helpful."

"I can do that," said Mikoto, staring over the woman's shoulder out onto Konoha and the Monument. Those wise old faces stared out on the village they had protected with such determination. If she could possess even a tenth of the will that the Yondaime must have had hidden behind that almost carefree exterior at the end, all goals would be within her grasp… "Not ANBU though." Tsunade raised a brow at her, but Mikoto glared back. "Never again. I'll serve as a part-time, regular jounin and nothing more. My children need me whole."

She fled that office quickly after that, receiving the dismissal she craved within ten minutes. She needed to get away from that dichotomous building. The part above ground was far more innocent that the rotten basement hidden many metres below.

She found both Ryuuka and Sasuke where she had left them: at Training Ground 11 with Kakashi-san. He nodded to her as he watched Sasuke form Chidori, and she nodded back as Ryuuka ran over and jumped into her arms. She saw signs of tension around Kakashi that suggested he had just been through a personal hell. She wondered how he had dealt with it.

She could tell from the almost skittish edge to his movements that he was wound tightly enough that he would break again soon. The smallest thing would set him off, though of course that was a relative term. She hoped he found someone strong enough to restrain him when the time came. That would get messy otherwise. Hatake was a very powerful jounin with some exceptionally destructive techniques. Unchecked, he could wreak havoc on Konoha. She hoped fervently that one of her upcoming missions wouldn't be taking Kakashi down if (when, he was too far gone for another episode not to hit him again soon unless he got some real help soon) he snapped. The fool should have known better than to go back into ANBU.

* * *

"Come on, Ero-Sennin!" Naruto begged, hopping up and down as they walked through River Country. "I really need to get some new clothes! Look, mine are all falling apart from training so hard in the desert. Neechan even sent me some money!"

"Geez, kid, if I'd known you were this picky about your clothing, I would have never taken you along." Jiraiya crossed his arms. "Do you see me changing clothes all the time?"

"Nope," said Naruto, "maybe that's why you smell funny."

A vein popped on Jiraiya's forehead.

"Come on, Ero-Sennin! Otherwise, I'll start asking you to teach me that special technique the Yondaime used again."

Jiraiya considered this threat. The kid had been bugging him about Hiraishin no Jutsu ever since he had mentioned it during one of their conversations. He had kept asking for three hours non-stop when they had been on their way to Suna to pass off some information and to pay a visit to Gaara. Jiraiya still didn't know how that brief visit had turned into a stay that had lasted about four months. He had been considering stuffing the kid into a toad and sending him back home.

"Gaki, I'll make you a deal. The next town we show up in I'll let you buy one new set of clothing since you are getting a bit too big to wear your old stuff. In return, you'll stop asking about that jutsu. You aren't ready for it yet. It's S-ranked and you're not good enough with seals yet." That was an understatement: the kid didn't know anything about seals other than the fact that his allowed him access to the fox's chakra.

"Can we work our way towards it then?"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes. Did the brat never give up? "Go buy yourself some books on seals and see if you can gain some mastery over them. Then we'll talk about it."

Naruto stuck out his tongue, but mercifully stopped complaining. "That's fine. I need to buy some more paper anyway so that I can write letters home."

"You are such a momma's boy," said Jiraiya.

Naruto's face went red with rage and he started ranting at Jiraiya, who grinned and kept walking along the hard-packed dirt road. Maybe there would be a hotel further ahead they could stay at. Jiraiya searched through his memory, trying to remember.

"…perverted, egotistical, mop-headed monkey bastard ever to walk the earth!" Naruto shouted and paused for pant for breath.

Jiraiya smirked. The kid had a long way to go before those insults would be anywhere near up to snuff. "Why do you want to learn it so badly?"

Naruto snapped out of his funk very quickly to respond. "Yondaime is really important to me: he's the one that made me who I am, he's my hero, and he's my…" He rubbed the back of his head, grinning sheepishly. "Ah, Old Man said I wasn't supposed to know this yet and that I wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but you're Yondaime's sensei, so I guess you know anyway. He's my dad."

Jiraiya was shocked that this brat knew that. Had Sarutobi-sensei told him what Minato had named him? Did Naruto know about the role Jiraiya had agreed to take on and had failed miserably at?

"You're the one that really knew him and his techniques. I've got no other way to connect with him, so learning the techniques he's so famous for would help me be a bit closer to him. Besides, Mikoto-san said that I wasn't built for speed like Sasuke is. It's true too, not that I'd ever tell the bastard that. This jutsu may be the only way to compensate. As Shikamaru would say, I'm a close range fighter. I have to be fast to get in the range required for my attacks to work."

"Hmm, that's true. You know, Minato had the same problem: that's part of the reason he came up with it. Well, if you study seals, I'll consider your request. Until then, work on perfectly forming Rasengan quickly. That clone idea is a good one, but it still takes you too long. Besides, there's no guarantee that your clone will survive long enough to help you complete the attack's formation. You need to be able to operate alone. You already have good control over Kage Bunshin; there's no need to become dependent upon it."

"But, Ero-Sennin, my clones work really well!"

Why was he stuck with this whiny kid again? He was the great Jiraiya-sama; this kid should have been thanking him for giving him tips, not complaining. "Yeah, but now everyone knows you use them. Everyone who fights you will expect them. Just because something works once, it doesn't mean it will always work."

"Yeah, that's true." There was a long pause, and Jiraiya began to have hopes for a silent journey until… "Ero-Sennin, can you tell me any stories about my dad?"

Jiraiya's heart ached, but he opened his mouth anyway. This was the one godfather duty he could perform perfectly.

* * *

Sasuke put a finger to his lips to warn Ryuuka to stay quiet. He had promised to go on this "mission" with her. If they got caught here, they would never escape alive. Kunoichi could strip the flesh from bones with their eyes, but listening in on their conversations was better than watching cartoons and far more educational. They seemed to pick up everything going on around the village as though they were a spy network even better than the one ANBU was rumoured to have.

His sister nodded at him, her wide eyes glinting with mirth as they kept their ears to the floor of the room just above the kitchen. Below them, Kaasan was hosting another "girls' night out," which actually seemed to be more a gossiping and drinking circle. Only one person was missing, but Mitarashi-san, Kurenai-sensei, Yuugao-san, and his mother didn't seem to mind all that much. They were exchanging the latest news about who had gotten into the hospital, who had finally gotten out, and who was doing— Sasuke quickly pulled Ryuuka's head away from the floor to stop her from hearing that particular line of conversation. He only let her reposition her ear when he heard Riko come in the door. Surely, she would restrain these crazy women. Look what she had done to Kakashi…

"Hatake has _fangirls_!" she growled out in an aggrieved tone when Mitarashi-san asked why she was so late.

Sasuke's eyes widened. No wonder his teacher was so good.

His mother laughed along with the other women. "Ah, you _just_ discovered this? He wears that mask for a reason you know. Women are drawn to it like flies."

"Shut up!" Sasuke had only heard Riko use that tone a couple times. The moron was right: his sister was acting weird… "Do you have any idea what they did to me? They cornered me in the office when I was filing some papers and threatened me until I made it absolutely clear that I had no interest in their prey."

"A wise girl!" Yuugao crowed, clapping her hands.

There was a thud, and Sasuke had the feeling that Riko had bashed her fist on the table when complaints rang out about wasting precious alcohol. "It's not funny!" She sounded as though she was on the verge of crying with frustration.

Sasuke could sympathize: fangirls had driven him past the point of tears on more than one occasion. Uchiha didn't cry over stupid things like that though. Riko could be forgiven because she had never laughed at him when he had come bursting in through her door like a rabbit being chased by slathering hounds. She had given him a bolthole, so he would allow her this weakness.

"Then what did they do?" asked his mother.

Sasuke and Ryuuka exchanged grimaces. That tone meant trouble and pointed questions. They pressed their ears more firmly against the floor, eager to hear someone else on the receiving end of it for once.

Riko didn't seem to appreciate this fact because Sasuke could hear her growling like some sort of deranged wolf through the floor.

Ryuuka's eyes met his. "Is that Riko-bachan?" she whispered, wide-eyed.

He nodded.

She blinked at him before grinning. "I thought Riko-bachan was supposed to be bird! Birdies don't growl. She sounds more like a dog! Is she Kiba-niisan's sister?"

"No, that's Hana-san. She's a vet. Ryuuka, you should have said 'Riko-bachan was supposed to be _a_ bird.' You forgot the article."

"Ah," she whispered, but even he could see that she was considering sticking her tongue out at him childishly for correcting her, "but then why is Bachan being so weird?"

He shrugged and gestured that she keep listening. Eavesdropping was a good ninja skill; at least, that was the reason he used to justify his actions. He did not play games. He was a chuunin. He certainly didn't play games with his younger sister, who wasn't even an Academy student yet. No, he was teaching her. That was a big difference.

"Then they started mining me for information about him as if I would know any more than them or would care to know," Riko griped, the clink of a dish and the sound of liquid being poured making it probable that someone was getting her a drink.

"Did you tell them to bugger off?" asked Anko.

"Hell no," Riko said. "Do I look suicidal to you?"

"Well, there was that time in January…"

"Shut up; I was grieving—"

"Pouting," his mother corrected her cheerfully.

"_Grieving_ for Naruto's absence. Anyway, no, I gave them what they wanted. Hatake can deal with it himself. It's his fault anyway…"

There was an ominous silence before questions broke out.

"I'm not spilling!" Naruto's sister hollered, her volume making the sibling relationship more obvious than ever. "Go ask him or Yuu if you want to know—"

"Hey!" said Yuugao.

"—since it's his problem; he can bloody well share it as he sees fit. Anyway, I gave them the info they wanted to make them go away. It worked for a while until one dropped by my desk and asked if perhaps I could do her a 'teensy tiny favour.'" Riko's imitation of the fangirl's tone made Sasuke want to gag. "I told her to fuck off the moment she started 'hinting'—subtlety really wasn't this girl's strong point—that maybe I could hint at Kakashi that perhaps—"

Anko's snorts of mirth cut off the rest of Riko's words as Sasuke scowled at the floor. He shot Ryuuka a red-eyed glance, warning her not to ever use those words. He should have known that the language would become interesting the moment his perverted sensei came into the conversation.

"The woman asked you to set her up with Senpai?" Yuugao giggled hysterically. "Are they insane? He'd never show up for a date. I hope you disillusioned her."

"Yeah, but that wasn't the end of it. Word got around and the next thing I knew I had ten of them stalking me during my lunch break. They wouldn't shut up! It was 'Kakashi-kun this' and 'Kakashi-san that' the whole frigging hour! Two of them asked me if I could perhaps grab samples of his nail clippings and six asked me to pull out some hair for them. I thought they were going to ask me for a urine and a fecal sample next when this obviously insane woman demands that I steal his bed sheets for her. I was ready to gouge my eyes out and claim that I had never seen Hatake because I was blind."

Sasuke blinked when he heard Kurenai giggle at this admission. He had thought she would be above this…

"I'm glad you find my suffering amusing!" snapped Riko.

"What are you going to do?" asked Anko gleefully.

"Spit on them. No, I cornered Hatake and demanded that he do something about them. The bastard hemmed, hawed, and rubbed the back of his head before claiming that he couldn't do anything. He waved at the bitches watching 'discretely' around the corner before hightailing it out of there. I swear he was laughing at me. Anko, would you—?"

"Hah, sorry, dear, but I've got other fish to fry. Kakashi's too much trouble for me to take on at the moment."

"Dammit! Please make him go away and take his fangirls with him? Come on, you were saying how good-looking he had to be under that mask last week!" She really had to be desperate; Sasuke had never heard her whine before. "Why not? It would save my ass." Anko-san obviously refused again because Riko wailed. "Would any of you be willing to kill him for me? It would be so much easier if he conveniently passed away before more women start harassing me."

Sasuke blinked. She really had to be angry… After a while, each of the other women reluctantly admitted that killing his sensei was a difficult prospect. That was good; it would be difficult to be trained by a dead man.

"Riko," said Anko-san, "one has to wonder exactly what sort of dirt Kakashi has on you for you to want him dead this badly."

Sasuke's brow furrowed; what did his teacher know? Riko let the silence stretch on for a long time. There was the odd sound of a book hitting the table. Sasuke burned with curiosity when Anko snorted and the others laughed.

"Honey, no one would believe him if he told them. You're safe. You've done a very good job of making yourself look above all of this. You can always stage a huge fight to get those girls off your back," his mother suggested. "That might convince them to leave you alone…"

"Huh, that might work; it wouldn't have to be staged though. I'm more than ready to twist his head off for abandoning me to the tender mercies of those freaks. I hope they corner him. Bloody sadist probably enjoys my pain more than you lot do. If Naruto were around, I'd encourage him to mess with Hatake's apartment or his damn books for me. As it is, I'll just look into his tax records. The bastard may be a genius, but I know for a fact that he's lazy enough that he probably is in some sort of deep shit with the tax collectors."

Sasuke shot Ryuuka another warning look as he considered sending her back to bed, promise or no promise. This was the sort of stuff he made the moron eat dirt for. Hell if he was going to let his sister pick up language like this on his watch from women that were supposed to know better.

"Abuse of power or not, Hatake is going to _pay_."

Sasuke remembered the time his father had pissed off Riko. That hadn't turned out very well. He suddenly felt sort of sorry for his sensei.

This brief spell of pity didn't stop him from smirking at Kakashi the next time they trained together. That his sensei had been an hour late probably had something to do with the fact that he was hoping she found something very good. Kakashi's usual excuses didn't soften his stance. "I got lost on the road of life" only prompted Sasuke's smirk to widen into an evil grin that frightened his teacher.


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Judgement Repealed

Sakura sighed as she rubbed her eyes. This iryō-nin stuff was way more difficult than she had anticipated. Kaka-sensei really hadn't known what he was talking about or he had been laughing internally when he had suggested that she apprentice herself under Tsunade-shishou. She suspected the latter considering just how much he enjoyed tormenting them with his "literature."

Speaking of books, she needed to get out of the library before her head exploded. Enzymes for various digestive processes in the small intestine ran through her head until she put the textbook away and ran out the door, ignoring the startled hiss of the librarian that doted on her. She would have to apologize to her tomorrow, but for now, she needed to work out some of this nervous energy. Sasuke had hinted that something was going on with Kaka-sensei, but he hadn't been able to tell her what.

She froze when a strangely blurred image of what she was positive was Kaka-sensei flashed past her and onto the roof of another building as though the devil was after him, leaving only an afterimage of his white hair and green and blue attire. Her hair whipped in her face as she stared straight across the street, her eyes wide. One eyebrow began inching towards her hairline as incredulousness grew within her.

_What the hell…?_

Her other eyebrow joined the first when Riko called a greeting to her. The sticklike woman was positively skipping through the late afternoon crowds she usually avoided. As usual, her hands were full of documents, but Sakura could have sworn that a couple of them had Kaka-sensei's name on them. There were an awful lot of red marks on them and highlighted columns…

"Riko-san," Sakura asked, "was that Kaka-sensei?"

Kakashi-sensei never looked frightened; amused, mildly embarrassed, nonplussed, irritated, and impatient for sure, but not terrified. She had seen him nervous during that fight with Zabuza, but she had never seen him this lacking in self-confidence. Perhaps he had been secure in the knowledge that he could handle whatever Zabuza threw at him. She wondered what was so unfamiliar to him that it was actually making him panicky. From the leer that was growing on Riko's face, Sakura had a feeling that she knew and was enjoying this.

"Aye, it was at one point. I don't know what he is now though. I do know what he'll be once the Daimyo's tax agent gets through with him though: in deep crud and a great deal poorer than he was. I'm going to watch the fun since the penny snatcher should be here to milk your sensei dry in half an hour. It was awfully kind of Tsunade-sama to keep him in the village today. Pity he's a ninja; he might have gotten prison time if he had been a civilian. Yet another example of a double standard." She waved at Sakura over her shoulder, following the trail of tangled hair that Kakashi had left in his wake.

Riko-san was scary, though not as scary as Shishou. She hit the most vulnerable part of a human: their wallet. Sakura wondered what Kaka-sensei had done to make her shishou willing to collaborate with Riko-oneesan before she gathered her scattered wits and set off towards the Uchiha compound to nag Sasuke-kun into participating in a training session.

She hadn't realized just how much being on the same team had kept them together until they suddenly weren't anymore. Even though Naruto could be annoying, she wished he were still around if only to pull their broken squad back together.

Her only excuse to be near Sasuke was when they kept up their promises to Naruto: watching out for Riko (which they actually hadn't really been doing now that she thought about it) and keeping all the rookies together. At least Sakura could say that she and Sasuke were keeping up with that last promise. While not quite as close as they had been when Naruto had been around to cajole them into playing board games at his place, Sasuke and Sakura had managed to keep things from completely unravelling.

They all met up at least three times a month to spar together and just to hang out in a big group. Mostly, they met up with each other in twos and threes, disregarding the usual team boundaries to connect over other things. She knew that Sasuke hung out with his old friends from the Academy whenever he wasn't training with Kakashi or his mother like a maniac, and she did meet up with Ino and sometimes got Hinata or Tenten to tag along. All wasn't lost.

As though the thought had summoned her, Ino appeared out of the crowd and smirked at her. "Hey, Forehead-girl," she said in a singsong voice with a definite mocking edge, "I saw your sensei go by. Are you sure he's a jounin? Asuma-sensei never scrambles like that."

Sakura clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Was everything out to keep her from meeting up with Sasuke-kun today? First, there had been Shishou's assignment, then the librarian's request for help, then her need to study, then Kaka-sensei and Riko-san, and now Ino. She would not take this interference lying down! True love would prevail! Only the terror she regarded embarrassment with kept her from shouting that last thought out loud and pumping her fist triumphantly. As it was, Ino-pig must have seen the gist of the notion on her face because the blonde smirked wickedly at her.

"Kaka-sensei has good reason to be afraid!" Sakura's cowardly teacher was going to pay for putting her in this position later.

"Oh yeah?" Her rival set her hands on her hips and shifting her weight on her feet so that one jutted out mockingly even as her head tilted on side, her blonde ponytail and her stupidly long bangs draping towards the ground like a wet mop. A genin from Tenten's year whistled at Ino before his friend dragged him away. Ino smirked widely at the show of appreciation for her efforts even as Sakura's blood boiled.

"Yeah," she growled, forcing herself not to hold her fists up in front of herself like a boxer. She was a med-nin! She knew hundreds of other ways to cause pain that were far better than decking this ninny in the face. She admitted only the farthest corner of her mind that none of them was quite as satisfying though… "He's got good reason to be afraid if he is! He's in the bingo books for most of the other villages! I'm sure there are hundreds of ninja after him. It's a good thing he's so fast or I wouldn't have a teacher."

One look at Ino's sly smile made Sakura realize just how frail her defence of her sensei was. She really wanted to pound her head against a wall for coming up with that lame reason. Of course, Asuma-sensei was in a bingo book too. Most jounin were. What good was this big forehead if it couldn't even come up with good lies on demand?

"Tsk, tsk. Forehead-girl, are all of those hours in the library rotting your brain? Maybe you're reading adventure novels rather than all of those tomes you claim to be looking at."

Sakura scowled at the insinuation that she was reading fantasy books. She only did that at home—! She shut off that thought. It wouldn't do to prove Ino-pig right.

"Pancreatic amylase," she growled, ready to best Ino at identifying the material she had just studied. Ino didn't spend nearly as much time as Sakura did training as a med-nin, but their rivalry continued since Ino had acquired a part-time mentor at the hospital.

"Easy. Pancreatic amylase is secreted into the small intestine, specifically the duodenum, via the pancreatic duct from the pancreas, which produces it. It breaks down complex carbohydrates into disaccharides like maltose through hydrolysis."

Sakura's nose crinkled with distaste at the correct answer.

"Pick a harder one, Forehead-girl."

Sakura grimaced: that had been a horribly easy one. The name was a dead giveaway. What to pick…

"Trypsin," she grated out through clenched teeth at last, convinced this time she had it. Trypsin and pepsin were so easy to mix up…

Ino laughed, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder for the benefit of the growing crowd. "That's an enzyme that acts on proteins in the stomach—"

"Nope! It's an enzyme created in the pancreas released into the duodenum through the pancreatic duct. It breaks proteins down into peptide chains, which are then broken down into amino acids by peptidases, which sever peptide bonds. These amino acids are then absorbed through the villi, which dramatically increase the surface area of the small intestine due to their finger-like shape and the microvilli they are covered with. These amino acids diffuse into the capillary each villus contains—"

"You can stop showing off now," growled Ino, right in Sakura's face. "Your sensei still bolted like an easily spooked mare in the spring."

"Stick with flowers, Ino-pig; that was civilian countryside slang," she rumbled right back, pushing her forehead against her rival's in a strange sort of tug-of-war. "Kaka-sensei had good reason to run. Riko-san got dirt on him and sold him out to the Daimyo's tax collector."

It was humiliating to admit to, but financial matters excused almost any out of character behaviour in a ninja. Using this excuse was tantamount to saying that Kakashi-sensei had lost his mind, but it was the truth. Not every shinobi was wise enough either to handle their taxes properly or to find some accountant that would, not that Sakura had to worry about that. Her parents, being civilians that ran a small shop, were more than capable of helping her decipher the strange tax forms shinobi were given. Ino, coming from a ninja family, would regard Kakashi's financial plight with extreme wariness and slight horror.

"He's frightened of a little weasel man that fills the Daimyo's moneybags?" drawled Ino, obviously having picked up more from her lazy teammate than she would admit to. "And he calls himself a jounin? My dad held him off with one hand tied behind his back."

"Oh yeah?" Sakura sneered. "My mother held him off with a piece of paper. Beat that!"

"You're asking for it, Forehead-girl!" That paper comment must have touched a nerve…

"Bring it on, Pig!" Sakura was good and ready to defend her timid mother's honour while satisfying her own need to beat something to a pulp.

Both kunoichi leapt back a couple metres in the ring of space the crowd had left them. Those that had gathered to watch the show cleared off once hands headed for kunai hidden on each girl's person. Intercepted kunai had been known to hit spectators in the past and there was no way this crowd was going to take that chance just to watch two thirteen or fourteen-year-old girls clash in a not so epic struggle.

Sakura had a brief flash of déjà vu. She half expected Naruto to come bounding into the middle of the brewing storm with Sasuke trailing sullenly behind him to keep her from flaying Ino alive only to be laid flat by a fist from both of them. He had done that so many times before that she was surprised he still hadn't learned to mind his own business. She hadn't realized how much she had gotten used to his interference until he wasn't around to stop these fights anymore. It took quite a bit of the joy out of the whole squabble.

"Oi!" A navy blue figure flashed into existence between her and her rival. "Quit it. You both ought to know by now that if you want to spar you go to a training field or else you pay for all damages and get stuck with community service, a black mark on your records for endangering civilians, and a hefty fine." The MP Officer glared at both of them, his gloved hands fisted on his hips.

Sakura flushed with shame and bit back a curse. Of all times to get caught! They could get in serious trouble with the Military Police if the officer was having a bad day. It seemed that luck was sort of on her side. The sky, which had been threatening rain all day, finally opened up and poured. It seemed to cool the officer's temper because he sighed and gestured them both closer.

"I'll let you two off with a warning this time." He wiped the raindrops off his shades futilely with the hem of his dark blue shirt before pushing them back over the bridge of his nose only to have them streaming with water seconds later. "If I catch you again, you won't be so lucky. Scat."

She and Ino didn't need to be told twice. They fled inside the Yamanaka shop, and Ino squeezed the rain out of her long hair all over the counter while Sakura watched smugly until she realized that even the weather was against her. Keeping the screams of frustration from flooding out of her mouth was increasingly difficult. There was no way Sasuke-kun would go training with her in this weather! She slid down the wall next to the chrysanthemums into a miserable heap. She just wanted to spend some time in a relatively innocent occupation with the guy she liked so much. Was that a crime so terrible that the heavens had to go out of their way to stop her? She curled her arms across her pelvis and groaned pathetically, ignoring the presence of her rival.

"That time of the month, eh?" Ino hopped up on top of the counter with a towel in hand. Sakura didn't reply, so Ino took this opportunity to continue talking. "All sniping aside, I think I've decided what I want to specialize in."

That got Sakura's attention. Ino had been struggling with settling on an area to gain expertise in for a while. Sakura was glad she had already gotten past that headache. It wasn't as if Tsunade-shishou would let her back out of being a med-nin this late in the game. It was in a kunoichi's best interest to become a tokubetsu jounin before trying for full jounin status. The exams to advance from that rank to the next were much easier than the ones that qualified chuunin as fully-fledged jounin.

Sakura set aside her own problems, knowing that Ino wouldn't have spoken so seriously unless she was nervous. There were some times that a girl had to let quarrels go and simply be supportive. "What is it then?" she asked softly, catching the towel Ino tossed her and using it on her poor hair and then wrapping herself in it so she didn't start shivering.

This was big. Ino was going to dedicate herself towards something for a very long time. It was Sakura's responsibility to harass her rival into making the best choice possible.

"I think… I think I want to start out as a traditional kunoichi," whispered Ino, staring at her fists in her lap. Sakura blinked, dumbstruck, as Ino regained her characteristic pluck and started spouting off reasons with a mockery of her usual confidence. "I can act, I know I'm manipulative, and compared to you I'm drop-dead gorgeous."

Sakura let that comment go. Ino was using it to attempt to break her silence, so Sakura could forgive her for it this once. "Are you sure? Traditional kunoichi get a bad rap nowadays; you know that. What would your dad think? What would your mom think? What if something happens…?"

Sakura shuddered at that notion. They had all been warned about that possibility in their last year as female Academy students to force them to realize just how dangerous their job would be. Where male ninja were killed, mutilated, or tortured, kunoichi were sometimes raped on top of everything else.

Sakura shivered as she remembered the dead look that had come over the kunoichi instructor's face as she haltingly explained just what that term meant to the eleven-year-old girls in the class that had barely known how the reproductive system worked. Even Ami had been subdued. It was the reason many of the girls had been relieved when their teams had failed the genin exam. Sakura had walked past the empty classroom after that class and had heard her instructor crying onto Iruka-sensei's shoulder while three other instructors tried to calm her with gentle words and reassuring touches.

She never wanted to be in the same position, and she didn't want that for her rival either. She couldn't imagine Ino weeping heartbrokenly like that; she was too strong, too confident, and too ready to stand up for herself.

Ino was obviously going through the same memory because her face had paled and her lips had pinched together tightly. "I know that," she admitted hoarsely, clearing her throat before continuing. "I want to be in Intel until I hit finally hit jounin though. Gathering gossip is right up my alley, so it would be ideal. My family's jutsu are perfect for spying and acting as a traditional kunoichi would put me in the perfect place to use them without endangering myself too much. I wouldn't have to blow my own cover to get the info I needed; I'd just snag someone else's body and do it."

Sakura had to admit that there was logic in what Ino was saying, but she still didn't really want the pig to do this to herself.

"My parents won't be entirely happy, but they'll make sure that I'm good enough with the Yamanaka techniques that I'll be able to stop anybody dead at least thirty metres from me. I won't let anybody ever get close enough…"

Both of them gulped and stared at the colourful flowers that filled every corner of the shop space in tall containers: some filled with water and some empty to keep the delicate tissue paper wrapped around prearranged bouquets dry and whole. Their conversation was put on hold when a terrified young man barged into the shop and demanded something to keep wife happy on their anniversary. Ino glibly pulled him out of his fright and soon calmed him down enough that he began pointing at flowers he was sure his wife would like. She bustled around the shop collecting the indicated flowers, arranged them, and wrapped them with practiced ease before sending the man on his way with a smile and a call of "good luck!"

Sakura watched the entire episode with interest, remembering the times when she had been younger that they had played princess and fairy queen among the heavenly smelling canisters as Ino's mother or father dealt with customers just as easily as her rival had. That had been before Sasuke-kun, before they had become rivals for his affection rather than best friends. Ino had been the bold and beautiful queen to her wallflower courtier. It was different now: they were both ladies of the court begging favours of an absent and uncaring prince. This realization made her eyes sting slightly. Was Sasuke-kun really worth this? She wasn't sure anymore, but she did know that she was still angry as hell that fate didn't seem to want her to be able to train with him today.

"What started this?" asked Sakura when the woman buying flowers for her daughter's birthday exited the shop.

Ino fiddled with the cash register for a bit before propping herself up against the counter. "I heard Mitarashi-san was one of them. She specializes in assassination, but she sometimes comes at it from the same angle as I want to come at espionage at."

Sakura nodded when Ino faltered. She still didn't like this idea. "Well, Ino-pig, you go ahead and do whatever you want." She got off her butt to be able to stare at eyelevel with her blonde rival. Ino looked a little relieved until Sakura spouted off her next words to break the tension. "You're going to need all the help you can get to compete with me over Sasuke-kun!"

Ino's face puckered as though she had just sucked on a lemon. Sakura smirked and ambled to the door; she wanted to be sure that she would have the last word. As Ino sputtered, Sakura delved through her brain for the perfect parting shot that would encourage and disarm at the same time. She opened her mouth and was embarrassed to note that she hadn't come up with anything. Damn. Standing gaping in the door wasn't a very good impression to leave Ino with, so she spat out the first thing that came to her head.

"We'll finish that fight tomorrow at Training Ground 17," she promised before ducking out the door into the rain.

Sakura grit her teeth against childish squeals as the rain soaked through her shirt and dripped down her chin, her hair, and her arms as she used chakra to push herself onto the rooftops. This was the fastest route to the Uchiha compound, and she refused to meet any more obstacles. She would get there; she would!

The only other people insane enough to brave the cloudburst with her were the ANBU that were always patrolling the village since the invasion, though Sasuke had told her that they had done similar things beforehand, just not quite as regularly. According to him, they had done rounds very frequently at night when Naruto had been younger. She stared at the bone white masks and shivered at the dark eyeholes. Looking like that in this horrible weather, she had the terrible feeling that they were soulless and faceless beings that only came out at night to claw for traces of humanity. She shivered and stomped down on her imaginings. How could she even consider such things? Kaka-sensei was in ANBU! Sasuke's warnings hovered in her mind, and she began to wonder just how wrong about everything she had been.

She almost cried with relief when Sasuke's door appeared in front of her at last. She huddled under the overhang of the roof, glad that it extended enough to keep the rain mostly off of her as she knocked hesitantly. As she waited for someone to answer and put her out of her misery, she watched the clear droplets cascade from the misty grey heavens.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when Uchiha-san pulled over the door and smiled wryly at her. "I don't suppose you want to come inside?" she asked, keeping Ryuuka-chan from running out into the torrent with a hand. Sasuke's adorable little sister smiled at her and waved, her brown eyes crinkled happily in greeting as Sasuke's never did.

Sakura smiled back at the girl and nodded sheepishly at Sasuke-kun's mother.

"Well, come on then." A warm hand pulled her in by her sopping shoulder. The warm air inside the house hit her as the door shut behind her.

"Is Sasuke here?" she asked, feeling as though her goal was finally within reach despite the puddle she was shedding on the clean floor.

"No, he left early this afternoon to trail Riko when he heard that she was about to get vengeance on Kakashi-san. He didn't want to miss the show."

_**Dammit!**_

"Can you do me a favour?" Sasuke's mother asked her with a slight smile on her face as though she knew what was going through Sakura's mind.

Sakura nodded numbly. She must have passed right by him when Riko-san had finished explaining… _Dammit!_ Why hadn't he stopped to say hi? She pushed those depressing thoughts aside and focused on Uchiha-san's words.

"I need to go pick a couple things up from the store. Can you watch over Ryuuka for me?"

"Of course, Uchiha-san." _Sasuke-kun wasn't here…_

"Thanks, dear," the dark-haired woman said with a sly smile as she pulled an umbrella from the stand and slipped out the door, leaving Ryuuka-chan staring at her. Sakura pulled herself together and crouched down in front of the little girl.

"Kaasan went to get candy?" Ryuuka asked nervously, one of her tiny hands grabbing a bunch of her brown hair and tugging on it fretfully. Sakura gently freed the poor strands from that strong grasp and clasped the slightly sticky hand in her own.

"Probably," she told the child with a reassuring grin. "What do you want to do while she's gone?"

"Can we play?" begged Ryuuka-chan, almost bouncing up and down as eagerly as Naruto would have.

"Sure," agreed Sakura, in no mood to handle a pouting dragon with an extremely loud voice. "What do you want to play? We could play with some of your toys or—"

"Hide-and-Seek!" insisted Ryuuka, tugging on her hand. "Fusae always says that you play Hide-and-Seek when it rains. It makes it more fun! I want to hide first! Close your ears otherwise it's no fair!"

Sakura quickly agreed (she had no desire to land herself in trouble with her crush or his mother because she had hidden in the wrong place) and shut her eyes tightly even as she plugged her ears to reassure Ryuuka that she wasn't peeking or listening. Sakura slowly called out number after number, heading towards sixty.

All was quiet except the soft patter of the downpour on the roof when she finished counting and the only light was fairly dim and grey coming in from the rain-splattered windows to illuminate the rooms that were all a curious mixture of a traditional mansion and a modern home like the one she lived in. Sakura got to her feet and slipped through the house from room to room, searching with eyes and ears for any sign of the girl. Sasuke-kun must have been training her how to hide already because Sakura couldn't find much of a trace of her. However, there was a weird noise from a room with a firmly shut door.

Curious and slightly frightened (this wasn't her house; who knew what was lurking behind every corner?), she sidled up to the door and placed a hand quietly on the handle, resting her ear against the wood to better hear what was going on inside. There was an odd scuffling noise and the scrape of wood being dragged across wood. Brows furrowing, she prepared to slide door along the track; she was pretty sure that Ryuuka wasn't the source. Sasuke's sister wouldn't have made mistakes like this. No, this was somebody else.

Her hand straying towards the kunai hidden on her person, she whipped the door aside and sprang forward with a battle cry. Her shout was only drowned out slightly by the terrified scream of the person she caught beneath her. She pinned her victim properly and held a kunai to his neck before she even realized just whom she had caught and what he had been doing and whose room this was.

Konohamaru whimpered as she stared around her, the fangirl in her quivering with glee. She was in Sasuke-kun's room! His inner sanctum, the place he spent time brooding in, the place he slept in, the place he kept his clothes… Clothes brought her eyes to the plain wooden dresser resting up against the wall. One of its drawers was partially open and there was a pile of garments close by where Konohamaru had been kneeling before she had tackled him. Closer inspection revealed them to be shorts. Sudden understanding hit her. These weren't shorts. She stared down at Konohamaru, who was snivelling.

"Don't hurt me! Don't kill me! Naruto made me do it!"

_Naruto…?_

Sakura's lip curled as she realized just what she had stumbled upon. She slipped her kunai away and wondered just how Naruto was going to handle her next letter as she contemplated an appropriate punishment for Konohamaru. He had almost made her quest more difficult by rekindling the fire of Sasuke's fan club. She heard the door open downstairs and grinned with satisfaction when she recognized the almost completely silent tread. This was perfect: the ideal end to a horrible day.

"Sasuke, get up here and see what I found!" she hollered, grinning manically as Konohamaru whimpered again. Letting Sasuke-kun help her punish this scamp would make this even more perfect.

* * *

Tsunade stared out into the rain, watching the thick sheets of liquid pour down upon her village. It was strangely peaceful to ignore the growing pile of documents on her desk and simply watch everything come clean. Rain always made everything feel fresher and it would finish washing away the last of that horrible dust. It also washed away evidence, yet another reason to love this weather, though there were bad memories associated with it too. _Dan…_

She was sure Kakashi wouldn't agree with her unless the rain ruined the documents that Nariko had presented to the pencil pusher the Daimyo had sent as soon as Nariko had sent a tiny note containing restrained concern over a certain jounin's tax records. Tsunade almost regretted her involvement since the hordes of fans Kakashi had accumulated over the years had not been pleased when the plot had succeeded so brilliantly. Most of them were avoiding Nariko like the plague, perhaps afraid she would dig into their records as well. This abhorrence seemed to please the victim.

Tsunade shook her head and took a swig from the bottle of alcohol that she had been warming between her palms. She would never understand civilians or accountants.

She knew her respite was over the moment a familiar knock sounded on the door. She grunted, granting Shizune permission to enter, though her older apprentice would have done so eventually anyway if she hadn't responded: Shizune had caught her napping one too many times. As the door opened, Tsunade took a long draught of her sake, corked it, and stashed the bottle out of sight. Shizune had started badgering her about that lately. While it was a good thing that Shizune was growing a spine, it wasn't quite so pleasant to be on the receiving end of this slightly disturbing development.

"Tsunade-sama, have you done any work at all today?"

Tsunade didn't dignify that stupid question with a repeatable response.

Shizune blinked, nonplussed, and hesitantly approached with another pile of papers in hand. "These are the latest batch of mission requests from dignitaries that require a personalized reply. As you can see, there are quite a lot of them. It would be good if you could get them done soon…"

"Along with everything else," grumbled the Hokage, flipping idly though a stack of reports from two weeks ago that she still had yet to finish reading through. At least most of them weren't very important. It was a very good thing that a team of analysts looked through every mission report for her and summarized any developments it would be a good idea for her to know about into these surprisingly lengthy reports. There was always so much to keep up-to-date on. Why had she agreed to do this again?

"Also," said Shizune, pulling a sheaf of letters out of her pocket, "here are the latest memos from your creditors detailing this month's instalment owed to each of them. Shall I hand them off to Nariko-san?"

Now she remembered: that was why. She nodded and rubbed her forehead. At least Shizune was only around to badger her when she wasn't instructing Hinata. Tsunade wasn't sure she would have been able to handle this nagging constantly. She got enough of it from her financial and mission aides and all those damn sneaky advisors with their own agendas, the latter group by far the worst. At least most of the judicial and civilian relations aides were quiet and self-effacing, though the one in charge of public works had an annoyingly shrill voice. She didn't even want to think about the rest of them. There were so many working industriously on the floor below; all handpicked for various reasons.

"Is that all?" She was disappointed when Shizune shook her head.

"No, there's a couple more matters I need to talk to you about. The hospital is experiencing overcrowding again. We may need to acquire some premises for very mild cases to be shipped off to for short-term care. Too many are getting wounded due to overwork and inattention on duty. We're having difficulty coping with the numbers. Even having the interns all assigned to multiple rounds of the wards isn't keeping things quiet. All the med-nin in training also are assigned missions with their respective teams, so keeping them on duty for any length of time is difficult. The scheduling is horrendous according to what I have been told."

Tsunade nodded absently; these weren't new problems. Konoha's hospital had been a little too small for a long time. Only the population drop due to the invasion had kept things from going completely insane.

"You have my permission to get the hospital director to have a meeting with the finance advisor, an aide from that department, and village planning. Let them come up with something. They know more about it than I do. Tell them to come and report when they agree on a solution."

That would buy her quite a bit of time. Getting three different departments to agree was an almost impossible task, one she took great pleasure in assigning to her underlings. It struck her as ironic given how much they liked to nag her about their various petty issues. As far as she was concerned, they could argue with each other and then come and present a unified front to her. She had no desire to be used as a sounding post or a relay for conversations that could have taken much less time if they occurred face-to-face. On better days, it amused her how childish her various aides were: they would gather in her office and argue with each other indirectly by addressing all of their comments to her so that the victim would be unable to take offence immediately. This tactic didn't work, but they kept at it anyway.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama." Shizune jotted a reminder down in the hardcover, black agenda she carried around to keep her Hokage organized since she certainly wasn't going to make sure she got all of her appointments in the right order.

Tsunade's secretary was the same way, except her book was too large to lift off her landmine of a desk. The female Sannin was sure that the slightest touch of an outsider would make that paper version of a bomb explode. She pushed back the bitter thought that Nawaki would have loved to set it off.

Her apprentice left after the last issue was dealt with—a reminder about the date and time of the monthly meeting she had with the Daimyo to drink and discuss just how wonderful Konoha was, and yes, just how wonderful he was to keep giving them the money they needed to keep running—and Tsunade pulled out her bottle and drained the last of its contents. She _hated_ bureaucracy, politics, and all the back scratching that went with it.

There was always some shadow hanging around with reports for her. Sighing, she twitched the first two fingers of her right hand, indicating she could enter. Snake-28 appeared soundlessly onto the floor in front of her desk in a cloud of smoke. The woman only stood when Tsunade turned around to face her.

"Tiger is out today," she whispered from under her green and white mask and the dark cowl she wore over her bald scalp.

"So I see."

Snake bowed her apologies and relaxed into the stance she always assumed when reciting reports. "Rain Country's border guards continue to deny all knowledge of Akatsuki's doings."

Her "tone" was harsh now because an almost fatal throat wound had not healed properly despite the best efforts of Konoha's finest doctors, Tsunade included. She had been able to do little with such a large portion of the tissue completely scraped away. It was a great pity. Tsunade had heard the woman sing before the battle that had ended with that wound. Snake had had a wonderful voice, low and melodic, perfect for the jazz she had adored, but not so good for the traditional music she had been forced to learn by her clan. All she had now was a guttural, phlegm-roughened rasp. Snake would hate Kisame until her dying day for taking that from her.

"We continue to respect the cordon despite the obviousness of their lies."

"Good."

"Itachi was spotted by Tiger-19 near Lightning Country's border with Frost. His projected course will bring him back into contact with Hoshigaki."

This was good. Mikoto would be more willing to take on active duty again if Itachi was safely away from her family. Perhaps she could be convinced that Seiji was a good enough minder for Ryuuka when Sasuke was out on missions as well if Itachi was reported to be far enough away.

"Shall we continue to pursue them if they move over the border?"

"Yes. Cloud knows better than to poke at us, though their rate of militarization is unsettling. Breaking their treaty a second time would worry too many other countries they have agreements with. Even Water would take offence, which would be good for that country considering the unrest that still lingers even this long after that civil war."

Snake nodded and shifted her weight to indicate that her next bit of news was less worrying. "Dog-12 was successfully subdued and brought to heel." Her glee about the situation was so well concealed that Tsunade only knew it existed because she had known Snake for a long time. Kakashi's plight would have amused her even in her current state of bitterness.

"Very good." Tsunade chuckled, having no reason to hide her own delight at the circumstances in which Dog-12 found himself. It served right him for letting things slide like that for so long.

Snake shifted again, her slight readjustment telling her superior that the brief moment of fun was over. "As you requested, a unit was sent to check Jiraiya-sama's current location. He and Uzumaki are passing through western Fire Country, sweeping south for unknown reasons. Horse-5 reports that there are no relevant attractions along that route to keep the Gama Sennin occupied. It seems that he is following your orders to behave unpredictably. Horse reports that his manuscript is showing promising signs."

This was why she liked Snake: the woman had no problem revealing the little details that agents didn't write up in their official reports. It amused her that Horse had taken the mission as an opportunity to grab some spoilers on the next volume of _Icha Icha_.

Snake cleared her throat painfully before beginning to relate the other tidbits the ANBU commander had bid her to pass along in person. "Oto is becoming increasingly active. There are signs that another team has crossed the border and more are expected to follow. The same purpose is suspected."

Damn. There was no way Mikoto would come out of retirement with more of the snake's freaks going after her children. "Are there units out searching?"

Snake nodded. "Five are out searching for trails. We would have put Dog on the scent, but you requested that he be kept in the village this week for observation."

There wasn't an actual suspicious edge to Snake's voiceless tone, but Tsunade recognized the unspoken notion lacing those words. The agent suspected her leader of keeping Dog back for the sake of hilarity given today's events. Tsunade didn't bother denying the accusation. What was the point of being Hokage if she couldn't sit back and watch her subordinates squabble in an amusing way occasionally instead of having them irritate the colour out of her? She swore that some of the grey hairs she had noticed the last time her jutsu had failed were entirely due to her new position. No wonder Sarutobi-sensei was so pickled looking if this was what he had had to deal with before he had dropped the entire mess on her lap. That damn geezer…

* * *

"Hey, Riko-san," called a voice as she slipped through the crowds, avoiding elbows with the ease of long practice. She froze and glanced over her shoulder, vaguely recognizing the man waving at her from the rooftops. He phased into existence next to her in the streets.

"Genma-san." She bowed politely, and he nodded, rolling his odd toothpick in his teeth. "What can I do for you?"

He looked tired, and she was sure that his skin wasn't supposed to have that onionskin texture it was currently sporting. He didn't answer right away, merely jerked his chin to indicate that they should keep walking. She frowned at him, but obeyed. He outranked her as a jounin. Even the Hokage's secretary had more clout than she, a lower tier Finance Department grunt, did.

"Look," he said at last around his senbon. "I've got a mission tonight."

She cocked an eyebrow at him, wondering what the hell this had to do with her. He shouldn't have been sent out again though; she knew that just by taking a gander at him. He looked like he needed a month of sleep, not a mission.

He glanced skyward and grumbled under his breath. "I know you two don't get along, but everyone else is heading out again. Asuma and I usually take it in turns, but Asuma got sent out to lead his genin team yesterday and won't be back until next week. You're the only one left."

She raised her eyes to the defiantly cloudless sky and hissed through her teeth. Again. It had happened _again_. Why wouldn't the bastard go get some proper help? Did he like having nightmares?

"What's this for?" she asked, frowning at him when he pressed coils of rope into her hands.

Genma shot her a sardonic look, pulling the senbon out of his mouth to spin it around his pointer finger with a bit of chakra. "He gets worse sometimes. You might not be able to handle it since you don't know any jutsu. I hope you can tie complex knots."

She glared down at the twisted, flexible wire cord resting coldly in her palms and nodded once, clenching her teeth. This was what she got for sticking out her neck.

"Why won't you tell him to go to a psychiatrist?" she grated out, shoving the strap of her bag higher up on her shoulder. She had so much work she was supposed to be doing at home this evening. She would fall behind if he came over. Tax season wasn't too far away, and she really wanted to be ready. "You know I'm not capable of handling this."

Genma sighed wearily. "Just tonight?" he almost pleaded, scrubbing at his face with one hand. "He's been shaking all afternoon on and off in the jounin lounge. Yuugao was talking to him, but she had to head out just after lunch. Gai took over, and he only got worse: the chuunin getting us a fresh pot of coffee almost noticed the tremors."

Nariko's frown deepened: that was pretty bad. She knew that a jounin's control over his body's reactions was formidable; Mikoto had told her this in no uncertain terms many times. She had only recognized Kakashi's bad state because of his unnatural stillness and the sense of preoccupation about him. Only another jounin would have been able to truly spot just how badly off he was.

Just how dangerous he was hit her in the face, and she had no way to hide the terror it inspired in her from Genma. "He could kill me with one hand."

"Look, he's not going to go see one on his own. I can't force him to; he doesn't want to deal with it that way." Some subtle undertone that Genma had to have purposely allowed into his voice told her that there was some sort of story behind that.

She bit her lip and forced herself not to snarl at him. Why was every ninja so damn manipulative? Genma hadn't spoken to her more than three times before, but he knew exactly what he needed to say to make her cave. This wasn't fair. "He's being stupid." Tsunade was going to wring her neck for falling behind. Damn, damn, double damn. For Naruto, she reminded herself, forcibly keeping the pout laced with pure terror off her face.

Genma shrugged. "Don't use what I gave you unless you absolutely have to. He'll try to fight it instinctively and make things worse for you."

She clenched her fist to keep herself from flipping him off. She must not have done a very good job hiding just how much she was seething because she got the plums she wanted for half the price she was usually charged.

* * *

Apparently, both of them were wrong. Maybe talking with Gai had helped more than Genma thought. Oh, Hatake had talked a bit in vague terms about the concept of tit for tat, but other than that, she had no idea what had been required of him. Considering how it had shaken him and what she had managed to dig up about Obito from Hisui Rin's mission report as well as Namikaze Minato's and Kakashi's, it was probably a good thing. She was grateful that he had kept her in the dark.

"Does Naruto know?" he asked her out of the blue, setting his book on the couch.

It took her a moment to stop her mental calculations and jot down her current sum before setting aside her pencil and turning to face him. "Know about what?"

How he managed to convey emotion with barely a fraction of his face visible was quite beyond her. The irritation at her slowness was too obvious for her pride though. Did he expect her to be a mind reader or something? Math was a much better alternative to what was probably going through his head at any given moment.

"About this." He gestured around the room, but she was still drawing a blank, half of her mind still reviewing her last couple of mathematical operations. "You're slow today."

"I'm trying to work. It's hard when you keep giggling at your porn… Oh. No, he doesn't."

"So you don't tell him everything."

"No, and he doesn't either. We annoy each other enough without knowing every detail. I don't need to know everything."

He nodded, acknowledging what she was getting at.

"In any case…" Now she hesitated. How did one tell someone to go home to get him out of her hair without sounding like a bitch? "You're well enough that you don't need my help. I'm not going to keep you here."

"I know."

She blinked at him as he went back to reading, making no move to leave. Restraining the urge to swear, she went back to work. What cheek! She had half a mind to think he was faking the whole thing and that Mikoto had exaggerated in her warnings. She made a mental note to tell Genma-san that things weren't quite as bad as they had supposed when Kakashi slipped out her door half an hour later, looking as carefree as she had ever seen him. He had the nerve to start whistling before shutting the door with book in hand and chuckle vilely when her eye twitched.

He was just asking for it. Someday, she was going to snap…

* * *

A few weeks later, she revised her opinion about his condition and hissed as she rinsed blood from the braided wires, battening down on guilt, wincing as every movement jarred her dislocated shoulder, and letting the hot water wash away the evidence of her transgression in the pale light of false dawn. She avoided looking down so she wouldn't have to see how stained her hands were. Did this count as breaking her vows? This entire situation was absolute ludicrous. When she had agreed to help Kakashi, she hadn't thought that the dreams would get so bad that he would begin lashing out physically this badly. It hadn't been a very smart assumption on her part; she knew that now and Genma had warned her…

Somebody was going to pay for that wall though! At least she had an excuse to paint that room blue. Now, if only she could keep the knowledge of these damages from her landlord, everything would be almost fine and dandy. When the water going down the drain was colourless, she coiled up the evil thing, slipped down the hall to stash it in one of the chests in her closet, and grabbed her bag on her way out the door.

She clutched at her keys with her good hand, careful so as not to wake Kakashi. He had looked so bad this morning that she had felt guilty for bringing the tax collector down on his head. He could let himself out when he woke up normally. She didn't want him know. He would see the wall and would definitely discover the effects of her precaution, but he didn't have to know about her arm. That was the last thing he needed. If he knew, he would try to deal with things by himself when the rest of his few friends were not around.

Dealing with this sort of reaction alone would be a very bad idea; she knew this full well. She was sure he could perform some very dangerous jutsu in his sleep. No, he couldn't find out, so she had left a note for him claiming (truthfully) that she had needed to get an early start on some work. Where could she go so that he wouldn't hear about it…?

* * *

"Hinata-sama," called Neji-niisan from outside her door as the soft breeze ruffled her curtains and distorted the pale light filtering through them.

"Yes?" She didn't bother kneeling to fasten her sandals anymore; extending chakra threads worked better. Braiding her hair was much easier with one "hand" than it should have been; she remembered how difficult it had been learning to braid Hanabi's hair. Chakra threads seemed so right to her. She pulled a silver cuff over her stump; her team had presented it to her for her birthday. It was a pretty thing—Kurenai-sensei had picked it out.

"The guards at the gates to the compound requested that I bring you a message. Matsuku-san is waiting for you there."

That was certainly odd. Nariko-san had made a point of keeping her door open to her ever since Naruto had invited her team to that first party, but the reverse had never happened before.

"Do you know why?" she asked as she slipped out of her room and fell into step beside him.

He stalked beside her like a sentinel dog, alert for any possible attack. It was odd for her to have him finally performing his guard duty without resentment. It was hard to be invisible and insignificant the way she needed to be with him prowling along at her side.

Before the Chuunin Exam, he would have tried to brush her off or would have left her on her own. She wouldn't have minded—she was sure he had many better things to do than follow her around—but it was sort of comforting. It was his way of saying that he didn't blame her anymore and that was worth any discomfort on her part. That a member of her family had sort of accepted her was worth the world to her. She didn't know what had caused this change, but she was grateful.

She was too shy to thank him for such a gift outright, but she tried to let him know by doing small things for him. Only two weeks ago, she had given him a bookmark of laminated wildflowers she dried and pressed in her spare time. She knew that he used it to mark his place in his library books. It was a warm thought that her meagre gift was useful to him.

"No, I am not completely certain. She seemed to be in a great deal of pain though and was cradling her arm awkwardly. I suspect some injury."

Hinata sighed softly at how stiff he was: he always made conversations sound like he was reporting for a commanding officer. She would never call him on it. Neji wasn't bothering her, so there was no reason to complain, even if his tone made her feel as though she was so very distant from him. She picked up her pace at the mention of injuries though.

"Nariko-san?" she called as she approached the woman at the gates at a quick jog. "What's the matter?"

Naruto's sister grimaced sheepishly and jerked her head at her arm. "I'd go to the hospital, but I'm sure they have other people there that need the attention of the doctors more than I do and it's sort of embarrassing."

"Did you fall down the stairs?" asked Hinata curiously as she assessed the dislocated joint with her eyes, checking for further damage before popping the socket back into alignment with a firm, quick motion of her not-hand. Nariko gasped sharply from the unexpected pain and grunted a noncommittal answer.

"Thanks," she said after Hinata had finished patching the shoulder up and mended some very large bruises hidden beneath Nariko's loose tunic. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention it, you know…"

Hinata nodded, recalling that Nariko-san was often the victim of abuse in the streets of Konoha because of her relationship with Naruto-kun. It was no wonder that Nariko-san didn't want to talk about where she had gotten injured.

"Well, I'd better get going; I've got some reports to organize."

"Be sure to come again if you need help," said Hinata, worried about Naruto-kun's reaction if he found out what his sister was dealing with in his absence.

Nariko smiled genuinely at her and nodded before disappearing out the gates and down the street towards the administration offices. Hinata stared after her, wondering why even this civilian woman was braver than she was. Was courage genetic? Was self-confidence something that a person needed to be born with, like white eyes and brown hair? Were social graces inherited the way height was?

She glanced at Neji without moving her eyes, the questions sitting heavily upon her tongue. She had only to open her mouth and ask them, but some things were just too difficult even now. She let the queries die, unasked, as the gates closed, locking her into territory where she was an unwelcome interloper, one that dared to not use Gentle Fist.

* * *

Gaara sat in the records room. Spread before him were a number of scrolls, nine in all, that detailed all that was known to his village about the nine bijuu. What he had here in Suna was limited, but it was a good place to start. Since Uzumaki was always travelling in order to keep himself safe from the mysterious Akatsuki group, it fell to Gaara to do research. They already knew where two of the bijuu were courtesy of the annoying voices in their heads. What they needed to know was where the other seven were so that they could counter Akatsuki's attempts to collect them.

Looking over the other seven that lay between Shukaku and Kyuubi, Gaara knew that it wasn't going to be easy to track them all down. They could be anywhere, literally. Kyuubi's location had been unknown before he had attacked Konoha. He could have been on another plane of existence. This was fine because Gaara doubted even Akatsuki could catch a bijuu there, but they had to be sure it was there.

He started searching through reconnaissance files that he had been given access to. He knew that Suna had tried to keep track of all the other possible jinchuuriki because they feared attack from the unmatchable power that belonged to them. Shukaku was strong, yes, but he was among the weakest of the bijuu. Should another attack, he would be almost as useless as any other shinobi. With the files in front of him, all he had to do was find out if the provisional council had allowed him access to what he wanted to know. They might not have; they were still terrified of him. They certainly didn't want him to team up with another jinchuuriki and destroy Suna. He sighed, deciding it was unlikely that he would find anything.

"Gaara-sensei," called his student, Matsuri, whom he had recruited into assisting his efforts since Kankurou had been unwilling. Temari was sorting through another pile of papers since a broken wrist was keeping her in the village.

"What it is?" he asked, remembering Naruto's recommendations about what to do in regards to training this girl to spite the administrative council. It had proven oddly easy: his reserve seemed to make her more comfortable than he had thought possible. Making her carry blunted weapons around everywhere had helped desensitize her quite a bit. Working with weapons that didn't normally draw blood worked as well.

"I think I found something." She held up a file. "There's this weird symbol you told me to look for on this file. It's about a woman in Lightning Country. Her surname is Ni'i."

That hooked him. He walked over and took the file from her, skimming over its contents. He almost smiled, knowing that Naruto would dance around like a maniac when he heard.

"Good work, Matsuri." He put a hand on her head before taking the file with him to take notes that he could relay to Naruto later. Since Naruto was free to travel, he was going to do all the legwork. Besides, Naruto was more convincing. He had that gift of making anyone believe in him. Gaara knew it too well. His student smiled at him and basked in the rare praise before turning back to her files. Temari hid a smile and did the same.

* * *

Kakashi stared down at the fresh grave.

Sasuke watched him from his perch on an elm tree about 67.5 metres away, though Sasuke was not quite sure about that decimal place value. He could not measure distances quite as accurately as his mother could with her Sharingan. He had decided to play it safe and stay just outside the fifty-metre ring of acute awareness Kakashi maintained around himself.

Sasuke hadn't been able to get any good information out of his mother. He knew that Riko knew something, but she wasn't saying either. She did look concerned every time Sasuke mentioned Kakashi. It was disconcerting because she normally reacted with irritation and impatience on every occasion anyone had tried to talk to her about him before September. Things had changed, but he still didn't know why. It frustrated him to no end.

Sakura had been bugging him for answers too. It was an odd role reversal: usually she was the one that knew everything and would explain it in almost excruciating detail. Now it was his turn and he found that he couldn't even give her a motive for all the shifts he had observed. He had been reduced to tailing his sensei in hopes of discovering something so that he could regain his superior footing in relation to Sakura.

It disturbed him that she was beating him in terms of acquiring information. He was supposed to be a genius Uchiha. How was a Haruno, a member of a minor civilian clan, keeping ahead of him in any area of being a ninja? It didn't make sense to him. He worked harder than she did all the time training, time she spent in the library instead. He glared into space as he began to realize just why she was better at it than he was, not that he would ever tell her or ever appreciate the fact. She was challenging his superiority. There was no way he was going to allow that. Striking back directly was petty, he knew that, but keeping ahead of her had taken priority, which was why he had blackmailed Seiji into watching out for Ryuuka for the day and had set off after his sensei. Now that he had him in range, Sasuke was finding out that his sensei was quite dull.

He froze when he felt the familiar chakra signature of his mother approach the clearing with another he recognized from her circle of friends. He watched as Yuugao landed beside his sensei, his mother a mere half step behind the younger woman.

He was frustrated when he realized that he would have to be another fifty metres closer to be able to tell what they were saying. Cursing mentally, he suppressed his chakra and slithered closer the old-fashioned way. If his mother figured out that he was there, there was no way that she would talk openly.

"He got careless," his mother said, her delicate face the coldest he had ever seen it with her long, dark hair tied up in a stern bun. "His bandana wasn't even properly tied when he left the village. He should have stepped up to the plate and admitted that he wasn't fit for duty."

"Genma-san did look exhausted when he left," said Uzuki-san. "Hayate told me that he'd been forgetting his toothpick everywhere just before he left as well. He should have known that if he was tired enough to break those habits that were so integral to who he was, he was too tired to function properly as a shinobi. He was running off of fumes, if you will forgive me for the outdated slang, Senpai."

When Kakashi refused to comment, Yuugao sighed and bowed her head. "He should have at least requested a teammate to help him along and to watch his back. It is no wonder that that Iwa nukenin picked him off. We would never have found his body at all if Ram-9 hadn't been out scouting for those Oto-nin that keep coming over the border. At least she took the missing-nin down."

His mother frowned when his sensei maintained his silence. "Kakashi-san, you are being foolish." Sasuke felt something cold run through his veins when his teacher glared icily at his mother, who glared right back. "Blaming yourself will only make things worse."

Without a word, Kakashi disappeared in a hail of leaves.

Cursing, Sasuke slipped out of his mother's range and hoped that Uzuki-san wasn't better than an Uchiha before he flashed off in pursuit of his sensei. What the hell had that been about?


	48. Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Shēn Xiù

Seven times

It seemed like such an insignificant number, a number he could count off on his hands with fingers to spare, yet it had done so much damage. Seven times since April. At least he could count on his hands the number of people that had a clue: Asuma, Nariko, Yuugao, Mikoto, Gai, Shizune, and the Hokage to a minor degree since he was sure she only knew about his first episode. Genma no longer counted. Secrets didn't escape graves very often. He wasn't sure whether to be bitter or grateful for this fact. Genma had known why he had let this continue. Genma had agreed to a degree.

He had promised himself that this wouldn't happen: that he wouldn't become weak like his father. That had been before he had understood, before Obito had explained and had made him understand. Nevertheless, that understanding had not changed the fact that he had promised. It was out of his hands though, and he despised that. He was a jounin, a high-ranking member of ANBU, a top Konoha shinobi, yet he couldn't even control his own mind when things happened to follow a pattern that resonated within him and widened some schism he hadn't even been aware of the existence of until that first time years ago.

He tipped his head back against the wall and pulled his knees higher up so that his feet weren't hanging off the edge of his bed. He stared across the narrow room at the dog mask staring back at him from his desk. It was propped up against the standard ANBU armguards; its empty eyeholes made it seem even more soulless than it usually did. Not all of the red marks on it were ink, but he couldn't work up the will to wipe away the evidence of his last mission, perhaps because of the pangs of his buried conscience. It wasn't as if the blood would cause the porcelain to corrode, as it would do to his steel armguards. He had cleaned those scrupulously.

ANBU couldn't afford to look careless or anything less than completely meticulous. If the ANBU commander suspected that something was wrong, he would be put under observation. That could become a very painful process if the higher-ups became worried enough. Agents had been known to go rogue often enough that interrogation of subordinates was permitted in extremely suspicious cases.

Genma hadn't been all that well put together when he had set out on the mission that had killed him. Mikoto-san had been right about that, he could admit that to himself here. However, he wasn't quite as guiltless as she had insisted. The latest of his episodes had happened just before Genma had left. Those empty eyeholes stared accusingly at him as though they knew he could have gone to someone else. Sure, he hadn't known that Genma had had a mission the next day, but still…

He knew that whoever watched over him didn't get much sleep. He should have known that Genma was nearing the end of his energy. All of the jounin were still being overworked. It wasn't as if replacing all of those that had died in that invasion a year ago could be done overnight. Ninja took years to train. He should have known. He should have gone to someone else and left Genma alone.

He tilted his head back further to avoid looking at that accusing porcelain face. He couldn't go to any ninja, not anymore, not after this lesson had been shoved so forcefully into his face. Everyone was too tired, and he would just make things worse.

"You know," Pakkun said, pushing the bedroom door open with his nose and trotting over to the bed, "I'd suggest that you let the pack try, but I don't think it would work." His pug summon had refused to leave him alone after he had completed his mission. "Buru hasn't been able to successfully pin you down for years. Getting out and away from him has become instinctive for you, I think." The pug glared at the height of the bed before gathering himself and making the leap. The covers deformed under his paws as he padded over and sat down by his summoner's side.

"Hmm." Kakashi set a hand on the pug's head and closed his eyes.

"Your training probably isn't going to help," muttered Pakkun.

Kakashi didn't reply.

"I guess it couldn't have waited for long though."

"No, not with Konoha so shorthanded like this. If Konoha can't have many fairly skilled ninja, then it needs what ninja there are to be as skilled as possible."

"Did you get access to those records you needed?"

"Yes. They suggest that I'm on the right track. If my theory is right…"

"True, though why you chose to train that way doesn't make sense. It's hardly going to help you regain any ground."

"It needs to be done," Kakashi muttered, and Pakkun grunted softly and curled up at his side for a snooze. Kakashi envied him until he finally managed to drift off into mercifully dreamless sleep as well.

* * *

Mikoto watched the girl swirl the tea in her cup. It was painfully obvious that something was bothering her more than usual. "It's not going well, is it?"

"No." She set her cup down. "I hardly had to do anything other than talk to him for a bit, but after September… I…" Riko scrubbed at her face. "I don't know why he's just coming to me now. I mean, I know I told him it was okay, but now that I'm actually doing it, it's just not right and those women after him don't let me forget. Genma and Asuma used to handle it, but recently… Asuma was in the village too yesterday, but he came to me. It was easy enough this time, but what if he gets bad again? Gods, I wish Genma was still here."

She wasn't alone in that wish; Mikoto knew that.

"You're not a ninja. Your job won't kill you if you drift off to catch up on sleep. He blames himself for what happened to Genma. Why are you even helping him? We both know you don't like him. You blame him…"

"I can't blame him for doing his job." Riko sighed, drawing lines on the tabletop with idle fingers. "I don't even know why I'm doing this anymore. I guess because I know it's what needs to be done. My clan, we give help wherever it's needed. He came to me, so I'll help him. That's how it works. Whether I like him or not doesn't really matter."

"What if you can't help him?"

The question had to be asked. Riko didn't seem to agree because she pressed her lips into a thin, white line and stared at her hands, which she had pressed flat on the table. They both knew that Riko wasn't strong enough to handle things if they got bad enough. What would she do then? Neither of them really wanted to think about it, but Mikoto was a jounin. She was used to asking the questions that no one else wanted to voice.

"Are you strong enough to walk away for your own sake? Or will you let me make you?"

"Mikoto, I need you to teach me how to properly restrain a jounin with a rope."

Mikoto blinked at her friend and then frowned sadly at her. This was the second time in four months that someone had approached her with that determined and desperate look and had asked for something from her. She found that she was just as incapable of denying this request.

She forced a slight smile at the girl that had been so painfully naïve and blind. Mikoto had been frustrated by her obliviousness on a few occasions, but now that Riko wasn't missing things, Mikoto wondered why it had bothered her. At least Riko had been happier in her ignorance the same way those poor rookies were. Mikoto could sympathize: her own realization of just how much her job had warped her had been excruciating at sixteen. "Let me say now that I don't like this."

Riko nodded, noting the point, but not backing down. Maybe Naruto was a bad influence.

"Fine," Mikoto said, hiding disappointment. She had the feeling that this wasn't going to end well. "Just let me call Yuugao. She's a master with this sort of thing and she can help. Besides, we need somebody to tie up. Sasuke won't volunteer."

Riko's wry smile at that last comment relieved Mikoto. If Kakashi made the girl lose the personality she had dredged up only a little while ago, Mikoto was going to skin him alive. Once she got off the phone, she smiled a bit more genuinely at Riko.

"We'll train you up so well that you'll be able to hogtie someone in your sleep." That her friend found the courage to laugh at this ominous statement restored Mikoto's good humour. "Do you want us to teach you anything else? Knowing how to break holds or punch properly could be useful…"

"No, I won't hurt people. I can't."

"Why?" asked Mikoto. "I hurt people. I've killed people. I used to do it all the time. Why do you think you are incapable of doing the same?"

"It is against clan principle." Nariko's utter calm was disquieting. The conviction she held in this principle was absolute, or it had been. "We embrace compassion."

"You're not going to like what I have to say then." Yuugao shucked off her coat and threw it over the back of the nearest chair. "I know what this is about. He's doing this on purpose."

Mikoto blinked at the younger jounin's statement. "What makes you so sure?"

"I talked to Asuma. I know Senpai as well as anyone who isn't dead can know him. Senpai doesn't have problems; he has plans and regrets, which fuel each other. He expects them to.

"Riko, he's using you." Yuugao shrugged at the older woman's resentful hiss. "He knows about your clan, and he knows _you_. More importantly, he knows that you're weak and that you alone can't interfere with his plans. That's right, be angry. That's the only way we can win against whatever he's plotting. He's a genius. We are only us."

"Speak for yourself," Mikoto grumbled as Riko muttered dastardly sounding things in a foreign language.

Yuugao shrugged sheepishly. "Uchiha genius was almost commonplace."

Mikoto was not impressed and not pleased with the past tense in that statement. "So what should we do, oh non-genius? We can't thwart his self-destructive tendencies without his permission."

"True," Yuugao admitted, "we can't stop him, but we can hem him in. Riko, you aren't strong enough to stop him, and he knows that. Use that against him. We can't let you get hurt because guilt will just make him worse. Riko, be distant. Just still the shaking."

"What about the nightmares?"

"The way Asuma talked about it, it was almost as if he wanted them to come. Senpai's a genius: he can make anything into a weapon, even dreams."

"He's training. Mist ninja trained themselves into apathy by using events like the old Academy exam. Kakashi knows about that. He might be trying to the counter the divide by rendering himself apathetic to it." His earlier request belied this particular hypothesis, but Mikoto kept that knowledge to herself. That was clan business.

"But you still haven't told me what to do about the bloody nightmares!" Riko said.

"Tie him up and leave him like I told you before."

"But he's hurting himself!" Riko protested, looking appalled. "His wrists—!"

"Are his problem." Mikoto understood ANBU mentality too well.

"But—!"

"He wants this or he would have done something more about it by now, so we'll give it to him on our terms. You said Gai helped that time, right?" Yuugao pressed, not looking too happy with this herself.

"He did seem better that time, yes," Riko admitted.

"Good, we'll sic Gai on him too. Let him have his secrets, but let's make sure that they don't hurt Konoha or him."

Riko looked doubtful.

"Clan principles have no bearing upon this, Riko," Mikoto warned her. "This is ninja business. Compassion has no real place here. You either say no and let us handle this, or do this our way."

Riko glared and finally nodded. "We can't let this go on forever though. He'll have no flesh on his wrists if he does this even seven more times."

"No," Yuugao agreed firmly, "we can't. Training can take months, but this is different. Give him until April. If he's still struggling, we make him give up by bringing in the big guns."

"Tsunade-sama would hardly appreciate being compared to the forbidden weapons," Mikoto said dryly, but Yuugao shrugged and Riko snickered, looking far more optimistic about the whole thing than she had before.

"There's one thing though," Yuugao admitted reluctantly, grimacing. "The ANBU commander is going to notice eventually despite how quiet Senpai has managed to keep this. I don't know how to head him off if things do get bad."

Mikoto smiled, remembering an old conversation. "Don't worry about that. I have the feeling someone else has that covered."

* * *

Naruto glanced down at the blank piece of paper in front of him and frowned. His mind was just as empty as the page. Sure, he wanted to get into contact with this Ni'i Yugito, but now that he came to it, he wasn't sure how to go about it.

It wasn't as if he could simply send her a letter and expect her to reply. Based upon Gaara's earliest response to his offer of friendship, it was likely that Yugito would hunt him down and slit his throat for making such a proposition. He rubbed his neck as he fiddled with his pen.

No, he would need to meet her face-to-face and try to convince her that way. Unfortunately, this was an even more difficult prospect than just sending a note explaining that he was a bijuu container and that he wanted to be friends. They had been made to fight each other, to balance each other out. How the heck would he get her to agree to meet up with him? How would he convince Ero-Sennin to let this meeting happen? He hadn't actually told his temporary sensei about his plans yet: it hadn't seemed important. Now that Gaara had gotten him this information though…

He tightened the ties of the robe, slid the door of his room open, and padded quietly down the dark hall of the hotel they were staying at. Unfortunately, Ero-Sennin was the only one around to bounce ideas off of at this late hour. He needed to start this now or he would never get to sleep, so hunting down the pervert was his current goal. The old oil lamps that lined the off-white hallway to give it a traditional feel flickered as he slipped past, casting more shadows of his form than he could count on the wood floor, each more hazy than the last.

Where would Ero-Sennin be? The baths would be closed for the most part, and if Jiraiya was in there, there was no way Naruto was going to go in after him. He would _see things_ if he did, things that would make him need to gouge his eyes out. Naruto had no idea what those women saw in his master.

The dining hall was just as empty as the halls had been, and the darkness in it was that much deeper since the dark yellow light of the lamps didn't penetrate into the gloom as well. He slipped the door to the foyer open and pulled the chakra away from his ears as _sounds_ reached him from some of the rooms down the halls. Ugh, that was _not_ something he was including in any of his letters, he resolved as he sped down the hall towards the bar this hotel boasted. If Ero-Sennin weren't in here, then Naruto would have to go back to his room and change so he could go searching around the sleeping town for the perverted Sannin's chakra presence, something Naruto wasn't very good at.

Sensing chakra signatures was something only those with super attuned senses could do. Naruto definitely wasn't among that group: he really hoped he never reached that level of paranoia considering that a simple touch could send those ninja into paroxysms of fight/flight reactions. Naruto had found this out the hard way when he had successfully poked his dozing sensei on the arm. Kaka-sensei had had a kunai in hand so quickly that Naruto had thought he was going to lose his finger. Kaka-sensei had given him a superior look and Naruto had been really impressed, but now he wasn't so sure if it was a good thing.

If he ever developed reactions like that, it was way too likely that he would end up killing his sister by accident—she was a pretty tactile person, though she was learning to give ninja space. That or she wouldn't ever be able to hug him or ruffle his hair again. He had sort of mixed feelings about that. He was fourteen. He was getting too old for hugs.

The noise in the bar hit him like a pillow to the face as soon as he slid the doors open. So this was where everybody was. Huh. Why was it always like this? Every damn hotel they stayed at, where did everybody go when the baths shut down? They went to the bar of course.

Technically, he probably wasn't allowed in here, but bending the rules was a ninja thing. He took great pride in doing so at every opportunity. He grinned at those that looked up at his arrival and relaxed as they dismissed him. Most of the occupants of this smoky room were older men, who sat around in groups of two or three, sipping alcohol together and hatching canny plans that would seem rather foolish in the light of day for the most part. The air, lit only by the same lamps that were in the halls, was hazy enough with cigar, cigarette, and pipe smoke that it made everything happening within the traditional walls seem far more important and serious than it actually was.

Naruto was relieved when he spotted Ero-Sennin looking over some papers in the corner with the best view of the entire room. He wove through the tables, ignoring the suspicious glances inexpertly tossed his way. These guys were all way too obvious: anyone with minimal ninja training could have been able to tell that they were up to _something_. Talking in hushed voices as they were was only going to make them stand out more.

However, Naruto didn't care about whatever petty plots they were weaving or what mean gossip they were spreading in their tiny holiday village. Most of the stuff would be small things that would be easily countered by the victim or wouldn't do very much damage. If things did get out of control, someone would hire a ninja, maybe one from Konoha since it was the closest village, and that ninja would make sure that things got patched up one way or another. That was what ninja were for since there weren't any big wars going on.

"Gaki," said Ero-Sennin, tossing back a shot, "what are you doing in here?"

Naruto ignored his query, glancing at the pages Jiraiya was looking over. He really wished he hadn't a moment later. His eyes picked up words like "hot," "heavy," "slick," and "sweat," and it was all he could do to keep from going red. Was there no escape?

If it wasn't the noises down the hall, it was Ero-Sennin's manuscripts! It was as if puberty was stalking him and trying to catch him off guard… It had managed to do funny things to his voice a couple times recently, and zits were irritating as hell considering their small size, and he didn't want to think about the other odd things happening to the rest of his body without his consent, but this was the last straw! He would wage war on adulthood and resist its advance with every iota of his will!

Those magazines the chuunin that guarded the gates read weren't descriptive like this: they had pictures that were partially censored. Ero-Sennin didn't censor anything.

"Ah," stammered Naruto, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "I've got a question."

"No."

"No?" He hadn't even explained what he wanted. What the hell? What if it had been something even more important than this? Damn pervert…

"No, you're not ready for Hiraishin."

Naruto palmed his forehead and groaned. Maybe asking the same question repeatedly wasn't a good thing. Ero-Sennin had started tuning him out the way Sasuke did sometimes. That bastard thought he was so clever, but Naruto could always tell when Sasuke wasn't really paying attention: it was the way his best friend's eyes glazed over and the way he started nodding at odd points that gave him away.

Sasuke was pretty good at judging when to nod, but Naruto had managed to make him screw up by altering his tone. Sasuke's nods coincided with certain tones and pauses, which meant that his friend was only listening to the lilt of the words and not their meaning. Naruto had managed to take advantage of this a couple times, but he was coming up with a couple very good blackmail opportunities as soon as he got home. Getting lambasted by Sakura by letter hadn't been fun, and Konohamaru's plot had been thwarted. Naruto still needed some sort of retribution for the fangirl abuse he had suffered for Sasuke's sake without proper thanks.

"Ero-Sennin!" His volume attracted the attention of some of the would-be plotters. "I wasn't going to ask about that!

The plotters dismissed him as a loudmouthed idiot. Perfect. They would disregard anything significant that he said. He could have spouted off the passwords to get past the Daimyo's guards at this point and no one would have cared. He pouted when he realized that his guardian wasn't listening. Ero-Sennin had turned back to his pages and was scribbling down characters. Naruto averted his eyes, not wanting to know how Jiraiya could look almost normal when coming up with this crap.

"That's a first," muttered the pervert.

Naruto glared. Why was he being so mean? The one time Naruto was honestly worried about something and wanted to ask a pertinent question, Ero-Sennin decided to be a complete asshole about it. "Oi, listen, Gaara sent me some information this morning."

That got the pervert's attention.

Naruto almost smirked. Ero-Sennin loved holding information over his head. It was great for Naruto to be one up on him for once. "He found out that there's this woman in Lightning called Ni'i Yugito. I need to talk to her."

"Let me get this straight," said Jiraiya. "You want us to blatantly ignore Tsunade's orders to keep you out of trouble and go into Lightning Country, into Kumo—which is still very bitter about getting the wrong Hyuuga corpse I might add—to meet some woman?"

Naruto nodded and was nonplussed when his master grinned.

"Ah, gaki, you're learning!" The dirty old man started rubbing his palms together. "I had thought that the time was coming…"

Naruto suddenly had a very bad feeling about this.

He cringed when the pervert set a fatherly hand on his head. "You will be the first to read my newest book. In this way, you will finally understand what it is to be a man."

_Oh gods… No… _"Eh? You think I'm going to…" Naruto couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence. He was pretty sure that Ni'i-san would kill him if she ever found out about this, whether he convinced her to be friends or not. "Gah! Ero-Sennin! Damn pervert! She'd kill me. She's the damn Nibi container!"

"The what?"

_Oops._

That had come out badly.

"Yeah, she's the two-tailed beast's holder. I want to get into contact with her."

Naruto figured that he should have broken the news a little more delicately to the old man. Maybe Riko-nee was right about that tact thing. He raised his hand and waved the bartender over, gesturing at Jiraiya's mostly empty glass. The man obliged, and Naruto somehow managed to get Ero-Sennin to throw back the shot.

"Are you insane?" his guardian squeaked before his voice settled back into its normal range. Naruto suddenly felt a hell of a lot better about the odd squawks his own voice had dished out lately. "Nibi, he's a sadist of the worst sort. Take Shukaku, multiply that love of pain by seventeen, add to it that he was the property of the Shinigami, and you've got a hellcat. Not just any hellcat, but the hellcat that embodies darkness the way Shukaku embodies wind and the way Kyuubi was fire."

"Hey, I'm not dumb," said Naruto. "I did do some research. Sakura helped me look up all sorts of stuff before we left. Of course I know who Nekomata was before he got his sadistic ass locked up inside the woman I want to talk to." He pouted when Ero-Sennin didn't look like he believed him. Was it so hard to believe that he could do bookwork? He was studying those seal patterns as he had promised, and he was getting better.

"You are dumb, gaki. You want to go meet with that creature."

Naruto held his own in the glaring contest that commenced upon the completion of that insult. Oh, Ero-Sennin was going to pay for spelling that out for him. He was going to get broadsided by an awesome prank so badly that—! Naruto froze and blinked when he realized just what he needed to do.

"Thanks, Ero-Sennin!" he called as he leapt over tables in his haste to get out the door and back to his quiet room. He ignored the irritated shouts when his passage ruffled some wigs and whipped some papers into the air. Jiraiya's confused shouts and insults followed him down the hall and successfully drowned out the _noises_ until he was safely in the wing where his room was.

He fumbled with the door to his room for a moment before it finally submitted to his desire and slid politely aside to allow him entrance. It slipped shut just as nicely and Naruto could finally get to work. His pen scribbled nonsensically all over the paper until he was satisfied that he was holding something no sane person would be able to make heads or tails of. One could say it was a curiosity. Taking a kunai, he carefully cut the large page up into pieces. Grinning evilly, Naruto gathered the necessary chakra and summoned a small toad. He was pleased when he got Gamakichi.

"Naruto?" The orange toad yawned sleepily. "Watsup?"

"Not much," said Naruto, feigning casualness with some difficulty with triumph bubbling through his veins like some sort of heady drink. "I was just hoping you'd do me a favour."

"What kind of favour?" asked Gamakichi, and Naruto couldn't blame him. That water balloon prank hadn't gone very well for the toad at all in the last hotel.

"Nothing too dangerous." Naruto held out a piece of his ingenious letter of introduction. "I just need you to deliver this to someone in Kumogakure, if you could."

How Gamakichi managed to convey sarcasm with his bulbous eyes Naruto would never understand. However, the toad's expression somehow perfectly expressed "Oh, is that all?" without a word needing to be said. Even Naruto could appreciate this masterful display since he was so pumped up on success. He passed over Gaara's notes on Ni'i Yugito and let the toad look them over. Naruto's grin turned into a smirk when he heard the toad's sigh of agreement.

"I'm expected lots of payback for this," said the toad as Naruto folded up his message and handed it over. "I want no backtalk when I request food or drink the next time I hold a party without Pop's consent."

"Yeah, sure." Such things would be easy enough to secure when the time came considering just whom he was roaming over the continent with. "Leave this somewhere in her apartment where she's bound to find it, but not right off the bat. Make it look suspicious, but not like someone's stalking her. Got it?"

"I've got it, I've got it," said Gamakichi as Naruto drew up a seal to help the toad transfer to Kumo. The toad would have to find some other toad to finish it since Naruto didn't have any specs on that village, but his seal was imbued with enough of his chakra to get the young amphibian there and back home. "I'll see you around." He left only smoke in his wake.

Naruto smiled before settling down to come up with the perfect trick to play on Ero-Sennin. His note was just the beginning of what he had in store for Ni'i Yugito. He wasn't Konoha's greatest prankster for nothing, and curiosity was said to kill the cat. Hopefully, even hellcats possessed this fatal flaw.

* * *

"Kiri is showing signs of suspicion," said Shizune. "They haven't even been allowed twenty kilometres from Konoha yet. When they finally are, Kirigakure will definitely find out and—!"

"Silence!" thundered the Hokage, slamming her fist down on her oddly organized desk.

Her sake stash had been depleted for the month, and she had been left adrift and without excuses to put off her work. With Shizune's constant nagging and help, Tsunade had actually managed to get almost caught up on most of her paperwork to the astonishment of her aides and the advisors. The glee this had inspired among them had made Tsunade smile until she had realized that many of them had been holding off piling more issues in front of her because she was so behind. Thankfully, most of them were as reluctant to get too far ahead of schedule as she was.

"Hokage-sama," Shizune continued, "the Mizukage is not going to be pleased when he learns that Konoha has adopted two nukenin he has been hunting unsuccessfully for years and that we have placed them under our jurisdiction and protection. In fact, just based upon this suspicion, he has sent teams to harry our coastline. We cannot afford to fight a war with Water Country at the moment, not with Oto regrouping beyond the northern border and Iwa showing signs of limited aggression again on top of the Akatsuki threat!"

Tsunade silenced her with a glare. "You think I don't know this?" she said, shuffling papers detailing the strikes against her eastern coastline a ways north of the bridge to Wave Country. Some watchtowers on those cliffs would have to be repaired. Damn, yet another reason to sweet-talk the Daimyo. She hated those meetings. "Send in that team and call for the two ninja in question. We'll deal with this right now."

"But, Hokage-sama!"

"What is it now?"

"You promised Matsuku-san a twenty minute conference to verify your agreement with the hospital proposal and the staffing issue her department has been having."

Tsunade snarled at her desk and nodded unwillingly. Shizune scurried out of her office to see to her previous orders as the finance underling slipped in, burdened with a smaller stack of papers than usual.

"Good morning, Godaime-sama." The girl set a six-page summary of the hospital plan before her superior. "As you can see, the three departments have come to an agreement as long as the funds the Daimyo promised us do come through. They would just like some signatures to reassure the contractors."

"None of them had the guts to come before me, eh?" Tsunade chuckled as she pulled out a pen and skimmed over the details and technical drawings. Everything seemed in order, so she scrawled the necessary signatures all over the pages to make it official. "How bad were the arguments?"

"Not too bad according to Fumiaki-senpai. He told me that he just insisted it to be as economical as possible, which was a given seeing which department he was representing.

"Apparently, the hospital director, his board, and the department in charge of village direction did most of the squabbling. Fumiaki-senpai says they were all as interested in keeping costs down as our department was, so there wasn't much for him to do except nod as they proved that they were being as frugal as possible to get the best quality for Konoha's citizens. The others would start slapping the table and shouting over the smallest things though…"

Tsunade chuckled, handed the documents back, and signalled that Nariko could begin with her request.

"As you know, we're going to need a lot more hands on deck during the next three months. The entire department agrees that hiring a whole batch of temporary people isn't cost effective. I've spoken to the Financial Councillor—a very efficient man, by the way; he makes me feel like a disorganized snail—and he says that he usually just made do and subcontracted out to smaller Konoha firms a bit.

"Now, his idea worked very well under the Sandaime because the benefits structure wasn't quite the same as it is now. Subcontracting out to smaller firms works simply because they are so eager for any sort of work and are very willing to go more than one hundred percent to acquire those contracts, but unfortunately, there are always issues in communicating with the bigger firms that most of our shinobi patronize, like my old firm for example.

"It would be better simply to subcontract out to that firm, but I'll need your permission. The cost will work out to about the same since those large firms will subcontract out to those small firms in any case to even out the workload, but we won't have to deal with all of those individual contracts. Going through the larger firm will unfortunately mean we'll have to deal with Ii-san, but awarding them this contract should ease tensions between that sector and the Hokage."

"Still worried about that, eh?" This amused the Hokage to no end: Nariko didn't seem to be able to let go of that debt she owed the Sandaime for making sure she kept her old job when she hadn't had anywhere else to go. Sure, Ii-san had been very upset at the Hokage's interference, but it wasn't as if he could have done anything about it. The Hokage was the head of the village even ahead of all civilian leaders. What the Hokage ordered went unless the council had severe issues with it.

"It is better to be diplomatic if possible. Threatening a person with a fist makes them resentful. The horse will always work harder for the carrot than for the stick. Also, the horse is less likely to fight the carrot."

Tsunade smiled slyly. "You've been reading up on proverbs?"

"My father was a fan of passing on little tidbits of wisdom at dinner. My mother would not allow him to speak over her head, so he related what he thought important in terms she could understand. Her family is from a rural background, so these bits of wisdom were couched in terms she was familiar with."

Tsunade nodded absently. "I see no reason to prevent the scheme from going through. Start making the arrangements and keep me up-to-date. Write up those old contracts just in case Ii-san proves resistant to the carrot offering."

Nariko smiled, her eyes crinkled with amusement as she bowed and collected her papers. "Thank you, Godaime-sama. We will see to it," she promised as she made her way to the door.

It swung open before she could touch the doorknob, and Tsunade's brow crinkled when Nariko froze like a frightened rabbit as Kakashi came through the door with Sasuke and Sakura trailing behind him like obedient puppies. Tsunade doubted that Kakashi had noticed: the reaction had mostly been in the way the shoulder blades pinched together under that loose tunic and the way the muscles of the lower back had tensed. Tsunade had seen similar reactions in people around killers and in horses around hunting dogs: an animalistic reaction, one that was just the beginning of the body's sympathetic nervous system's flight response. Just what had Kakashi done to warrant it?

Tsunade put the matter aside when the girl relaxed and smiled at Naruto's old team before slipping out the door.

The Godaime smirked at them from behind her laced fingers. They looked so odd without a blonde head of hair mixed in with the white, black, and pink. Even they seemed to realize this: they seemed almost awkward about their lack. It would be interesting to watch them cope with this particular mission. Two jounin and three chuunin ought to be able to handle repelling those raiders.

"Team Kakashi, you are being temporarily reformed again to deal with an A-rank mission of a diplomatic sort. We are just waiting for the arrival of a couple other members of your team."

She took the wait as an opportunity to assess her young pupil. Sakura certainly looked the part of a successful Konoha chuunin: she was vaguely reminiscent of Genma with her green kerchief covering her hair, though Genma had never put his leaf engraved plate on his bandana. She had sacrificed her clan clothing for the sake of practicality and uniformity: the only scrap of red on her was a sash around her waist with her clan symbol printed on it. Her chuunin vest was worn over a red-brown shirt and black leggings: both were good choices for blending into Fire Country's landscape. Sakura wasn't quite powerful enough yet that standing out like a beacon would have been a good plan. Besides, what good would she be as a medic-nin if she were immediately picked off by ranged fighters?

Those that were easily picked out were the first to have their throats cut. Tsunade was glad she had managed to pound that lesson into the girl's skull. Sakura was too concerned with her appearance for a combat medic. The sooner she got over that when out on missions, the better. At least Kakashi had gotten the lesson about concealing her hair through on that Wave Country mission last year.

Sasuke was as dark as ever, though at least it was dark green and blue like his sensei. The only colours that defied this were the same red and white of his teammate, though his clan symbol was simply the uchiwa fan on his sleeve. Why did all clans have to be so picky about markings? It was hard to hide identity with those emblems all over clothing.

At least Hatake was beyond that, though his hair was a dead giveaway. She knew from looking at his old reports that he had been identified because of that stupid hair more times than she was willing to take the time to count. Maybe he should have followed his own advice. What was the point of covering the lower half of his face anyway? She had always wondered since the cloth was stretchy enough to give away the facial structure beneath it. It served no purpose.

She shook off those thoughts as Shizune finally escorted the two former nukenin into her office.

"Team Kakashi, I'm sure you remember this duo," she said, hiding her amusement at their reactions. Kakashi looked unimpressed as usual, Zabuza seemed rather insulted, Haku smiled pleasantly, and Sasuke and Sakura were comical in their ill-concealed surprise. "They will be joining your team for their first appropriately ranked mission for ninja of their abilities as ranking Konoha ninja outside of the outskirts of the village. You will be assessing their performance upon your return and making recommendations about whether their probation should end a year earlier than planned."

She nodded to Shizune, who passed over the mission scroll she had probably just finished writing up. "There have been problems on the coast. Kiri-nin are harassing a Fire Country watchtower there. Go investigate and don't cause a diplomatic incident if it can be avoided. War is not something we need at the moment."

Team Kakashi, Haku, and Zabuza nodded their understanding, some more willingly than others.

She shot a pointed glare at the sullen former Devil of the Mist. "No separating heads from bodies unless it is necessary." She was pleased when he seemed a little cowed. Letting him watch one of her training sessions with Sakura had been a good idea. That demonstration of the power of a finger must have gotten through to him as anticipated. "Get going."


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter 49: Lovers in Spite

It was good to run through the canopy again. He had stopped speed training with Kakashi and his mother months ago simply because he was as fast as he was going to get under them. It was a waste of their time to work on that with him, but that didn't stop him from the missing those high adrenaline tag-like sessions where he had either been made to evade his instructor at the time or to attempt to catch him. Missions were the only times he got to really stretch his legs now. This one was especially good since the watchtower was almost halfway to the northern Fire Country border, which meant they had to trek south a bit, and Konoha was quite a ways west of the coast. The day promised to be full of running. It almost made him grin.

Sakura picked up momentum beside him, pushing off a thick bough and correcting her course so she was leaping level with him. Missions always brought back the harmony that had existed before Naruto had left, though there was a noticeable gap that the three remaining had to stretch a bit to fill. Naruto's attitude and stamina were hard to replace. He had been their centre point and the most comfortable bugging Kakashi into explaining things for them. Sasuke and Sakura didn't quite mesh. She had been a fangirl; of course, they weren't going to mesh. She was better now, but still…

"Only eight more hours," said Haku from behind them. The pretty-boy was serving as the rear-guard simply because his senses were on level with Kakashi's after living as a hunted creature for years.

"Yeah," said Sakura, sparing a smile over her shoulder for Haku. "I hope the weather stays nice."

Haku brightened at her friendliness after the silence that had endured since they had shot out the gates yesterday morning.

"It doesn't matter," said Sasuke, almost angry for some reason he didn't want to analyse. "The weather won't change what we have to do." Something unclenched inside him when Sakura frowned at him.

"You don't have to be such a bastard about it," she said, and he almost grinned. This was better.

Instead, he smirked and gathered some momentum by ricocheting off a series of branches and trunks, his eyes scanning his side of the path, using exaggerated motions to remind Sakura of her similar duty. She grumbled something rude under her breath and complied before ticking him off again by chatting with Haku about how his time in Konoha had been since they had last run into each other.

Zabuza glanced back at him as Sasuke closed the distance between himself and the two jounin. "What's got you in such a snit?"

Sasuke's scowl etched deeper lines in his pale face.

"Ah," explained his sensei apologetically with his usual touch of embarrassment, "he's always like this. Naruto always described him as having a stick up his ass. While rather graphic, Naruto does know him best."

Sasuke's formerly charitable thoughts about his absent best friend dissolved at this reminder. He tried to burn a hole in his sensei's head with the force of his glare, but Kakashi's skull proved unfortunately resistant. The jounin was definitely going to pay for that jab during their next lesson. Electrocution would have to be enough after the mission was safely over. "What is known about the situation?"

"Supposedly, a trio of Kiri-nin are wreaking havoc on one of the Daimyo's outposts," said Kakashi. "Intel claims that the ninja are high chuunin level at least considering the destruction they have wrought upon the tower and its supplies. No citizens have been killed as of yet, but Hokage-sama assumes that it is only a matter of time. What wasn't said was why this attack was happening. Scouts didn't find any concrete evidence of motivation.

"The mission scroll cites the defection of Zabuza and Haku to Konoha as the most likely reason, but even that assumption doesn't explain everything." Kakashi eye-smiled at him over his shoulder, signalling that that was all the information he was going to hand out for free.

* * *

Sakura stifled a grin when the sea air finally hit her nose. They were close! The smell of the brine filled her with a sort of glee despite the winter cold. Despite all of the different missions she had taken on since becoming a chuunin, the one that stuck with her the most was the one in Wave Country. She had loved standing on the bridge in the mornings and watching the rising sun burn the mist away. The cries of the gulls and mournful howl of the sea wind had resonated within her during those moments when even Naruto hadn't reached out to her.

Being the only girl on her team was lonely. She knew that Ino could relate to an extent, but Ino could handle anything. Sakura envied Hinata for having Kurenai-sensei.

When they finally leaped out of the canopy and ran off their impact with the ground, Sakura allowed her grin to flourish. This was what she had been missing!

The coastline was beautiful in its desolation. The cliffs she could trace north and south formed a rugged bastion against the advance of the stormy grey sea that clawed at it with icy, frothy, white fingers, trying to breech this last defence of the land against the salt and sand. Various boulders that had fallen in this last resistance caused the watery enemy to ripple and burble with a strange sort of rage. That vague, crushing cry of the ocean sang in her ears, rushing like a muffled echo of the blood flowing through her veins so quickly because her long run. The winter sun looked down upon this bleak scene uninterestedly, its weak rays barely creating the gleam she was so used to seeing on the streams around Konoha on the ceaselessly moving sea.

This, she loved this. She didn't quite know why: it lacked the lush greenery of Konoha. The vegetation on these barren cliffs was sparse and windblown. Everything seemed even bleaker than normal since winter had turned the grasses brown and stripped the brambles of their leaves, but she hardly cared. It was like coming home.

"Pay attention," said Sasuke from beside her.

She was surprised that he had lingered. If Naruto had been with them, Sasuke would have wandered about halfway ahead, leaving Naruto to cajole her out of her trance. Yet again, she saw how they had changed to fill the gap he had left. She shoved some wayward strands of hair back under her bandana as she gathered the energy to follow him.

She struggled to suppress her weary shout of triumph when signs of habitation finally appeared. The tower startled her. It would have to be condemned: there was no way it would stay standing in the furious winter storms that were so common to this region, not with the cliff shorn off right before its doorstep.

She could see the bones of the stone that had once been part of that mighty rock face in the sea at its foot, giving the sea more reason to froth, spray, and throw the detritus it carried at the precipice base. Tsunade-shishou could have done this, yes, but not easily. A huge chunk of the cliff had fallen away, shorn with incredible precision so that its absence threatened the watchtower without actually damaging it. The entire thing must have taken careful planning. It was easy for ninja to decimate the landscape, but it was extremely difficult to do so with such artistic accuracy.

Fear made her fumble the next stride, though she could easily pass it off as weariness if Sasuke asked. His dark grey gaze told her that he knew though, and she might have said he agreed.

When they stopped at the watchtower door, it was difficult to resist the urge to brace her hands on her knees and pant for breath. It was beyond her to suppress the need to gasp in great lungfuls of air, though she did try to force her inhalations and exhalations into a quieter pattern to salvage her dignity. She wasn't very successful. She could feel her pulse pounding through the roof of her mouth; it was a very odd feeling that meant she had pushed her limits a little farther than she should have. Shishou was going to make her run lots of laps if she heard about this.

As Kaka-sensei set about convincing the guards that they were from Konoha and that, yes, they had been sent to help figure this mess out, Sakura gazed down at the grey sea, which had darkened to a blue-grey colour now that evening was well on its way to becoming night. Mist was ghosting above the murky surface as the cold winter night began reversing the evaporation the light of the winter sun had allowed. Clouds had turned the sky a blue-grey, though its shade was much less ominous than the sea's.

She crouched down and plucked a couple blades to crumple in her fingers as the regular soldier fiddled with his serge uniform. Poor lout looked cream-coloured despite the way the harsh weather had browned his skin. He was all but quaking in his boots and his eyes flickered faster than Sasuke-kun could flash around with Shunshin. She couldn't blame him. His post was an accident just waiting to happen, and it was likely he or his comrades would be the next to fall.

She wandered just a little closer to the edge of the precipice and watched the white gulls soar just above the swells searching in vain for dinner. They should have gone a little farther south; they would have better luck there. The only reason they were probably still around was because they were raiding the tower's garbage heap.

Sasuke's elbow brought her back to herself.

She glared at him and rubbed her ribs. "What?"

"We've secured accommodations on the ground floor of the tower. One room only, but it will large enough to hold all of us. Kakashi wants us to go up to the room where they keep the beacon. He wants maps again." He was always so curt now, so impatient. She wished Naruto were around to lighten the mood.

Sakura nodded, following Sasuke-kun through the door warily. Her alertness seemed to make the troops hanging around cringe, though a couple of them laughed and whistled mockingly. She clenched her fist. These bastards must have been deprived of female company for a long time for them to be stupid enough to consider even approaching a fourteen-year-old kunoichi.

Something about her expression must have frightened them because they paled and backed off, though she wasn't quite sure why whispers "red and black" and "unnatural" followed her and Sasuke into their room, which was dark, dank, and cramped. The candles they had been provided barely cast enough light to see. In short, it was just what she had expected from what looked like a medieval fortress in miniature. It was a good thing that not all of them would be sleeping in here at a time.

She shrugged off her concern and set down her light pack, equipping herself with the extra weaponry she had brought along and shoving a couple bandage rolls into her shuriken pouch before pulling out her small sextant, notepad, compass, ruler, and pencil. She leaned against the clammy stone and watched Kakashi and Zabuza discuss watches during the night while Haku inspected each of his senbon before slipping them away into secret caches in his clothes.

"Are you ready?" asked Sasuke, standing in the door with that same pinched, impatient look on his face that he always seemed to wear around her now. It always made her feel as though she was some deadweight he was dragging around out of duty. She hated it.

She was trying so hard, but it never seemed to be enough for him. She was always the inferior one, always the one that had to be poked, prodded, and pushed along like some sort of spoiled brat. She wanted to shake his teeth out and scream at him sometimes, especially right now. She was the one that had been waiting for him. Clenching her teeth on her indignant shouts, she nodded as she brushed past him on her way out the door. She could sense three pairs of eyes watching them, observing their disharmony. Let them see just how much Sasuke annoyed her instead of the other way around!

She glanced up, up, up at the crude spiral staircase that ran up the tower. Fortunately, there was a narrow, unblocked shaft in the very centre of this stairway. Placing herself at the middle of this free space, she crouched a bit and gathered as much chakra as she needed to the balls of her feet before giving a mighty push and launching herself as far up as she could before bouncing off the stone rails the rest of the way.

This tower had be really old; she hadn't seen stonework like this even in those old abandoned metropolises she had passed through on her way to other mission locations. This masonry had to predate even those ghost cities.

She landed on the platform where the main components of the lighthouse function of this outpost were stored just as she had started: in a crouch. Sasuke flashed into existence by her side a moment later, scaring out whatever urine had been leftover in the soldier watching over the bonfire and the mirror after her precipitous arrival. She would have smirked at the man's petrified expression, but there were rules about this sort of thing.

Donning a sheepish grin, she approached the young man with her hands extended in an unthreatening manner. "Sorry about that, we didn't mean to scare you so badly."

She kept her eyes away from the dark patch on the man's pants to keep from giggling. It was hard enough to keep a grin off her face with Sasuke undermining her words by smirking cruelly behind her. He didn't have a very good way of dealing with civilians, though technically this man didn't count as one. He was a regular military man.

"Ah," the soldier managed to get out after a long pause.

It was hard to keep from giggling. "We'll take over for a bit. You can go change while we keep things from falling apart up here." It was amusing to watch him flee, red with embarrassment, down the steps as fast as he could go. Maybe she could have handled that a bit better… Once he was out of range, she rounded on Sasuke. "You could have been more sensitive. You didn't need to scare him like that."

"Hn," he grunted as he stepped onto the low sill and headed for the roof above the flare.

She scowled and pushed the mirror through one pass, directing the beam of light out in a slow sweep through the fog before following him up. It was so easy for her to affix herself to the wall with chakra now. She had never had trouble with it, but it was almost automatic now. She had alarmed her parents on more than one occasion by affixing herself to the wall or to the ceiling to do chores more easily. They were getting used to it, but it was still so easy to startle them that way.

It made her sort of sad that they regarded her almost as an oddity for being able to do such things. Her definition of normal had shifted and her parents weren't shifting with it fast enough. There was a rift growing between them; she could feel it widening every day. The gulf always seemed so vast just after she came home from a mission pumped up with renewed determination to advance. It almost took two days to settle back in with her parents now, and it hurt. She envied Sasuke and Ino, who had families that did exactly the same sorts of things they did. They didn't have to worry about freaking out their parents because of kunai being left to dry on the dish rack or because clothes torn in so many places from enemy projectiles were soaking off bloodstains in the bathroom sink.

"I call north," she said as she pulled out her compass and checked her bearings. Usually, they called east and west, but that wouldn't work in this case. East was ocean and that was only too easy to map.

* * *

Naruto leaned back against the base of the tree, taking shelter from the gentle winter rains that might have been snow if it had been fifteen degrees colder. Ero-Sennin was dozing by the fire. Naruto was preparing to send his next note to Ni'i-san. He had some fuzzy ideas about having Gamakichi stick that one in her shower or something. He didn't even know if she had a shower now that he thought about it. What if she lived in a dorm or something?

He must have said the last part out loud because Ero-Sennin gleefully muttered something about communal showers before starting to scribble more of his book. Naruto cringed. Ye gods, he was giving the pervert _ideas_! It was bad enough that Jiraiya would ask him to use Orioke no Jutsu every once in a while. Naruto was going to kill Kaka-sensei for telling this super-pervert about it. Naruto hadn't liked getting a taste of his own medicine when Jiraiya had started badgering him about using the jutsu on a daily basis while they had been staying in the desert. He had refused even when various techniques (but not Hiraishin) were offered as bribes. There was no way he was going to make that mistake twice. The one time he had given in and transformed, he had felt as though someone had dunked him in a vat of sewage. How did women stand Ero-Sennin looking at them like that?

He put the horrible thought aside and selected the next piece of the note to send. He could only hope that the Nibi container hadn't ripped the first one to shreds. If she had, she was going to have a hell of a time deciphering his message. Maybe he would have Gamakichi drop some water balloons on her if she had. Cats were supposed to hate water.

"She's got this really empty flat," the toad said when Naruto summoned him. "It's really hard to get inside, but I managed by going through the ventilation ducts. If I'd been a bit bigger, I would have gotten stuck. As it was, getting the grills off was hard enough. Those Kumo people must have a rat problem or something. There's no way they'd need that many wire meshes at every intersection otherwise. What a pain in the ass. You owe me big."

It seemed she was more paranoid that Kaka-sensei. It was a good thing he hadn't tried to send her a note straight out; she might have gutted him. He shivered as he remembered one of the corpses he had seen with that very problem during his stint on burial detail after the Oto-Suna invasion. He really hadn't needed to know what his intestines looked like, especially not how they would look after being slashed up by kunai. It was hard to push that thought away and focus of what Gamakichi was saying.

"Anyway, now that I've been inside, I should be able to get in again without as many problems. The entire flat smells like cat piss even though there aren't any signs of cats living in it. That building had a big 'no pets' policy too."

That was a little surprising. What smelled like cat piss that wasn't actually cat piss that could have gotten into an apartment as heavily guarded as Yugito's sounded without leaving any traces of its presence? He would have to ask her about it if Gamakichi couldn't figure it out.

"That's awesome," he crowed instead of asking the young toad to keep an eye peeled for the reason. There was no point: he obviously was just as curious as Naruto was, though in a slightly more cynical manner. "Are you up for delivering another one?"

"Why not?" said Gamakichi, handing over the now complete seal that Naruto had given him last time. "Got anywhere in particular that you want me to put this one?"

Naruto redid a couple lines and imbued chakra into the pattern. "Has she got a kitchen sink?"

"Yup, it's full of dishes, or it was when I was there last."

"Stick it in the drying rack then."

* * *

Kakashi sighed as he shot up the chute in the centre of the stairs, heading for the roof. The soldier that had just come off duty in the lighthouse tower claimed that they had been up above his head the whole time. Kakashi had noted that his pants were far too clean before investigating. He slipped past the current mirror attendant and crouched on the edge of the roof eighty metres above the cliff and about three hundred metres above the surface of the ocean. It was a good thing he was immune to heights. This roof was very old and was pretty slick from the fog. What were those brats still doing up here? Haku had been out patrolling for the last two hours without incident, but it would be Sakura's turn next. She would need some time to nap if she was going to be any use at all in the fog.

When his pupils finished adjusting to the sudden lack of light after the bonfire in the tower, he desperately wished he had a camera. Naruto would hate that he had missed this. They had both obviously been wearier than they would admit to from running for almost two days straight. He had expected this from Sakura—stamina really wasn't her thing—but Sasuke had apparently overdone it as well. Kakashi suspected it was because the Uchiha had relied heavily on his eyes for creating his portion of the map. They were propped up against each other, back to back, both dead to the world since neither of them responded when he manipulated some chakra to stay on the slippery roof as he picked his way over the fragmented shingles to their side.

At least they hadn't let their maps blow away. He plucked the notepads from their slackening fingers, making a mental note to do some awareness training with them later, and looked over their sketches. Sasuke's was more detailed, but he had expected that from his perfectionist student. The boy had been obsessive about acquiring this skill since Sakura had proven to be superior at it.

Kakashi was almost fiendishly glad that the Uchiha was developing a minor rivalry with his Haruno teammate. With Naruto gone, Sasuke's main competition had fallen away, leaving Sasuke without any real drive except the compulsion to absolutely crush his older brother. Revenge was empowering to be sure, but not quite the sort of drive Kakashi wanted to see in his most obsessive student. He doubted Sakura would really appreciate this, but her progress in her chosen field was making Sasuke feel threatened.

He considered pushing both his students off the roof. They would have woken up and saved themselves from a very painful landing… probably. He tilted his head to the side, weighing the consequences, but Haku's arrival at his side prevented him from carrying out this dastardly plan. Oh well, they would learn eventually, though hopefully not the hard way with a kunai to the throat. He couldn't afford to shelter them as much as he had when they had been genin: they were heading into too much danger to be allowed to retain bad habits. Bad habits could get them killed or worse. He was somewhat mollified when Sasuke snapped awake at Haku's single misstep. It did his poor ego good to know that his jounin training had kept him from the detection of chuunin.

It was amusing to watch Sasuke figure out what had happened, but the expression on Haku's normally serene face told him that not everything was right. He could only watch the horror and muffled embarrassment grow on his student's face out of the corner of his eye while Haku pulled out a senbon almost nervously and twirled it around his finger in a manner so similar to the way Genma had that it made something in his chest ache with guilt. "There are presences that don't belong."

Kakashi nodded, encouraging Haku to continue as Sasuke shook Sakura awake. At least the girl came to awareness without making much noise. She hadn't had that ability as a genin. That was the reason he had always given her first watch before: waking her up in the middle of the night was bound to result in everyone else being woken as well.

"What's going on?" she whispered, but Sasuke silenced her with a glare. Sakura didn't respond negatively, but Kakashi wasn't blind, not by a long shot. He suppressed the urge to shake his head dolefully. Kakashi had been really dreading this. Sakura's temper was only getting worse as time went on. Even Sasuke's immunity seemed to be wearing out. The boy would find this out within the next two months; Kakashi would put money on it. He really hoped he would be around to watch.

"I cannot see anything, but there have been noises just under the sound of the water that make me believe that we are not as alone as we would like."

For three tense minutes, they all strained their ears to the limit. Kakashi didn't hear anything definite, but he wasn't surprised. No doubt Haku had been detected as well.

"Sakura," he said, "go alert Zabuza about the situation. Sasuke, Haku, fan out along the cliff and see what you come up with. Stay in touch with radios on channel one seven three. Sakura, you will join up with Haku. Send Zabuza to Sasuke."

He shot down towards the flying surf and stood on the boulders that had once been part of the cliff. He perched just above the spray of the waves, breathing deeply and searching through the various layers of scent for something that didn't belong. Even as he did this, he summoned Pakkun and Akino.

"Now what?" The dun mutt almost lost his shades as he sneezed at the spray. "This had better be good. I hate swimming. Your last mission sucked."

Kakashi ignored Akino's grumbling as Pakkun hopped onto his shoulder to get a better view.

"Not a very nice location," the pug said. "My paws are going to get chapped."

Kakashi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Maybe his nin-dogs were worse than teenagers. Sakura had stopped complaining about her nails after the first three weeks. Pakkun had been grousing about damaging his soft paws for six years now.

"What scent are we supposed to be sniffing out?" Akino asked, getting down to business and testing the temperature of the water with a tentative paw.

"Kiri-nin," Kakashi said.

"Ah," said Pakkun as Akino jumped onto another boulder, searching for a better position to catch the wind before he was forced to walk on the icy waves among the mist. Why did Kiri always have to use mist and fog? It was like unintentional advertising. "This isn't the best place to be doing it."

Kakashi's silence said, "No kidding" just as well as any words would have. Pakkun hopped off his shoulder and trotted out onto the roiling surface of the water daintily. It was too tempting to snort with amusement at the pug's antics. He had the feeling that this would take a while.

* * *

Sasuke ran along the edge of the cliff. "No sign yet," he said into the microphone, hoping his estimation of the distance between himself and Haku was correct.

These radios could only cover about three kilometres, cheap pieces of junk that they were. They were the best on the market though. Technology had been hit hard in the years since those old, technologically advanced cities had been left to rot, like the one where one of the Uchiha storehouses was. Seiji had escorted him to one only four months ago as part of the last stages of his Uchiha education, which Seiji was ill-equipped to oversee. The cats there hadn't been respectful when dealing with him, though Sasuke hadn't had any problems. Seiji wasn't what one would call a model Uchiha though.

"It is the same here," murmured Haku. "The weather is to their advantage. It is as natural for a Kiri-nin to hide in the mist as it is for a Konoha-nin to take shelter in the trees."

Sasuke didn't spare a reply. Haku would know, considering his background. Maybe that was why the former Kiri-nin had been split up and assigned to work with Sakura and himself, though Kakashi also could have done it to ensure that both former nukenin were under constant observation.

"Haku, what's your position?" asked Sakura.

"A kilometre north of the tower. I'll wait for you."

"Sasuke," grunted Zabuza over the radio, "stay put. Give me thirty seconds. Where's the mongrel?"

"On the water," said Sasuke, locating a tree he could wait in and quickly scaling it despite the needles it wore and the sap trailing in great gobs down its sides. "Haku, Sakura, any farther and we're going to be out of range."

"Understood," said his teammate, her anxiety obvious.

"Don't worry," Haku reassured them through the line. "We shall be fine. She is with me now. Zabuza-san will take care of you."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. He glared down at Zabuza's smirk, which was hidden beneath layers of linen bandages.

"Come on, Poky," the old jounin cajoled him mockingly from the base of the tree. "We've got cliffs to cover, or is that stick rubbing your ass raw?"

Zabuza was going to get murdered if he kept this up, especially since the last thing he heard from Haku and Sakura were stifled sniggers before they moved out of range

* * *

Sakura tried to catch her second wind as Haku imitated a startled deer and glanced around. Whatever had alerted her partner was too quiet to be heard over the sound of her heart labouring to push the blood required by every bit of her body. She quieted her breathing as much as possible when Haku set a warning hand on her shoulder and hand-signed that they find cover.

Sakura slipped away and pulled on her gloves with a bit of dread. Was she ready to take on a very powerful jounin?

There was no warning for her other than the slight whisper of air behind her. The scream didn't even have time to rise in her throat.

* * *

Tsunade glanced worriedly down at the document, not quite believing her eyes. This was horrible. She closed her eyes and shook her head a couple times before reading over the text again.

"Dear participant,

Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that your name has been drawn for the grand prize of—"

She stopped reading and set the letter back down on her desk.

"Shizune! Get Kurenai in here!" She had a very bad feeling about this. She hadn't gotten lucky like this since just before Dan had died.

* * *

Kakashi winced and wished that his nose were perhaps just a little less keen as the horrible breath of the Kiri-nin hit him. He continued straining against the man's brute strength though since disengaging to grab some fresh air was likely to get him killed. Kunai scraped harshly against ninjatou as both ninja sought to prove themselves the more powerful. He couldn't even squint in response to the gag-worthy smell since doing so would blind him to the hints the man's muscles gave him as to where the next strike would come from. This was why he hated close-range fighting.

Akino latched onto the man's leg with a snarl that made something lurch faintly inside Kakashi, perhaps some primal fear or perhaps the schism shifting ominously. He battened down on his emotions and refocused as Pakkun went for the Achilles tendon.

The enemy jounin kicked the pug away, but puncture wounds bled sluggishly into the roiling ocean beneath their feet. Blood and water reminded him of one of his old missions in Water Country. There were sharks out there. He really hoped there weren't any this close to shore.

Pakkun darted back into the fray out of the fog, this time managing to avoid the impact of the heel and latching onto the calf muscle. The man's cheek muscle twitched in response to the pain as Kakashi took advantage of the fact that both of the jounin's legs were incapacitated to some extent and delivered a gut wound before disengaging from their pushing war and sidestepping to allow the man's force to slide uselessly forward. The other jounin had obviously expected this because he recovered quickly and slashed at Akino's neck with his ninjatou.

Kakashi launched several shuriken as he worked his way around to the side to attempt to stave off the blow that looked like it would be fatal, but he was a little too late. Akino flung himself into the water to get away from the blade even as Pakkun snarled around his mouthful of calf and bandages. Cold fury threatened to overwhelm reason when Akino didn't immediately reappear. Kakashi pushed up his forehead protector and almost sighed as the chakra drain hit him even as his vision improved and his depth perception returned. He set his features in the stone mask of a killer he had worn so many times that it didn't bother him any longer.


	50. Chapter 50

Chapter 50: Blind Hermit

Sasuke rolled under the glaive, working to figure out where this kunoichi would strike next. She was snakelike in her motions and was difficult for him to predict. Unfortunately, her glaive gave her a longer reach than he was used to. Long-range weapons were something he didn't have a lot of experience countering. Maybe he would see if Tenten would be willing to help him remedy this.

This kunoichi didn't seem to have an area of expertise: one moment she used her glaive, the next she lashed out with a hail of watery bullets to cancel out his katon jutsu, and after that she forced him to dispel her genjutsu. The horrible thing was that she didn't use handseals for some reason. All of her ninjutsu and genjutsu attacks came without warning and from nowhere and everywhere. Also, her chakra aura was strange looking. It didn't deplete when she did use techniques, though it did drain when she used taijutsu. Where had he seen this pattern before…?

Indignation interrupted his musings as the glaive slashed deeply into his shoulder. He snarled and ignored the wound so that he would not become victim to another.

"Ah, Zabuza dear, it's wonderful to have the chance to slit your throat," she crooned at she took pot shots at the man with kunai since he was hanging back. Sasuke had every intention of telling the Hokage about his lack of assistance. "After what you dared to try, it will be a pleasure. Do you have any idea what the size the bounty on your head is?"

"No," grunted the former nukenin passively, pulling his sword off his back as passing it from hand to hand as Sasuke flashed out of range of her wickedly sharp glaive. "Don't even try to tell me that's why you're here. You didn't even know that I would be coming."

"True," she said in a singsong tone as Sasuke gathered the chakra to dispel her latest genjutsu weaving. "This meeting is just an added bonus to my assignment. You live only on borrowed time. I intend to collect the interest." She was fading out of sight and nothing he was doing was countering this. What the hell?

"Then what is that asshole trying to do?" asked Zabuza, batting aside kunai with the flat of his blade.

Sasuke looked hard at their point of origin, but there was nothing. If she had been there, she was already gone.

She laughed, her voice echoing oddly around the clearing, as though she was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "Wouldn't you like to know? Stick around and maybe I'll tell you before I cut off your head to bring back home for Mizukage-sama!"

Sasuke's eyes scoured the clearing, but her laughter faded away, leaving only the wind rustling the trees and grasses the only sound his ears could pick up on. Damn.

"Don't bother, Poky," said Zabuza, slinging his sword behind his back again. "She's not here. She never was. It's not her style to put herself in danger. That was Mizu Bunshin."

Now Sasuke knew where he had seen that pattern before: Naruto's clones, the ones that had only done taijutsu, had had a similar chakra aura and drain pattern. How had he missed that?

"She's put her own spin on it over the years so that she never has to fight directly. She's gotten even better with it."

Sasuke snarled. He would have been impressed when Zabuza ignored his rage had he not been so pissed off. "Why didn't you tell me?" He had half a mind to redeem himself by taking Zabuza out.

"Calm down, brat. I wanted to get a feel for how much your fighting style has changed since we last faced off and how much she had advanced. You did a good job as a guinea pig. You still haven't got much of a killer instinct though. You held back. You could have destroyed her clone six times."

Sasuke flushed with embarrassment and rage. _No killer instinct…!_

"You're too soft. You won't make it as a ninja if you aren't willing to take down opponents when they get in your way. Compassion is for those that have time to fix things and don't have to worry about knives in the back. Compassion is for civilians, not ninja. We're tools made to kill. Accept it and learn to do it well enough that you don't get killed in turn."

"Who are you to talk? You didn't kill us the first time you saw us even though you could have." It stung Sasuke's pride to admit it, but it was true. "You played with us. You could have sliced Tazuna and my team to ribbons during that fight, but you didn't." Sasuke felt a rush of satisfaction when Zabuza glared back, his face hardening, but it didn't dispel the wrath that was roiling through him.

"Back to the tower," ordered the jounin in a dead tone. "We need to know that Haku, your teammate, and that dog haven't gotten into trouble. That kunoichi is done for tonight."

Sasuke glared at the spot where Zabuza had stood, helplessly enraged with nothing to take it out on anymore. He had been brutally disgraced. How had he not noticed that the woman was a clone? He had let his emotions cloud his judgement. His mother would be disappointed when she heard about this. She always insisted a cool head was needed in battle for true understanding of an opponent's moves to be reached. Shame left a bitter taste on his tongue as he clenched his fists. He had been improving; he knew that he had been. Why was he still so far behind though?

Orochimaru had wanted him, he remembered. Naruto had told him that the slimy git had offered the clone training, but it had been odd. There had only been signs that he had wanted to bite him and take his sister away.

Still mulling over that, Sasuke sprinted after the probationary jounin. Sasuke wondered if perhaps he would have realized that the woman was a clone if he had trained under Orochimaru.

* * *

Sakura bit back a scream of pure pain when the knife lanced through her thigh muscle. She stumbled back and raised her hands to try to catch herself. She was almost relieved when her back hit a tree trunk until a strangled shout from Haku made her look up. She regretted it when a kunai pinned her to the lonely pine tree through her left palm.

_Pain! Fury! Terror! Pain!_

Her mind couldn't cope with this agony, so she whimpered for a few moments, her nerves screaming bloody murder as she desperately tried to gather enough chakra to perform a healing technique to stop the river of blood running down over her knee into her sandal, making shifting her weight to try to pull the stake out of her hand without moving that appendage too much a very squishy process. She hiccupped as she cried from the bitter pain, using her right hand to yank out the dagger and to heal the damage to those essential muscles in her leg.

She was so slow! So much training under Shishou and she still took so long to mend a simple knife wound that didn't feel quite so simple when she was the victim. Countless hours at the hospital and it still took so many agonizing seconds to get her leg to stop shrieking as Haku fended off the jounin as best he could without her.

Useless! Why was she always so damn useless?

"Hurry, Sakura," called Haku with fragile sounding calm as he wove through the hail of shuriken and deflected those that were on a course that would send them thudding into her. "You are a sitting target."

His pleas didn't help her shattering mental state much. When at last her leg was mended, she bit down hard on her lip and gingerly grasped the kunai hilt. The tiny increase in pressure from her grip made her teeth sink into the flesh of her lower lip, adding minutely to her pain.

Haku's warning shout made her waver. It was horrifying to watch the kunai and shuriken coming. She could see them spinning or simply flying straight at her with deadly intent through the darkness only because the weak light of the moon reflected off their metallic surfaces. Every instinct in her screamed that she had to move, but she couldn't without damaging her left hand beyond her skill to heal. She dug her last three kunai out and threw them awkwardly, deflecting some of the hail, but not enough. Fear froze her and adrenaline-fuelled impulse battled to make her move; fear won. She wailed when Haku failed to deflect a shuriken, and it bit deeply into her side before coming to a halt deep in her flesh.

Haku's renewed and almost frantic sounding pleas for her to unpin herself were the only thing that made her grasp the kunai through the haze of agony and wriggle it out of the tree and out of her hand.

* * *

Sasuke winced at Sakura's tortured howls as they crackled through the radio. Kakashi would have to wait. Zabuza changed course as well despite the slight sense that both of them had that not all was right at the tower. The beam of light from the lighthouse wasn't making proper passes through the fog, but neither of them cared all that much with Haku's entreaties for speed and Sakura's whimpers coming over the radio. The only good thing about being able to hear this was that they knew that the other two were still alive and kicking somewhat, though Sakura didn't sound like she was doing much kicking at the moment.

Worry gave him the push he needed to get ahead of Zabuza and to reach the clearing first, one of his kunai nailing the enemy ninja at the base of his skull. The man dispersed into a puddle of water, but Sasuke was already after the next clone while he searched for the location of the original. Haku's near sigh of relief crackled over the radio and mollified Sasuke's earlier embarrassment to an extent that allowed him to stop acting like a crazed animal and truly take stock of the situation. He grimaced when he saw the damage that Sakura had sustained even as Zabuza arrived on the scene by bisecting a bunshin almost casually as his eyes flicked over Haku, checking to make sure the chuunin was not badly hurt.

"I thought you'd do better," he grumbled as he stalked into the woods, hunting down the source.

Haku hung his head and trailed after him, leaving Sasuke to glare at their retreating backs as he closed the distance to his fallen teammate. She was crumpled at the base of a pine, her maimed hand cradled against her chest even as a shuriken wound in her side bled sluggishly, staining her chuunin vest red in the dim moonlight. Her right hand was surrounded by a green glow, healing both wounds at once. Sasuke was impressed by how quickly she was minimizing the damage. Watching her repair herself reminded him of the deep shoulder wound he had suffered from the glaive. He had stupidly run right into her path. The remembrance made his fists clench with shame.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice wobbling dangerously and interspersed with harsh hiccups. "I'm sorry."

She was apologizing for being a burden and for allowing herself to get hurt. It was odd finally to be able to understand her, if only just a little bit. He found that he didn't like it very much. "My shoulder," he said, bending his stiff neck a little to allow her to see that even he had gotten hurt.

The only good thing about the whole wound was that at least the blood running down his back wouldn't significantly stain his dark clothes, though it was dying his chuunin vest a rusty brown. Damn, he would have to patch up these clothes. It hurt his pride to admit injury to her, but she stopped crying and realized what she needed to do very quickly. He was relieved when the pain he had been blocking out with adrenaline actually receded. He grunted thanks and jerked his head, indicating that they had to head after the two probationary ninja.

She wiped away her stupid tears and nodded as she got to her feet and ran alongside him again. It was good to have her there: he was used to it now. He allowed a small smirk to curl the corner of his mouth where she could see it. Even he could tell that she was low enough that she needed some sort of comfort. Being around Ryuuka had taught him a little bit about girls. He knew that she had noticed it when she shook off her bad mood and picked up the pace beside him. They had both shamed themselves, but they would make it up to everyone and especially to themselves. Sasuke sort of understood why Naruto idiotically always smiled now. It was almost amazing how much a simple half smile could influence someone.

* * *

Zabuza looked damn talkative compared to this Kiri-nin.

When the enemy simply ran away, Kakashi had to admit he was a little nonplussed. What the hell? The man had been about to level him with a huge watery bullet and suddenly he was hightailing it away. His suspicions about the motivations for this attack began to solidify. This was a distraction for something. He chased after the jounin until he noticed that the lighthouse wasn't performing its function properly. With worry eating away at him, he wavered between defending the tower and tracking down the fleeing jounin.

Making his decision, he called Pakkun out of the fog.

* * *

When Sakura saw that Haku and Zabuza had somewhat cornered the man that had caused her such agony, a malicious smile grew over her lips. Control and compassion withered.

Sasuke sported a similarly wicked grin. She wondered what had happened to make him this way as she wrathfully gathered the chakra in her fist and feet and began sprinting forwards, ducking and twisting away from the hail of kunai, shuriken, and watery bullets even as Haku sought to bring the jounin down with a flurry of icy senbon. Sakura almost bellowed her frustration to the heavens when Sasuke used Shunshin to bypass all of the weaponry and casually slammed Chidori into the jounin's shoulder, his red eyes creepy. _That damn bastard was going to steal her chance to get retribution!_

The Kiri-nin gasped as the lightning crackled through his system and tore through muscle even as it punched through and shattered bone. Not to be outdone, Sakura jabbed two chakra-charged fingers into the flesh covering his kidneys and watched impassively as he went down, ignoring Haku and Zabuza as they turned away to deal with a new arrival that definitely wasn't a bunshin.

Remembering that this was supposed to be a diplomatic mission of a sort, Sakura deflected Sasuke's next strike by knocking his hand aside and pulled some wire out of her pouch to tie the man up. Kaka-sensei would want somebody to question.

When Sasuke glared, she stared back coolly. "Stop it," she told him in the icy tones she reserved for Naruto when he had passed beyond the realm of idiocy into the land of insanity. Sasuke didn't appreciate the implication in the slightest. "I don't want to have to patch him up any more than I already have to."

Huffing, her teammate spun away to join the fight again the other Kiri-nin as she looped the wires around the jounin's wrists and ankles before moving onto his knees and elbows. Who knew how flexible this stork man was? It was better to be safe than sorry. Sasuke-kun could be so petulant, even worse than Ryuuka-chan, she mused as she tightened the loops to the point just before they would cut off blood flow and cause damage. She didn't want to have to heal this bastard more than necessary. It was enough that she had probably severely damaged his kidneys. He would suffer for what he had put her through for quite a while until she got around to patching that up.

He must have expended quite a lot of chakra on those clones. He had gone down too easily. Stamina obviously wasn't his thing either. That or the deep wound in this man's thigh Zabuza had probably inflicted had bled more than he could handle. Several senbon had nearly hit vital points as well. That would have slowed him down considerably.

Pleased that her assessment hadn't revealed that this man was only a chuunin that had managed to damage her so badly, Sakura hauled the prisoner over to a tree where she could better defend him if that Kiri-nin got past Sasuke, Haku, and Zabuza. They seemed to be driving him off together though. He had looked worn when he arrived. She wondered if he had run into Sasuke and Zabuza earlier or if he had managed to escape Kaka-sensei.

* * *

Kakashi grimaced and wondered if maybe he shouldn't have sent Pakkun to trail his opponent. His more accurate nose would have been useful in figuring out which of the enemy ninja were responsible for this gruesome scene. Kakashi had never joined the interrogation squad for some very good reasons: just observing this sort of mutilation made him sick. Quick kills he could handle, but not this sick crap. No wonder civilians were so wary of ninja.

The poor bastard had passed out from the excruciating pain. Kakashi was glad that he had been allowed that small mercy. Hanging by his ankle from the outer wall of the tower really wasn't fun, especially not when the man was secured only by a kunai driven through his ankle like a meat hook. What twisted fucker had done this?

Kakashi turned back to the terrified soldiers that had discovered this shortly after Sakura and Zabuza had left the tower. They had been forced to watch, unable to help. The wires were beyond their ability to untie or cut and were secured by a kunai driven into the mortar between two stones at a point only a ninja could have reached since there were no windows or platforms nearby for a civilian to stand on. Kakashi walked down the wall and freed the poor bastard swaying limply in the wind. "Is he the only one?"

It was a relief when the commander nodded, his weathered skin almost grey.

Sakura better have survived; she would be needed to patch up this man's ankle. Slightly worried at how cold that thought had sounded, he shook off ANBU's influence. This was a regular mission, not a black ops operation. He was allowed to care. Refocusing, he assessed the injury again. There was no way he would be able to repair this damage. The kunai had punched through the soft tissue just behind the joint, almost severing the Achilles tendon in the process.

"We have field medic here," insisted the commander, and Kakashi stepped aside to let the almost green-looking man get to work.

"I'll have one of my people fix him," Kakashi promised quietly. "Sakura is a healer in training. She'll be able to reduce the damage considerably."

The commander nodded his thanks, still looking as though he wouldn't be getting much untroubled sleep for a while. Again, Kakashi could relate. He felt a lot of pity for this garrison. This was probably the most action they had seen in their entire lives. They were the less skilled soldiers: this post was primarily a watch point used to prevent unsanctioned landings of sea vessels that were trying to avoid paying the Daimyo's tax on all imports and exports… Ah.

He moved away from the scene to get a bit more space near the bonfire and the mirror as he gathered the necessary chakra to make a mass summoning. It would be a good thing to see if Akino was all right while the rest went hunting.

* * *

"Juro," growled Zabuza as Sasuke allowed himself to skid back a few metres, "what are you and Saito up to?"

The Kiri-nin stayed just as silent as he had been for the entire fight, focused on getting past them to secure his downed fellow jounin or to kill him to spare him from being subjected to interrogation.

Sasuke kept up a steady barrage with Housenka no Jutsu while Zabuza countered any attempts to simply barrel past their line with his sword. The screech of that huge sword scraping against the Kiri jounin's ninjatou made Sasuke wince. Haku zipped around the outer edges of the fight, his senbon peppering the bulky man called Juro whenever an opening presented itself.

This man was skilled, about at Kakashi's level when he got really serious, which Sasuke hadn't seen much of. He had heard about it though: ANBU gossip did tend to get passed around in his kitchen. Gekkou Yuugao could be incredibly loose-tongued if she drank enough. She apparently trusted the other women with stories of Kakashi's amazing feats along with other battle anecdotes from other known ANBU members. So far, Yuugao's trust had been merited. Sasuke was very glad that Zabuza and Haku were around to help him with this. Even through his pride, he could admit that this man would have crushed him into paste unless he had been exceptionally clever.

His thoughts cost him. A large, watery bullet that was too fast to truly avoid clipped him and sent him tumbling back. Hissing when his broken arm made itself known, he scrambled to his feet, ignoring his protesting ankle, and managed to use Shunshin to get out of the way of the next attack before Zabuza stepped in with a brutal slash that would have separated Juro's head from his meaty shoulders if he hadn't ducked in time. Pain clouded Sasuke's thoughts as Haku took advantage of Juro's crouch to stick several senbon in and near his spine.

Juro grunted and retreated to the other end of the bluff, where he stood panting and glaring, blood dribbling with gravity's pull from dozens of points. When Zabuza pursued him, sword upraised, Juro backed off. Haku finally managed to get him running by sticking him through the ear with three needles viciously. The near miss of his brain seemed to wake Juro up to the fact that he was not going to win this battle. Scowling darkly, he started running at a speed Sasuke was confident he could have matched had he not been in such bad shape.

Haku started making moves to pursue until Zabuza's finger twitched. "Why not?" asked the older boy, his voice much more impassive than his furious eyes. Zabuza had not come through the encounter entirely unscathed. Sasuke had the feeling that Juro would have been made to pay dearly for those wounds if Haku had been allowed to hunt him down.

"This is a 'diplomatic' mission," Zabuza said. "The Hokage will slap that seal back on us if we kill anyone without 'due cause.' I have no intention of going back to being a butcher only for pigs."

Maybe not being like Zabuza was a good thing, Sasuke mused through the haze of pain as he stumbled on a badly twisted ankle over to Sakura. Okay, maybe it was a good thing she was a good medic. If she patched him up, maybe he would tell her so.

"What Juro has done would not qualify?" asked Haku almost incredulously. Sasuke watched the older boy almost twitch with badly suppressed fury. He had never seen Haku lose control like this. "He injured you. He has badly injured Sasuke. These crimes alone should earn him some punishment."

"He'll get it soon enough," growled Zabuza, tucking his sword out of the way and passing Sasuke on his way over to Sakura. He slung their captive over his shoulder and glanced down at Sakura. "Patch up Poky and we'll go."

She nodded and set to mending Sasuke's arm and ankle.

Zabuza was going to pay dearly when this mission was over if he kept using that name.

* * *

Kakashi almost relaxed when the rest of his team approached the tower. He ambled out to meet them halfway and was rather startled to note that they had managed to nab one of the rats. Huh, well that certainly made things a little easier and a lot harder. Three guesses who was going to get stuck interrogating that lout… Sometimes, he really hated his job.

He nodded at appropriate points as they reported the details of their various fights, mentally noting the strengths and weaknesses of the other two jounin and what parts of their narrations didn't corroborate properly. Sasuke, something had happened to Sasuke that they weren't telling him about. It sounded like it had been rather embarrassing for his protégé. Zabuza would definitely be elaborating on that later. Blackmail material was always fun.

"Sakura, go up to the mirror room and see to those there with the medic." He could see the questions pressing at her, but she restrained herself to a quick nod before scaling the height to the window of that room.

"Kakashi," said Zabuza just as he was about to carry his burden into the tower, "how about letting Haku and I handle extracting information out of Fumio here? Haku's got training in that area and we both know this ninja fairly well, or we did before we left Kiri."

Kakashi considered this offer. It would definitely spare him the need to remember the training he had received in physical interrogation tactics. He doubted that this Fumio would respond to mental games unless an expert like Ibiki was working on it. Kakashi was stuck with brutal physical torture, which definitely wasn't high on his to-do list for the year. Haku's needles would work better.

"Go to it." He shrugged before turning to Sasuke. "Maa, that wasn't very fun." He raised a brow when his student nodded sullenly, his eyes distant and his mind obviously reviewing some pretty painful memories if the slightly pinched look on Sasuke's face was any indication. "How's your arm?"

"Fine."

Sakura must have done a thorough healing on it. She would be paying for that later. Kakashi almost sighed and rubbed the back of his head. When was she going to get it through her head that completely healing was a bad idea? Cells and tissues could develop resistance after a while and then make her job more difficult. Letting the body try to heal itself was always a better idea, and it saved chakra for emergencies. He only knew this because he had heard Rin rant on about it once such a long time ago… He closed that line of thought. Brooding on a mission was a bad idea. That could wait until he was back in Konoha in front of the memorial stone.

"What did you think of that Saito kunoichi's attacks again?" he asked. Maybe Sasuke would let something slip now that everyone else was gone.

"She was skilled. According to Zabuza, she uses an extremely advanced form of the Mizu Bunshin technique that can hold its shape in the face of more damage than a normal version of the jutsu. I can verify this. The chakra pattern was very similar to Naruto's stronger clones'. She wields a glaive, as I told you," Kakashi suppressed a grin at the obvious annoyance in that statement. Sasuke must have suspected his motivations for having him repeat himself. Oh well, at least the boy was learning. "She is very quick with it, and her attacks have considerable strength behind them."

He detailed his impressions about her lack of specialization before he added his final thoughts. "She will target Zabuza most likely. She mentioned a bounty on his head, and her grudge against him seems rather personal. It is likely she is close to the Mizukage in some way considering her words. Her attempt at vengeance is likely to be brutal."

It would have been amusing how Sasuke, a self-named avenger, could pass judgement on another seeking retribution, but it was only too likely Sasuke was right. This Saito sounded as though she would be trouble.

"Was she good-looking?" asked Kakashi. There was a lot of doubt hanging around. What had Sasuke done to make him doubt himself so much? Overconfidence had always been his biggest flaw after arrogance. Pride must have been severely bruised for Sasuke to be acting in a way that made the existence of a problem so obvious.

The way Sasuke froze and then twitched irritably made Kakashi smile. It was good to still be able to ruffle this asexual kid's feathers. Sasuke really needed to lighten up and admit that he was starting to understand why Kakashi liked his books so much. Of course, Kakashi knew very well that such an admission would never happen: Sasuke's pride would kill him if he ever tried to the get the words out. It was fun to poke the kid over it though.

"Hn."

It took a lot of self-control not to laugh at that monosyllabic reply. At least he knew just how much he had knocked his student off balance. Sasuke only resorted to "hn" when stumped for a better answer or when irritated beyond endurance. Eloquent responses had been drilled into Sasuke's head ever since the Massacre since he was now heir.

What it meant in regards to the kunoichi though, Kakashi didn't know. It could have been interpreted in three basic ways: "I don't care" being the foremost and fairly likely, "WTF?" being the second most likely and most in keeping with Sasuke's mood, and "damn hot" being the absolute least likely, but definitely the most amusing.

Kakashi chose to misinterpret it as the third. "Ah, pity I wasn't around for that fight then. No wonder Zabuza just stood around and watched. He should have taped it for the rest of us, though we would have had to keep Sakura out of the room. I don't think she swings that way for some reason."

Kakashi mentally patted himself on the back when Sasuke cringed. Ah, it was so much fun to be able to prod his stuffiest student around like this. Naruto reacted well too, but he was a pervert too to a degree, so it wasn't quite as amusing. Sakura had a good girl image to maintain, and she got very violent if pushed too far… No, prodding Sasuke was the safest of his current options.

Content that Sasuke was focused on something other than his doubt, Kakashi ambled back into the tower. He slipped into the room the commander had given them and found Haku inspecting his needles as Zabuza reworked Fumio's bonds.

"He's regaining chakra quickly," said the ex-nukenin.

Kakashi nodded and pulled out a pen and some ink so he could work on the standard chakra-draining seal that was used by interrogation to keep subjects quiet and pliant. ANBU agents were required to know it just in case. He really hoped Haku knew his stuff as well as he claimed. Messing up this jounin too severely was likely to turn this "diplomatic" mission into a coastal defence mission against the Mizukage's forces. That was the last thing Konoha needed.

When Haku nodded and stared detachedly down at Fumio, Kakashi almost shivered. Haku had definitely learned how to freeze his heart better. There was no sign of the empathetic boy in those eyes. The slight shiver in those shoulders convinced Kakashi that recommending this kid to Ibiki would be a bad plan though.

This wasn't going to be a very pleasant night. The warning twitch in his hands warned him that his fragile mental state wasn't going to be helped by observing this. He could handle this though. This was a standard mission, not some sick and twisted assignment conjured by the depraved minds that hired ANBU.

* * *

Sasuke strove to block out the muffled howls and focused on keeping watch. He really didn't think that those jounin would be coming back so soon, but who knew how many of them there were? He sat down in the meditation position and shut his eyes halfway, saving them for when he actually needed them since they were aching slightly from overuse. There was no moonlight now to help him out; the clouds had completely covered the sliver that had cast light so weakly when he and Sakura had been drawing maps of the immediate area. Instead, he placed his trust on his ears for the moment, adjusting his position so that the wind was not all he could hear. It was because of his position that he noticed one of Kakashi's summon dogs walking gingerly out of the tower and over to him.

"Sasuke."

Sasuke nodded, used to Kakashi's summons knowing his name by now. Pakkun was the one he was the one he saw the most often, but the others popped by from time to time in training. "Akino, right?"

The mutt nodded cautiously, as though not quite sure if the motion wouldn't pain him.

"Why are you here?"

"Kakashi summoned me."

Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

The mutt panted a doggy version of a grin before elaborating. "He summoned me again so Sakura could patch me up. I got on the wrong side of a guy's ninjatou." Juro must have gotten him then. "It's a good thing my ruff is so thick. I probably would have been paralyzed otherwise. That girl can't heal broken spines, right?"

Sasuke shrugged. He had never really taken the time to ask Sakura just how proficient she was. He had assumed that she would handle it as it came up. Now that he thought about it, that was a very stupid assumption. He would have to fix that.

"Either way, I'm grateful to her," said the mutt as he curled up at Sasuke's side. "Kakashi sent me out here to keep you company and to help you keep watch. He said that two tired fighters will keep each other awake and alert better than just one."

Ah, that explained things. Sasuke was torn between being grateful and miffed. He settled on a balance between the two and huffed quietly even when the mutt panted a laugh and set his head on his paws.

"Were you the reason she was sent up after we got back?" he asked quietly after a long pause.

"Partly," said Akino, obviously more tired than he was willing to admit. "There was a man that got on the wrong side of the kunoichi. The scent on the victim is the same as the oldest enemy scent on your clothes. I was also sent down here to check that out. The kunoichi must have come here before meeting up with you. She frightened the men here pretty badly."

The old mutt stayed quiet for quite a while. "They're playing with all of us. We outnumber them, but they are stronger, and they know it. They have the advantage because they have nothing to protect the way we do. They are free to act as they will from where they will while we are tied here. This isn't a good position at all. While partly defendable from the sea approach, ninja aren't limited in the same ways a ship is. This place is a sitting target just tempting them to send the entire thing tumbling into the sea."

It was odd to be given lessons in strategy by a dog. Sasuke nodded, unable to contradict the mongrel's logic. The phantom throb in his arm told him it was only too true.

* * *

Sakura curled up in the corner behind the mirror and plugged her ears in a futile attempt to block out another round of screams and whimpers. There was no way she was going to get any sleep in what was left of the night. Oh, she hated this. She really hated this part of her job.

She hadn't considered this aspect of being a kunoichi when she had signed up for the Academy. In battle, she could deal with hurting people, but having them tied up and helpless and still inflicting such terrible pain on them made something twist inside her and made her sick to her stomach. She had had to heave the meagre contents of her belly out the window during the first hour, and she could still taste the vomit on her tongue despite the amount of water she had gulped down to try and sluice the remains away.

The mirror attendant looked just as jumpy and sick as she felt as he pushed the mirror methodically through its passes. There should have been a mechanism to accomplish this, and she was pretty sure that a mirror wasn't what lighthouses actually used in most cases, but there was a pile of broken pieces in the corner of the room that had probably been the original mechanism. When she worked up the will to ask about it, the young man jumped, startled.

"It was destroyed at about the same time the cliff was broken out from under our feet," the man stuttered. "We couldn't fix it—no one here knows how—so the commander has us on manual duty until the technician arrives to repair it and brings a lens with him. This mirror was all we could find in the piles of useless spare parts that we could figure out how to use. It's not as good, but it's better than nothing, and the tower can't go down simply because we don't have a nice rotating lens to make life easier.

"We had a techie, but he disappeared a couple weeks before the mechanism was destroyed. No one was able to find him. He hasn't even washed up against the cliffs during low tide, so we don't even know if he's dead." The man was clearly terrified.

Sakura couldn't blame him, not with the wails echoing up from the ground floor.

* * *

Kakashi smiled grimly when dawn finally brought some results. He hoped the tower's other inmates had managed to get some sleep. Haku certainly knew his stuff in a way that was almost frightening. Just what had Zabuza been teaching him after the duo had fled Kiri? Shrugging off those futile musings, he whistled softly for Akino since he was the only summon still hanging around. The mutt scratched at the door a moment later, and Haku let him in on his way out to clean his needles.

"Ah, are you up for a long run or would you rather bear through a transfer?" he asked the mutt with feigned calm and joviality. It was hardly Akino's fault that he had had such a rough night. "I'd send Uuhei, but he's probably quite a ways south by now."

"Running is better," insisted the mutt, and Kakashi finally felt his good humour returning. Akino always insisted being summoned was the worst thing since overly processed dog biscuits. Kakashi couldn't have transferred him anyway: there was no one in Konoha capable of receiving him.

"Right, then I need you to take a message back to Konoha for me."


	51. Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Astræa's Scales

Tsunade had sat through many lectures from various aides in the Finance and Intelligence Divisions on Fire's position in the world economy. She had initially assumed that Fire was wealthy because it was so big. An Intelligence aide had pointed out that Wind was also huge, even larger than Fire. "But it's mostly desert, so geography is a factor, Hokage-sama."

Fire Country was so named because it was subjected to quite a lot of volcanic activity along with a mild, warm climate, especially in the southern regions. Kaijin no Mura, Nariko had explained to her once, almost had the quality of a rainforest, given that it was only two-hundred kilometers from the border with Tea Country, which was even more tropical, since the equator was off their southern shore.

Because of all the plate instability that raised mountain ranges and created rifts along other fault lines, mining could not be carried out the same way it was in Earth Country with their subsurface mines, and it was the biggest industry after forestry and before agriculture. Open-pit mines were the most common; great scars were left upon the earth in the process of unearthing the copper, nickel, clay, gravel, sand for concrete, granite, iron, gold and other precious materials that Fire was the biggest exporter of.

Mining left terrible scars on the earth though: there were still slagheaps lying around from mines that had been closed for six generations that had yet to finish leeching their dangerous concentrations of normally unthreatening materials into the surrounding lands, and current mines often poisoned the earth with their tailing damns, which contained poisonous chemicals that rendered groundwater contaminated with them undrinkable and harmful. That mining itself was an invasive process and led to erosion as well since the Fire Lord cared little about how abandoned mines were dealt with. The land was usually left to recover from this rape by itself.

Fire's wealth was in raw materials, the biggest provider of all nations at the moment. Lightning Country was a big competitor, but their market lay more in generating electricity and other power sources. No, Fire Country's position as one of the wealthiest nations was in no danger despite how coveted it was. Earth had held this title before them, but that had changed once their biggest subsurface mines had begun to run dry in the last hundred years. This had caused no little resentment and had been one of the factors in the Third Secret World War. Contrary to popular belief in Konoha, ninja were dragged around by the economy and politics just as much as everyone else. No thread was going to be allowed to slip through the web of the world for long. Ninja politics, though influential in their own way, were not the end all and be all for everyone else and were definitely not elevated above the rest of the world's problems.

All this knowledge helped little when Tsunade was faced with Kakashi's message as the dog summon panted by her desk. If it wasn't politics, mysterious groups with terrible fashion sense, ancient history coming back to bite her in the ass, demons hell-bent on flattening the world, perverts without sense, or psychotic teammates with obsessive behavioural problems, it was the economy. By the gods, she _hated_ how much this financial stuff kept chasing her around. No wonder she had had such a bad feeling about that letter from the lottery corporation.

"Shizune!"

Her apprentice came running.

"Get Intelligence to send up advisors on the state of Water and the coast. Kakashi suspects a port to the far south of these attacks may be a target. Bring the dog some water too."

"And food!" the mutt added. "Should I leave while you speak with your people?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Best that you be here so you can comment and so I don't have to repeat it all to you."

Agents came in carrying maps and piles of figures as Akino lapped at a bowl of water. Tsunade brought them up to speed as they arranged their resources and began picking through them for potentially relevant information.

"What information we have managed to keep updated on Water is limited," one agent, Ikemi, said. "We suspect though, that they have begun to suffer from the lack of trade that their own border restrictions have created. In particular, an agent noted that Water was sending out surveying teams to the islands to the east in search of ores and timber. Though officially the civil war is over, fighting is still very much alive in most regions on the island nation. It has become a war of survival for the rebel elements though. Materials for war are hard to come by, so neither side is well supplied, so fighting is done quietly, in small, unarmed brawls for the most part. Kiri's ninja are occupied with trying to wipe out all rebel cells, but their success is limited. Their popularity has plummeted since they were charged with making sure that no Water boats of any kind went beyond a certain distance from the island's shores, to stop the populace from fleeing. Luring the rebels out into open battle and wiping them out for good seems to be the current hope."

The other agent, Shun, cleared his throat. "The closing of Wave's border to trade resulted in the death of many ports on our western coast and the subsequent disrepair of the towers along that border. Pirate activity moved towards Sand's southern ocean once trading vessels stopped going on our eastern ocean, so the need for the watchtowers fell off along with their budget."

"So, speculate. Why would Kiri-nin attack five watchtowers here if they are not, as Kakashi has reported, aware that we have sheltered one of their missing-nin?"

Ikemi and Shun traded looks. Ikemi was the one to speak as Shun shuffled through his maps to place one before Tsunade. "It's likely that this is a raid, perhaps even done without the knowledge of the Water Lord. Mines take time to establish and with trade forbidden, Kiri may be running low on supplies as well, since the rebels are probably scooping up every stray kunai they can find. The Mizukage may have asked for permission and funds to buy supplies and been refused, so he turns to raiding to bring in the necessary resources as quietly as possible. Kiri is the only faction capable of getting off the island at this point. All the Water Lord's news of the outside world comes through ninja scouts, as far as we know. It would be simple for the Mizukage to defy him this way and never be caught."

Shun pointed out refineries and smelting stations that were within a hundred kilometers of Fire's east coast. "They'll most likely be after pig iron for steel, but they might want prepared steel instead if they are in a hurry to manufacture and are willing to risk using our carbon to iron ratios. Since they're striking north, so near Hot Springs Country, the port they want is likely a ways south, nearer to Wave."

"Why strike at all though?" asked Akino, having finished polishing off the food Shizune had brought him. "Why attract out attention?"

Ikemi pursed her lips. "It's not especially clear. They might not have known how weak our coastal defense was and had orders to soften us up, in which case the port and the refinery chosen as the target would be nearer to the towers. Or, this might be a warning to us that they know Zabuza was last seen cooperating with Kakashi-san and that one of their ANBU agents died at their hands. Putting the warning and the raid together seems like a bad idea, but perhaps they cannot afford to send teams offshore so often now that the civil war will ignite again. Worse, though unlikely, perhaps this is a distraction for something that will come from the east."

"Rain?" Tsunade mused.

Shun shrugged, but he looked sceptical. "Rain has similar border security to Water, yes, but Rain has shown almost no activity outside their borders. We haven't seen their scouts in our territory for years; the appearance of their teams at the Chuunin Exam was a surprise."

"Which could indicate something," said Ikemi.

"A possibility, but unlikely. I will inform the agent in charge of keeping an eye on that situation to come to you immediately with any updates if you are concerned though, Hokage-sama."

"Do that," Tsunade said. "So, it's likely that there will be a raid. I can't allow that. Shizune, start filling out a mission scroll for Team Kurenai. Those council geezers won't be able to veto me now that I've got evidence to back up my hunch." It had been galling that they had gotten into a snit upon learning about her desire to send reinforcements after a five-man team based on a letter that had informed her of good fortune. They had insisted that such a response would broadcast to the world that Konoha was extremely worried about a minor attack on a series of lighthouses. According to them, taking that position in the eyes of the four other powerful nations was insupportable, and they had told her no quite bluntly. It had been galling, and she was still fuming about it.

She poked the map Shun had put on her desk. "Mark the most likely targets and make a copy to send with the mutt here. Kakashi is going to want to begin investigating if he hasn't already."

"He already sent the rest of the pack out," Akino said.

She nodded and started scrawling on a piece of paper before pushing it into Ikemi's hands. "Get this past the council and sent off with the fastest hawk for Kiri. While the council is dickering over my syntax, look up information on…" She turned to Akino.

Akino sat up after scratching his ear. "Juro and a kunoichi called Saito. Zabuza identified them. We have another in our custody that we are interrogating."

Ikemi bowed and scrambled out the door, leaving her piles of papers and calling for a subordinate. Shun had already disappeared to copy the map, leaving his piles as well. The message Ikemi carried was short and sweet and very ill advised, but Tsunade wasn't in the mood for tact. _"Either you show up or somebody with the authority to make decisions does. Anything less will get your ships sunken…"_

"So, mutt, have you got enough or do you need to wait around until the report about Juro and Saito comes? If you can go now, I'll send it with Kurenai."

"I should wait," Akino said. "They may strike again soon. Better that we wait two hours for the report now than continue blind for two days, relying on what Zabuza and Haku remember."

"Ninja do change in two years," agreed Tsunade. "Very well, wait."

* * *

"Still can't summon him," Kakashi said after checking his scroll.

Sakura sighed and went back to checking over her kunai. "Shishou must be keeping him back to make sure he had enough information for us."

They hadn't actually gotten all that much out of Fumio in the two days that they had had him in their care. As a jounin, he was well trained in resisting interrogation. He had almost managed to kill himself six times during the hours Haku had managed to steel his heart and probe for information in the most brutal ways he could remember from his training. That was an impressive feat considering the fact there had been two jounin and a former "hunter-nin" in the room with him watching the entire time.

Sakura had been called in to pull Fumio back from the brink of death twice before the sun had burned the fog of the night of the attack away. It had not been easy to walk into that room and use her chakra knowing that the moment she left more harm would be done to her patient. It was her job though and Kaka-sensei had been counting on her.

Kaka-sensei forcibly brightened. Sakura found it unnerving to actually be able to pick out the moments when he was feigning emotions. It had always seemed very genuine to her before this morning, but everyone was tired from keeping watch for the past two days. There had to be two people awake at all times in order to keep watch on the surroundings and to keep an eye on Fumio. That was the trouble with having captives: someone always had to watch them, which meant less sleep all around. "All right, Sakura, you will tell us everything you know about Water Country at present."

Sakura blinked at her sensei, but obeyed. "Water Country is an island nation and one of the five most powerful in the world. The sea is its greatest asset, being its protector and provider all in one since Water Country's largest job sector is in fishing. Most of the population lives on the coast and has some sort of sailing heritage."

Haku and Zabuza nodded at points, verifying her knowledge against their own remembrances.

"However, Water is rife with internal strife to balance out its lack of external enemies. Civil war has divided the nation, and it has sunken into poverty over the years as productivity dropped in response to all of the infighting.

"The current Daimyo's control of his nation is fragile at best and is maintained only through his continued hold on Kirigakure. Once the home of many bloodline techniques, those clans have died out since they were made into scapegoats for all sorts of national problems. Before that crisis, Water was a very prosperous nation with many trading connections because of its ability to provide the seafood so coveted by the continent's mainstream culture."

"That was a very good history lesson, Sakura," Kaka-sensei almost chirped, "but I asked for the current situation, as in at this very moment."

"Um," she faltered, "well, there aren't any recent books on Water Country; or rather there aren't any sources dating within the last five years."

That was strange now that she thought about it. Even Earth Country, which was still on very shaky terms with Fire, allowed scholars in to write new books on it. Barring scholars from a nation was like declaring that the country didn't want to be put under scrutiny. Would Water have done such a strange thing? Sure, the civil war had messed things up, but still…

"True," said Kakashi with his usual eye-smile. "Do you know why that is?"

"Water's Daimyo has taken to discouraging visitors," said Zabuza, clearly as annoyed with her sensei as she was. Water Country and everything associated was probably still a sore subject with him. "Foreign vessels have to go through complicated docking procedures that usually end with them being turned away. The continued conflict has made Water an unpopular destination in any case."

"Exactly." Sakura sympathized when Sasuke twitched with annoyance. Kaka-sensei could be so annoyingly smug sometimes. The visible motion got Sasuke targeted though. "Sasuke, what does that mean?"

"It means that no one actually knows what's going on there except the locals and any ninja that are going into the country on missions." That was a good point now that she thought about it. Of course, ninja would still know. Keeping ninja out of a country was hard.

"Yes, and?"

Sasuke scowled darkly at the floor. "It means that no other nations know what is going on with the Daimyo. He's not letting them see how his power is slipping." There was something ominous about the way this.

"And?" Kaka-sensei's tone told her that they were getting closer and closer to what he knew.

Sakura suddenly had a thought. "Sensei, is that why the Mizukage wants Haku and Zabuza taken out so badly? Is it because they know what's going on there?"

"Probably partly," agreed Kakashi, and Zabuza nodded. "Knowledge is a very dangerous weapon because its effects are not easily predictable. Control of information is a very easy way to control a lot of people."

Sakura had the feeling that Kaka-sensei had just dropped a huge hint, but she was still drawing a blank.

"Are other Water Country citizens kept within the nation as well? Are they prevented from traveling abroad?" asked Sasuke.

Haku nodded. "Travel for an ordinary citizen is very difficult in any case. Most are very poor and can barely afford to travel to the next town. Even those with ships are kept within sight of shore by the unpredictable weather and the fighting keeps many away from their boats. Trade vessels still went when we escaped, but they are escorted by shinobi to ensure that no fugitives escape."

"So no word gets out about what methods the Water Lord uses to maintain control."

Sakura watched Kakashi beam at Sasuke for his deduction. She wasn't jealous. She wasn't resentful that he had gotten the right answer. It hadn't been a very hard question.

"Exactly." Was he just going to keep saying that and not explain anything?

"But what does this have to do with this lighthouse and with all of the others that they hit?" she asked.

"Nothing." She was just about to scream when her sensei continued. "Everything." She was two seconds away from strangling him. He seemed to sense this because he laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "How long has Water Country been inhabited?"

"Hundreds of years," she rattled off easily. "It's one of the oldest nations even though it's not very big." Suddenly, a realization dawned on her. "Oh," she murmured, her eyes going wide. "Oh!" Sasuke frowned irately at her for not explaining. "What does Fire have that Water doesn't?" she asked him, trying hard not to laud her knowledge over him. He wasn't allowed to outdo her in bookwork. That was _her_ area! There was no way she was going to let him beat her there too!

"Lots of land, money, people, neighbours…"

"Exactly," she agreed, mimicking Kaka-sensei, who almost looked a little peeved at her mockery of him. Sasuke's expression darkened further as Haku almost snickered. "We have lots of raw materials that Water wouldn't have anymore. They're a small, old nation. They would need things like metals and whatnot because their mines have dried up. They're keeping all the trading vessels out, which isn't helping things.

"The Daimyo has cut off the resistance movement from the materials it needs to keep fighting him. Unfortunately for him, he's also cut himself off."

"And now we can see what the experts think," said Kakashi, rolling up the scroll he had probably checked again to see if Akino could be summoned. A puff of smoke, and the mutt stood before them with a sack at his side.

"Maps and data on Juro and Saito. Looks like there's gonna be a raid." Akino relayed all he knew.

Sakura smirked at having arrived at that conclusion as well, but it was hollow. "Wait, Kaka-sensei, why do you know all of this stuff about Water Country? I only know this because I did a project on it in the Academy; the rest was pure speculation. According to what you've said, the Hokage would be the only one in Fire Country with an up-to-date and accurate understanding of what's going on in Water aside from Zabuza and Haku, though they've been away for more than a year and a half now."

"Jounin don't become jounin simply by being able to punch holes in people," he said brightly, setting a hand on Akino's head. It was hard to tell if the mutt approved or not with those sunglasses on.

She narrowed her eyes at Kakashi, trying to understand what he was saying by looking at what he wasn't saying.

"You went and looked things up before we left, didn't you!" she accused him. That wasn't fair! He had access to the Hokage's records as a jounin. He eye-smiled and didn't answer. Why the hell had she been assigned such a frustrating teacher? "So what are we going to do?"

"Wait."

* * *

Tsunade leaned against the wall in the aviary, listening to the woman in charge of it at the moment say that they wouldn't be getting a reply for at least another six days. She scowled at the horizon, silently willing the stupid bird to fly faster. She hated waiting.

* * *

Two days later, Team Kurenai arrived. They came with new orders, maps, and bundles of notes that had been released from the Hokage's archives. Sasuke had never been gladder to see Shino and Kiba, though the garrison at the tower didn't really share this enthusiasm. The tower had been crowded enough before. Kurenai planned with the two jounin on the original team, and Sasuke found himself on watch with Kiba.

"This location sucks," grumbled the Inuzuka, tossing pebbles off the cliff into the waves below. Akamaru whined his agreement. "How did you guys get landed with this crappy assignment?"

"We were unlucky."

Kiba snorted at his simplistic answer, and Sasuke smirked slightly. At least some things were normal and didn't change the way Sakura had been. She had been acting very strange lately, and he wasn't sure he liked it.

"Huh. I thought your team was disbanded while Naruto was away and while your sensei was off doing S-ranked missions for the Hokage."

Sasuke wondered where Kiba had heard about that last bit. ANBU membership was supposed to be kept on the down low. What was the point of wearing those masks if everyone knew who you were underneath it?

"It was, but we get thrown back together every once in a while." Sasuke was glad that he could shut his eyes and simply soak up the meagre heat from the sun with Kiba and Akamaru around to keep watch for him. He felt as though he had just drifted off to sleep when Akamaru growled a warning. Sitting bolt upright, Sasuke glanced unerringly in the direction that the potential threat was coming from and relaxed when he recognized it. Uuhei was back. Kakashi would be glad.

Sasuke wasn't quite as glad when the information Uuhei provided sent Team Kurenai running south to conduct a more thorough investigation. Why couldn't the refineries and warehouses have been closer?

* * *

Naruto glanced over some tourist maps of Lightning Country as he wandered through Tanzaku Gai during a brief ramen break from training, searching for a good location for his meeting. Going in as a tourist would be the safest way. Grinning when he finally found the perfect spot, he noted the details down for future reference. Now all he would have to do was send off his last messages and convince Ero-Sennin that taking a walk around that village would be a very good idea. Naruto wasn't quite sure which of these two tasks would prove to be the more difficult, but he was banking on the last.

One look at Ero-Sennin's face after showing him the map and telling him his plan proved Naruto right.

* * *

Two days after Team Kurenai's departure, news came from Pakkun.

Kakashi wasn't sure whether to grin or grimace, so he settled on a tired sigh. He wasn't very fond of long missions, as this one was turning out to be. Being away from the safety of the village made him edgy, and missing his morning visits to the memorial started grating after four days.

At least those jounin had stayed quiet. They needed to stay alive to perform their function. The fights with his team must have shown them that tangling with the Konoha team again would not help them accomplish that goal. That was what Kakashi was hoping at least. It was more likely that they were simply biding their time and waiting for his team to get complacent. They had time, and they were the ones calling the shots. Even with the Hokage's information and maps of the surrounding area, Kakashi still hadn't had quite enough information to turn the tables. Uuhei and Pakkun had changed this though.

He leapt up to the abandoned mirror room and slipped up onto the roof to stand behind Zabuza, who had been on watch for the past hour.

"You've got something?" asked the bandaged jounin.

"Something like that."

"Good, I was getting bored. What have you got?"

"There's a sheltered cove about forty kilometres south of here. It's the one that these towers were put in place to keep safe. There used to be a fishing village and a trading port there, but it was destroyed by the last hurricane in this area about ten years ago. Bits of the pier are still there, though they could use quite a bit of work, or they did before Uuhei ran into it. It's been repaired recently. The cove itself isn't very deep, but there's quite a drop-off about forty metres offshore. There, it's deep enough to keep a larger ship anchored. Not the best location, but a good one for a hit and run. With the garrison ordered to abandon this location because of the damage to the tower, we're on our own. They were counting on this."

Zabuza nodded. "It sounds like them. Saito always was arrogant and considered herself invulnerable. She was pissed when we showed up."

"Skewering that lieutenant wasn't very subtle of her," agreed Kakashi. "Do you think Haku is up for a long run?"

"Probably," said Zabuza. "He's been eager to get out of here. Torture was never his thing. He's still too compassionate."

"Sometimes that isn't a bad thing. I'm going to send him out on the water. I hope he can manage a five-kilometre sweep. We've got a good view here, but it never hurts to check the currents."

"He should be able to do it."

Kakashi smiled slightly and slipped back into the tower. Haku slipped down the cliff a minute later and began sprinting over the waves.

* * *

Sasuke slipped through the darkness with Uuhei and Akino at his side. One by one, Kakashi was shifting them to a camp by the cove that Uuhei had discovered. Sakura was the one that had been sent ahead to set it up, Kakashi covering her absence with a shadow clone under a henge. It wouldn't be advisable to let the Kiri jounin know they were onto their plan. Besides, if they knew Sakura was out there by herself, they would pick her off.

It had been very unnerving to watch Kakashi's clone imitate his female teammate perfectly. Sasuke was glad that he was finally being allowed to join up with the real Sakura and Buru. Kakashi had had too much fun hitting on him as Sakura. It was beyond disgusting. He would be telling her about this and observing what she did to Kakashi when he finally showed up.

* * *

Tsunade smiled grimly when she spotted the strange hawk winging towards the aviary. Setting aside her pen, she ambled out of her office and up the stairs to watch the decoder work. When the woman turned around and handed over the translation at last, Tsunade scanned it before a wicked smirk grew on her face. She nodded to the poor translator and stalked down the stairs, back into her office, calling for Shizune as she entered and flicking a finger to the shadows.

"I want six ready to go in half an hour. Long mission." The shadows receded, and Shizune stumbled in her door, panting.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?"

Tsunade suppressed a leer at her apprentice's obvious nervousness. She would finally get retribution for all that nagging. "Send for Sarutobi-sensei. Tell him to be here as of two minutes ago."

Shizune bowed and raced off to see it was taken care of. With her subordinate gone, Tsunade glanced over her painted nails and sighed. They were going to get ruined, and she had only done them this morning. Oh well. She pulled a couple pouches of supplies from her desk drawers and began wrapping her thigh with sturdy cotton bandages. Both her sensei and her apprentice looked shocked when they came in the door and saw her securing her shuriken pouch. She didn't usually use it, but it would be a good idea to be ready for anything considering where she was headed.

"Tsunade, are you going somewhere?" asked Sarutobi-sensei.

She shot him an annoyed look, threw the translation down on the desk in front of him as she moved to secure her kunai pouch at her waist and slipped some essential medical supplies in another pouch before securing that to her waist as well.

"You can't tell me you are going to go answer this yourself," he protested after he finished reading it.

She scowled at him, pulled some wrist guards on, and slipped off her high-heeled sandals. Running on those could get painful in the long term. In their place, she pulled on some more practical and comfortable standard issue black sandals and wrapped her shins in guards as well. If she was going out as Hokage, she might as well look the part. As an afterthought, she grabbed the Hokage necklace of office. She felt rather bare without her grandfather's pendant, but that was with Naruto. It would be good to dress as the Hokage considering that this would be her first time really stretching her power. The treaty with Suna had been overseen by the Sandaime for the most part. This time it would be all her.

"Look, Geezer," she said, glaring at him, "you're taking over for me while I'm away."

"Send someone else, like Shizune. The Hokage needs to be here to protect the village. You can't just leave because you feel like it. Any other jounin could oversee this with your permission and a writ of recommendation." He was really against this, but there was no way she was going to stay here with all this damn paperwork.

"Hah, do you honestly think I'm going to give up my chance to get out of here for a few days? Besides, this requires my touch. I'm going myself." She would not allow him to thwart her petty vengeance, not when she making it so minor. He would suffer this, no excuses!

"Tsunade, you can't leave the village—"

She slammed her cloth-covered fist down on her study desk and glared at him. "If you won't do it then I'll be forced to do this." She turned to her apprentice, who had been trying to fade into the background. "Shizune! You're Hokage while I'm gone!"

"Eh?" shrieked the woman.

The Sandaime grumbled under his breath and rubbed his wrinkled forehead as Shizune started panicking. Tsunade revelled in his irritation. It was fun to be able to tick Sensei off even after all these years. "Fine," he grumbled.

Tsunade smirked with triumph and mockingly gestured that he take a seat at her desk. She was so tempted at this moment to stick out her tongue triumphantly as she would have at ten.

He sat with a petulant glare, easing his old bones into her chair with obvious discomfort. All he needed were his pipe and the stupid triangle hat and then he could be in power again, and she could be free. "The council isn't going to like this."

"You deal with them," she told him as the six ANBU she had requested burst into existence just outside her windows. "You've done it for years. A week or so shouldn't be too much of a challenge. Catch me up on my paperwork, would you? Shizune! Keep this quiet. I'll be back in about a week."

"H-Hai!" said her bewildered apprentice as Tsunade nodded to her escort and made a terrific leap away from the administration buildings and hopped from roof to roof towards the gates. When the passed easily over the gates and into the trees, she grinned and put on an extra burst of speed. Her ANBU guards matched her, their masked faces conveying nothing. Finally free!

* * *

Sakura gulped as she lay flat on the bluff and tried to blend in with the winter grasses. Maybe she would have to add more brown bits to her outfit in future. Sasuke and Haku were to either side of her, watching the three huge cargo vessels approach the bay. "Sasuke?" she whispered. Out of the corner of her eye, she detected him activating his Sharingan to improve the clarity of his long-range vision.

"Most of the crew are simple sailors as far as I can tell," he said just above the whistling of the wind in their ears. "They don't have much of a chakra aura at this range. There are about twenty others though…"

They had sent twenty shinobi. Shit. This mission had to be big. There was no way they were going to be able to hold off twenty-two shinobi and watch over a captive. Sure, they had five ninja and eight nin-dogs if Kaka-sensei called them all, but that wasn't going to compare. Why had Kakashi sent Team Kurenai away? Even five more people would have helped.

"I'll go report this," said Haku, forming an ice mirror a little ways back from the edge of the cliff and disappearing, almost definitely bound for the mirror he had set up in the tower where Kakashi and Zabuza were still waiting. Uuhei shuffled forward on his paws to take the ice-user's place.

"It must be worse in Kiri than we thought," she muttered to Sasuke, who nodded as he kept scanning the ships with his eyes while the ships finally dropped anchor. "What are we going to do? We can't stop this from happening, not with that many ninja around."

"If we're clever…" Sasuke muttered, glaring at the ships one last time before shuffling back towards the taller grasses and brambles.

"Sasuke, look down at the pier!" she hissed.

He slipped back into place beside her, his scowl turning into a very worried frown when he saw who was waiting. Saito, in all her cornrow hair glory, stood at the end of the pier with her hands on her hips, her glaive slung across her back. Sakura bit her lip when the dark-haired, copper-skinned kunoichi stepped off the dock onto the rough water, which smoothed beneath her steps. The amount of chakra it had probably taken to accomplish that made Sakura more nervous than she could say. That this woman wasted her power on calming waves she could have easily balanced on was troubling. She couldn't see just how much chakra the woman was expending to accomplish this, but Sasuke's narrowed eyes told her it was more than enough to worry him as well.

"I don't think even being clever will get us very far," said Sakura fearfully as Saito strolled out to the ships on a smooth path, a swing in her gait that was definitely predatory. Juro was still unaccounted for.

* * *

Kakashi stood watch over Fumio, having sent Zabuza and Haku to back up Sasuke and Sakura. He wanted to go himself, but somebody had to make sure this guy didn't escape. He leaned against the cold wall and stared out the window into the gathering darkness, suddenly feeling an odd current of air ruffle the hairs and the back of his neck…

Shit.

Kakashi ducked under the wicked arc that ninjatou cut through the air right where his unwary head had been less than a second before. Sneaky bastard this Juro was. It didn't look like he would be running away this time. Juro proved his skill with his blade when it didn't even impact with the wall Kakashi had been leaning against.

The most emotion other than pain that Kakashi had ever seen on Fumio's face caught his attention for a split second as he ducked under another vicious head chopping strike. There was desperate hope in those shadowed eyes, but Kakashi had no time for sympathy or compassion. These Kiri-nin had been set against him by circumstance.

As he slid with practiced ease through the handseals for a crushing doton jutsu, he spared a thought for his team. He really hoped they kept their heads until he could catch up. If he couldn't win here, he would have to bring the tower down on his own head to make sure these two Kiri ninja went with him. At least the war with Iwa had been good for acquiring earth style techniques like that one. He shook off the memories of the teammate it had taken and uncovered his eye.

"_I can become your eye… and from now on I will see the future…"_

Kakashi hoped that the future was impressive enough for the crybaby. If it weren't, he would make it so. He shoved aside the shaking of his hands and formed the last seal.

Rocks tumbled.

* * *

Kakashi had once said that traps were still useful even if every ninja knew how to look for them. Sasuke had taken that message to heart. While nowhere near the expert Gekkou Yuugao was rumoured to be, he had the feeling that his work was passable. Kakashi had said the effects of information were unpredictable. Sasuke liked to think that having knowledge on the motivations and the goal of all those ninja would help him make sure that they never achieved it. He didn't know if he supported the Water Lord or the resistance movement, but he did know that he wasn't going to let invaders take the work of his people without paying for it.

Sasuke was well within his rights to cause these interlopers some grief while they were on his turf. They had destroyed Fire Country property, injured members of the Daimyo's army, and crushed his ego. Of course, they were going to pay for that, especially that Saito woman.

He refused to let a smirk surface as he slipped through the twilight gloom along the easiest route towards the sixth refinery that Team Kurenai had been sent off to evaluate and warn. There had been fifteen in all dotting the map of this area, along with countless storehouses and six mines. Kakashi had sent them off to see to all of those possible targets before they had found out that the cove and this refinery were the most likely. Hopefully, Uuhei would be able to catch up with them and bring them back in time for the night raid that was so probable it was almost certain.

"The trip wires are in place," said Sakura, appearing out of the underbrush from behind him.

He nodded and checked the trigger of his last trap to be sure that it was sensitive enough to trip at the slightest pressure of a ninja's foot. Satisfied, he stood up and erased all signs of its presence along with his own.

"Haku's still setting up those pressure traps in the trees just in case they decide to move through them on the way there the way we do. The sailors will be stuck on the ground, but the ninja might leave them behind to get the raid started."

"Probably," he agreed, slipping into the underbrush again with her close on his heels. "Every person we catch will help even the odds in our favour."

Kakashi was missing all the fun. Sasuke hoped that he didn't get too bored watching over the prisoner.

They caught up to Zabuza, who was weakening tree limbs by hacking sections out of the undersides of their most structurally important points or by gashing the topside of those points to allow the branch to break or crack with less pressure. Too much weight on these sabotaged branches could lead to a nasty fall… Sasuke was starting to like how this man thought. Sasuke followed his example on a couple of the higher branches that would probably be used as handholds as Sakura marked this stretch of forest out on the map.

They would have to make sure that none of their own people came through here until the trees recovered or else some unlucky Konoha-nin was likely to meet the same end. All of their traps had been marked down as well so that they could take them apart if they survived. Leaving them lying around for anyone to trigger was a bad idea.

Haku shot to Zabuza's side out of the gloom, ignoring the way they all tensed at his arrival. "They are starting to move towards shore. Rowboats have been lowered to carry eighty men so far. There are probably more coming ashore. The ninja are well armed and decked out for raiding: they wear no markings and hide their faces. I recognized a couple of them though. Most of them are chuunin or high-level genin. Saito leads them."

Akino suddenly leaped off the forest floor to stare at them, the fur on his back standing on end. "Something's wrong. All of us have caught the echoes of some stone structure falling into the sea."

Cold fear of the kind Sasuke had never felt before coursed through him.

Kakashi.

All four of them exchanged panicked glances until Zabuza took charge. "We can't. We can't leave this raid unhindered. We've got too few people to go help the dog out of whatever trouble he's gotten himself into."

Akino growled, his canines exposed.

Sasuke agreed. "We don't leave comrades behind. We have no desire to be that kind of trash."

Sakura nodded her support, shifting her weight in preparation for a run.

"That's stupid," said Zabuza. "This raid isn't going to wait for you to rescue your old sensei. Kakashi knew the risks. He might not even be dead."

"We've got to find out," insisted Sasuke, activating his eyes to add to his intimidation factor. "We're not going to stick around here if he's in trouble." A dead commander was no use and a dead sensei couldn't teach him anything. Besides, he owed Kakashi, though that bunshin stuff still infuriated him. Kakashi couldn't die, not on their watch. Naruto would kill them if they left Kakashi in danger. Making his decision, he nodded to Sakura. "Let's go."

"You're just going to walk away from this mission?" asked Haku. "You're just going to go after him?"

"You'd do the same for Zabuza," Sasuke shot back before shooting off after Akino and Sakura, Buru joining up with them about a kilometre along the way.


	52. Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Four Staves Set

The cliff was gone as though it had never been. A gaping ruin was all that remained of the spot where the lighthouse had once stood guard against the wind and waves.

* * *

Some said that devils didn't have any understanding of the words "self-preservation" and "common sense" the way the rest of the world did. Zabuza resented that slightly. He understood what those words meant; he just had no interest in their concepts. He was battle driven, not illiterate. If he had been illiterate, he would not have made jounin. Kakashi did have a point about jounin needing to be more than simply good at decapitating people. Zabuza could read and study, but he chose not to. Decapitating people was more fun. This especially applied to his current target.

Saito was an arrogant, ass-licking bitch. He knew this very well. She had been one of the people to foil his attempt to assassinate the Mizukage. It was mostly her fault that he had failed. He couldn't blame Sasuke for hating her clones since Zabuza also loathed them with a passion. They had been instrumental in defeating him during their fight. Saito's arrogance was not completely misplaced, no matter how little he wanted to admit to this. However, he was not going to let this opportunity to even the score with her pass him by.

Revenge would be taking this a little too far. He was simply interested in proving to himself that he could beat her now, that she no longer had power over him. He would have to wait until her lackeys were busy though: fighting her with them around would likely draw them into the fray as well. Even one as battle hardy as he was wasn't stupid enough to think that he could beat twenty shinobi by himself. Civilians, sure, but not twenty shinobi. At one point in his childhood, sure, he had taken down the entire graduating class, but they had been weak. These ninja were not weak, he was getting older, and there was Haku to think of. Fighting like a berserker would draw the kid in as well and would probably get him killed.

He would watch and wait for an opportunity.

* * *

It was the sudden formation of a ravine across the path of the raiders that informed them that their goose was cooked. It hadn't been enough that they had been plagued by traps of all sorts on their way to this point. No, there had to be some even bigger obstacle to catch them when they were feeling paranoid and abused. The traps had thinned the ranks of genin by about a quarter and the sailors had suffered quite a bit at the hands of the ground traps. Seventeen were being carried back to the ship by their fellows because of deep gashes, broken bones, and concussions.

The sailors that had been trailing half-heartedly behind the ninja froze and muttered worriedly among themselves at the sight of the fresh canyon when they caught up. More than thirty bone white masks seemed to glow in the pale light of the winter moon, animal faces bestial and gleaming with anticipation of a fight. Thirty ANBU… The tide of anxiety shifted towards terror. ANBU were without mercy.

"All right, that's far enough," called a harsh, feminine voice from the trees. "Which of you has the authority to treat with me?"

Nervousness and incredulousness ran through the ranks. What on earth was the crazy woman talking about?

"Care to explain that?" said Saito, emerging from the ranks to stand at the edge of the rent in the earth.

The mysterious attacker appeared opposite to her, almost ghostlike in the moon's light. "Your Mizukage promised me talks in return for ships. Either he delivers, or I'm stranding the lot of you right here."

"And how do you intend to do that?" asked Saito silkily, tensing and reaching for her glaive.

"By gouging holes in the hulls of your three vessels."

Many of the sailors began to inch back along the path, desperate to get back to their beloved ships to save them if they could.

"I have no orders to accept or offer any terms to any that compromise my mission," Saito said. "I will not even consider doing so with someone who hasn't named herself and what right she has to stand against me."

Angry whispers at the kunoichi's lack of respect for their livelihood ran through the sailors.

"You're out of date," jeered the head of the opposing force. "You're on my turf at the moment. Any rights you may have had stopped applying the moment you threatened Fire Country property. For raiders, you aren't subtle in the slightest. Get your people off my shores or you won't like what happens to them."

When Saito pulled out her glaive to challenge this ultimatum head on, an explosion echoed over the forest. "That's one of your ships," said the ghost woman as the ANBU shifted behind her. "How many can I sink before you are all stuck here at my mercy? What good will your little raid do if you won't be able to take all that ore back home?"

"Tsunade," said Saito under her breath, causing ripples of fear to flow through all the ninja behind her. The reputation of the Sannin had spread far and wide. That one stood before them now, recently promoted to Hokage, made them more leery than that scar through the ground at their feet or the animals waiting for her command to advance. "You have come yourself?"

"The clock ticks," said Konoha's Godaime, her tone growing more impatient.

Several sailors broke ranks and began running for the beach, ignoring the insistent commands shouted by the chuunin that had kept their cool. The formation of another deep gash in the earth from a light tap of the woman's heel caused a couple of them to bolt. Obviously, they had less faith than the Mizukage or Saito would have liked in this mission.

"You are playing with fire."

Saito pulled her glaive free and crouched slightly.

Tsunade smirked at the Kiri-nin. "You're going to get burned. You're going to get your whole nation burned if you don't back down right now."

That threat penetrated Saito's skull as nothing else could have. Risking war with Fire was not something Water could afford now. "Get back to the ships."

Steel apparently wasn't worth fighting thirty ANBU and a Sannin. The ninja following her hesitated while the sailors scurried away at this reprieve, but a glower over her shoulder sent even the chuunin stumbling back until suddenly Saito charged, her glaive cutting a deadly arc through the air. The chuunin spun around to attack behind their leader, but they froze at the sight of the one people still told stories about back at the Academy. The air reeked of his killing intent.

"Are you this desperate to taste my glaive?" spat Saito, infuriated that her attempt to end the Godaime Hokage had been thwarted by a traitor. "I did promise I would have your head."

"You have to separate it from my shoulders first."

* * *

Content that Zabuza was handling the reckless bitch, Tsunade stalked forwards, blasting intimidating craters in the earth and spraying rubble at the invaders as her ANBU guard and their various clones darted through the fray, dealing out slices and bruises whenever genin and chuunin proved foolhardy. She had told them to avoid killing if they could. Any dead here would lead to problems. She hoped that Zabuza realized this. If he hadn't, she was going to forget all about her little idea and let him have it. At least Haku seemed to understand. He had already downed four genin with excellently aimed senbon. She paused in her mindless destruction of the earth for a moment and called the boy over.

"Where's Team Kakashi?" she asked.

Haku whipped two more senbon at likely targets and almost looked satisfied when they hit the dirt limply. "There was trouble. They are somewhere at our original location. We suspect that Kakashi may be KIA or at least currently engaged in a battle with a seasoned jounin. Sakura and Sasuke would not hear of leaving him to fight by himself."

Tsunade frowned and clenched a fist before letting loose her fury and guilt on the ground. Trees toppled as their roots were denied the earth that had kept them steady before. Genin scattered, some screaming as those heavy trunks hit the freshly turned dirt. Tsunade was a force of nature and far more unforgiving than the earth. Hatake better have survived.

* * *

Sakura collapsed on her knees in front of the reshaped cliff and sniffled pathetically, wiping away tears as she desperately looked for any sign of survivors. It had been horrible to run the last two kilometres without being able to see anything other than this twisted ruin. At least the fearful tears had blurred it out.

She felt Sasuke's hand on her shoulder before he sprinted to a rut in the earth just shy of the new cliff and hopped down among the boulders that trailed down into the surf in a steep incline. She got to her feet and followed him as Kakashi's nin-dogs spread out across the bluffs, sniffing for any trace.

"Sasuke, what have you got?" she called, hating the way her voice cracked and how her nose was so clogged. She sniffled as more tears streaked down her face. _Kaka-sensei… Poor Kaka-sensei… Why hadn't they been here with him?_

"Come here."

Dread filling her, she scrambled down the uneven debris. She gulped when he pointed at Fumio's twisted corpse: his torso crushed, his legs wedged under several stones, his upper body bobbed against the rocks, and his hands still bound. The water his head was suspended under was tinged red. He must have drowned. The rock that had taken a fragment of his skull with it must have knocked him unconscious as the tower and the cliff fell out from under him and eventually on him.

"Pakkun, come and see if you can smell him in the rocks," Sasuke called as he poked around.

The pug slid down the rocks while Sakura walked out quite a distance onto the rough water. She couldn't bear to look at Fumio's mangled body anymore. It was her fault he was dead. She had tied him up. It ached so much even though she didn't really know Fumio and even though she had never been on his side. The guilt still cut, though her grief about Kaka-sensei hurt more, much more. What would Naruto say when he heard? She calmed herself viciously. This was no time to cry. There were too many people counting on them. Haku and Zabuza still needed them. They had to find proof and then go back.

It was only because she was so far out on the water that she heard a familiar echo that filled her with such hope that she thought she would burst.

_Chi, chi, chi, chi…_

"Sasuke!" Guilt and grief were forced aside when the geyser of elation opened up inside her. "Sasuke, I hear him! I hear Raikiri!"

She started sprinting across the waves, ignoring how every step splashed her. Who cared about wet pants that would be stiff with salt later? He was alive! Had she been less infected by Kakashi-sensei's paranoia, she would have screamed her exaltation to the skies. Sasuke and the pack quickly caught up with her and streaked across the water's surface in her wake, some of the dogs baying. Kaka-sensei was still alive!

They rounded a slight peninsula about a kilometre and a half north of the tower's former position and spotted such a familiar scene that they almost grinned at each other when they traded looks, united completely in this moment as they had never been before. Kaka-sensei was mimicking Juro to a degree that was eerie. Sasuke passed her in a burst of speed, his wake spraying her in the face, a triumphant grin on his lips and his hands blasting though the seals for Chidori.

Following his lead despite the way her hair was dripping because of him, Sakura pumped chakra into her fist and swung around to come in at Juro's right side while Sasuke took the left, completing their pincer movement. The hounds took the rear. Kakashi saw them coming and kept going to distract Juro from their rapid advance as much as possible before shooting forward at the last moment to secure the jounin so all three of their attacks hit. Chidori pierced, ribs crumpled under her fist, and Buru tackled the jounin beneath the waves, his enormous maw fastened around Juro's neck. The massive hound pulled him up and shook him like a rag doll before Kakashi looped thick wires about the wrists and ankles of the stunned man.

"Maa," he remarked, hardly panting despite his long fight, "I guess you guys were helping an old lady cross the road or something."

Sakura was still too happy that he was alive to level him with a fist.

"Ah." Sasuke brushed his sodden bangs out of his face. Buru had made quite a splash.

All the other mutts wriggled around Kakashi as he stood up a little unsteadily, wagging their tails madly as they sniffed him as though he had been gone for a hundred years. Pakkun jumped up on his shoulder as Buru tried to set his paws on the man's shoulder so he would be able to lick his face before Akino snarled at him and did the honours.

"We actually got a little lost on the road of life," said Sasuke, tossing his head arrogantly despite the sly smirk about his lips. "You see, there was this roadblock, and we had to go the long way around. Some idiot toppled a tower right across the road."

Kakashi eye-smiled and chuckled as his shoulders drooped under Pakkun's weight. "Ah, well, it was structurally unsound…" he claimed, rubbing the back of his head.

The motion revealed a rip in his vest to Sakura. It was very long and beginning to acquire a red stain along its edges. He must have been caught by Juro's blade…

"Are you hurt, Sensei?" she asked, already moving forward with healing chakra surrounding her hand.

He suffered her ministrations for a bit before backing away and heaving their newest captive out of the water as Sasuke grabbed the big man's feet. "Glad as I am to see you, what are you doing here?"

"Your dogs heard the tower fall," said Sakura, worried that they would get in trouble for abandoning their mission. Sure, Kaka-sensei always said teamwork was everything, but he never seemed to include himself in that statement.

"We heard the echoes through the earth," added Akino. "The wind would not have carried those sounds such a distance south. No, you shook the earth the way someone else is right now where we were."

That startled her. "Someone else is breaking the earth?" Worry for Haku and Zabuza tarnished her elation.

"Yes," grumbled Pakkun, clinging to Kakashi's shoulder despite the annoyed look the weary jounin shot him as he adjusted his hold on their insensate captive as he headed for shore. "They've been doing so for almost twenty minutes, or at least they were before we hit the water. Sound doesn't carry through the sea the same way."

Sakura watched their sensei before glancing at Sasuke. How much chakra did Kaka-sensei have left? Sasuke shrugged at her as best he could with his burden, indicating that the jounin would probably collapse from overusing his eye again. Sakura rolled her eyes, still too relieved that the man was alive to flatten him with a punch for being careless.

"But that doesn't really explain why you're here. Haku reported that a raiding party had arrived. Why aren't you with them?"

"Would you rather we had been trash and left you to die?" asked Sasuke snidely despite the fact that he was almost grinning at the back of their teacher's head.

Kakashi glanced wearily at him over his shoulder. "Sasuke," said Kakashi slowly. They stared at him, wondering if he was going to dish out a bit of wisdom after this life and death struggle. "You have no tact. You are going to get pounded by someone stronger than yourself someday." For some reason, Sakura had the feeling that Kaka-sensei already knew who this would be and was wickedly amused by this idea. "I warn you only out of pity and so I can say 'I told you so' later."

Kaka-sensei had to be _really_ tired. He was explaining himself. This was the end of the world. Sakura discretely slipped right behind him with Buru on her heels, so she was in place to catch him when he finally passed out thirty metres from shore. Sasuke scowled and dragged the captive onto Buru's back before moving forward to help her drag their teacher the rest of the way up the cliff.

He was such an ungrateful bastard sometimes.

* * *

Blades clashed and scraped against each other's edges as Zabuza and Saito glared at each other, their noses almost touching as they put all their strength behind their chosen weapon. Saito leered and spat into Zabuza's narrowed eyes, forcing him to recoil and allowing her to press her advantage.

He blinked her saliva out and returned to fighting in earnest. "No clone this time. No chance to run away to a hidey-hole and let some water take the beating for you. No chance to run to your precious Mizukage and spill everything that isn't yours to know."

"Shut up, you slimy bastard." She grinned, her glaive catching his blade and whipping it around, allowing her to bypass his guard, but he had seen that coming. She had always been like this: trying to slide past defences using whatever came to hand. "You still haven't learned anything about self-preservation. Your mistake, child slayer. I intend to capitalize on this fault."

He ignored the cut she scored on him and knocked her feet out from under her with a swipe with the flat of his blade. Her terror was almost delicious. He could have separated her shins from her knees if he had used the edge. Yes, she had definitely become reckless from always using a clone to fight with.

Watching her realize this was heady. Her lips tightened slightly and her knuckles went white around the handle of her glaive. The momentum of their fight had shifted. He smirked at her and waved with the tip of his blade that she was to get to her feet again so they could keep going. When she stared at him, he allowed the tip to rest against the coppery hollow of her throat, watching a droplet of blood form when the tip touched. Her blue-grey eyes clouded with fear and fury as she grabbed her weapon and flipped to her feet as he had indicated.

* * *

Having followed Kakashi-san's dog Uuhei here since this afternoon and arrived to find the Hokage cleaning up, Hinata spotted the catamaran skipping over the choppy waves towards the cove. It had only two passengers, and both were channelling chakra. She called a warning down to Hokage-sama, who was stalking the beach just above the waves, using outright intimidation to keep the interlopers on their two remaining boats. Getting them back onboard their vessels had been a long process. The third boat was deep below the waves. One of the six ANBU had detonated the exploding tags all over it, punching several holes even in its reinforced hull. The skeleton crew aboard had been picked up by those on the neighbouring ship, but the loss of that craft had shaken all of the trespassers.

Tsunade smirked at the catamaran, knowing full well who was coming. Her ANBU assembled behind her, their armoured bodies tensed in preparation to deflect any attack. It frightened Hinata to watch them stand with such dedication. They oozed such devotion and paranoia that she felt infected even up on the bluff above the cove where she had been standing lookout.

The two ninja pulled their light vessel up onto the shore slowly, making no sudden moves that would startle the ANBU into action. One was a youngish man with short-cropped hair and a face like an axe. The other was an older man who wore fine clothes under his Kiri flak vest. They approached cautiously, extending a note that the ANBU with the tiger mask retrieved. He held it out to the Hokage, who read it before nodding a greeting.

"The Mizukage sent us in response to your… interesting missive," said the older man silkily. "We see that you have not been bluffing. We are sorry we were too late to halt the hostilities before you were forced to carry out your threat. The one responsible for this inconvenience will be reprimanded severely of course."

"Hn," grunted Tsunade impatiently. "Stop with the pussyfooting. Get to business."

"Of course, Hokage-sama. You requested talks. I imagine you wish to discuss terms?"

"'Discuss' is putting it mildly." She was so tempted to cackle at this moment. Diplomacy was a foreign concept, but she could adopt it on occasion. "I happen to hold the advantage here. No, this will be a dictation of terms. You will decide just how much you need what I have and will either accept my offer or withdraw from my shores with a severe warning."

She hated the fact that both of these jounin had such good control over their faces. She looked crude when compared to their sleek expressions.

"You won't need to punish her," said a voice from the trees.

Tsunade glared as Zabuza strode forward, though Haku looked very relieved to see him in one piece. It wasn't that she was upset that he was alive. No, it was the state of the human bleeding all over his shoulder that made her angry. He was a deranged creature; that much was obvious from this and from his past deeds. She would have to make sure he never did things like this again. She refused to flinch as he dropped the body in the space between her and the diplomats. None of the ANBU moved at her orders as the younger diplomat moved forward and turned the kunoichi over.

"I've seen to Saito," Zabuza said. "She might need a bit more patching up than if you had reprimanded her, though that wouldn't have been the case before I went through the Academy, hmm?"

The young diplomat glared warningly and even the older jounin looked a bit uncomfortable with whatever concept Zabuza was referring to. "Momochi-san, there is no need to bring up ancient history when the Hokage was about to tell us her terms. I am certain that she wishes to continue."

Hah, so maybe even the old man wasn't as calm as he pretended. This would be interesting.

"No, please continue. This intrigues me," she said, gesturing to Zabuza, who almost seemed to be smirking beneath his bandages.

"Failure to make the Mizukage look good was not quite so easily forgiven before my debut at the graduation exam forced them to re-evaluate the way ninja were dealt with."

That had obviously unnerved those Kiri-nin. Hmm, maybe this sadist would be useful after all. "Is that so? Now, that's interesting."

"Here's my offer. You will be allowed to negotiate a price with the refinery that you were about to raid and you will be allowed to take one shipload of iron back to Water with you. What you do with it there doesn't concern me. That's you problem. You will also drop all claims on this man and that boy." She flicked a finger at Haku and Zabuza. "Their past will no longer count for or against them. Their crimes will be pardoned, and they will be recognized as belonging to the Village of the Hidden Leaf." Their slight disgust at that last request inspired her to be slightly generous. "I'll also patch up that kunoichi's broken arms."

"What about the two other jounin?" the elder jounin asked cautiously, clearly worried that he was revealing too many cards.

"They are not accounted for at the moment. One of your people supposedly destroyed one of my towers. He potentially killed himself, one of my jounin, and the other jounin you sent. We're assuming they're KIA at this point until the people sent to investigate return."

The possibility that Kakashi was dead burned in the pit of her stomach. Maybe she was letting these guys off too easily, but if they were as desperate as Intelligence had insinuated, then paying through the nose for ore they couldn't actually afford would indebt them to her for at least three years. It wasn't as if she couldn't afford to be a little generous. Starting a war with Kirigakure was not high on her list of priorities. Compromising was something she could do this time, but only this time. She had embarrassed the Mizukage almost enough to satisfy her pride. His people had scattered like chickens before her.

"You have one hour to decide," she told them as Saito's wounds continued to bleed. The younger jounin pulled out a roll of bandages and patched up the worst of her gashes while the elder considered.

Thirty minutes in, Hinata called out again and abandoned her post to sprint away from the bluff. Tsunade glared at the girl's lack of explanation until Shino and Kiba took up her former position.

"They're coming!" hollered down the Inuzuka, waving his arms around to emphasize his announcement. Kurenai looked embarrassed at his lack of restraint when Tsunade glanced at her. "They've got two people with them! One is Kakashi-sensei!"

Relief loosened the twists in her guts. Kakashi was alive then. Sakura would have made sure.

* * *

"They took your offer?"

"I didn't leave them any choice." Tsunade smirked, leaning back in her chair. "Even thirteen genin, seven chuunin, and four jounin—two of whom were badly injured—wouldn't match up against me, six ANBU, Team Kakashi, Team Kurenai, Haku, Zabuza, and all those hounds. I didn't even have to summon. Bunch of chicken shits, they got totally cowed when they saw what had happened to that jounin trio. Apparently, they were very highly regarded, Fumio especially. They weren't happy about him, but they got to take his body back with them. Since he fell on my turf, I could have claimed it for investigation instead of letting them take it back for burial."

Nariko arched a brow as she organized her papers.

"You're wrong, you know," added the Godaime, spinning an empty sake dish on her desk.

"About what?" Nariko asked, tucking her papers under her arm.

"That proverb you told me about: the carrot and the stick."

"Oh?"

"The combination works much better than just the carrot." Tsunade chuckled, filling the dish and taking a long sip. Ah, this was better. It was good to be able to drink again, and Geezer-sensei had actually managed to get her a bit ahead on paperwork. She would have done this running away thing again if the council hadn't thrown such a fit about it the moment she had gotten back home. Nariko blinked at her, nonplussed. "Tell your father that so he can correct his scrolls."

"Of course, Tsunade-sama," said the girl. "A message came for me while you were away. Your people finally let it go to my mailbox."

Tsunade arched an eyebrow.

"I've received summons from my clan head."


	53. Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Two Spilled Cups

Ino watched Team Kakashi march back into the village a couple days after the return of the Hokage, which had only been kept hush-hush for about a day before someone had realized that if Sandaime-sama was in her chair, then she wasn't likely to be around. It hadn't taken long for things to leak after that. Speculation about which team the Hokage had gone after (unwisely some said) had been varied, but Team Kakashi had been the obvious answer considering how one of the captain's summon dogs had come racing in the gate and how Team Kurenai had supposedly been sent out to bring them up to speed.

They didn't look good at all, but she had heard from Hinata, whose team had returned with the Hokage, that it had been unpleasant. Even Sasuke-kun looked like crap. She hadn't thought that was possible. Oh well, that was what A-rank missions were all about: facing off against enemy ninja and hopefully coming out whole on the other end. That was what her father told her anyway.

"Hey, Forehead-girl!" she called, sauntering over, but keeping enough distance that she wouldn't have to smell all of those men. She very much doubted that they had had the time to bathe in the last three weeks.

It was gratifying to watch Sakura's fists clench. She was obviously on a short fuse. "Not now, Ino-pig," she mumbled though.

It must have been bad, though they were all in one piece. Sakura must have patched them up. There probably hadn't been any good places to sleep. Forehead-girl did love her sleep

Ino was just about to let her off the hook when she said goodbye to all of her teammates except Sasuke and walked away. That omission gave Ino more hope than she ever had had before. Was Sakura pissed off with Sasuke-kun? She had to find out more about this. Ino ran to catch up with her when she started weaving a bit and straightened her course. "That bad, huh?"

Sakura didn't reply, so Ino stayed with her all the way to her door and watched the slight horror flitting across Sakura's petite mother's face. The woman's attitude rubbed Ino the wrong way. Where was the support? When she got home, her mom and dad always took the time to talk to her about how things had gone.

"See ya, Sakura. Good evening, Haruno-san."

Haruno-san nodded with a vague smile on her face before nervously watching Sakura walk up the stairs and closing the door.

That regard had almost been… disapproving.

Huh.

* * *

Shizune slipped into ANBU headquarters carrying a scroll in her fist. The stand-in secretary looked up and received it without a word, merely using a curious head tilt behind her dragon mask to ask questions.

"Orders to track Uchiha Itachi and his partner, as well as a mission asking for a minor political head," said Shizune. They were standard now. "Any updates on catching up with that Oto group that managed to get past the patrol?"

Dragon shook her head. Shizune didn't doubt they would be hearing from them soon in one way or another.

* * *

Winter lingered in the frigid air; Sakura blew warmth on her fingers as she waited for Sasuke to show up. Lee and Neji were already "training" (it looked more to her as though they were trying to beat the snot out of each other than actually helping each other improve, but Gai-sensei did have some really odd ideas about youth and strength and the proper ways to become more powerful). They had offered to let her join them. She wasn't crazy though.

It was interesting to watch them. Lee's taijutsu put her own to shame: he was little more than a blur of kicks and punches, looping around Neji's defence. The Hyuuga boy's genius was so obvious when he was fighting like this. He was circular motion at its finest. No effort was wasted on pulling back or reversing momentum. He made Jyuuken look like some sort of strange dance. His absolute defence was the only motion that marred the patterns since it scraped away at the ground.

She wasn't about to pass up this chance even though Sasuke was making her wait: Tsunade-shishou had finally said she was getting the hang of using the technique that allowed her to possess monstrous strength. She really wanted to show it to Sasuke. Maybe he would acknowledge her then.

The brief unity that they had experienced when helping Kaka-sensei beat Juro had faded quickly. It had only been a vague memory by the time Tsunade-shishou had finished bullying the Kiri-nin. Sasuke had gone back to being as standoffish as ever, and she had gone back to being irritated by his attitude. If he kept at this, she didn't know what she was going to do, but she was fast losing patience.

* * *

"Sasuke, aren't you supposed to meet up with Sakura-chan today at Training Ground 11?" Mikoto asked her sleepy son as Ryuuka stirred her porridge around half-heartedly, not really interested in eating it as much as wanting to play with it.

Mikoto wished Riko hadn't introduced her to the stuff while watching over her when Mikoto had been off on her first mission in years. Sure, she was grateful to her friend for taking care of her, but now Ryuuka asked for porridge all the time. Mikoto figured it was because Ryuuka found it easier to deal with spoons than chopsticks, though she was suspicious when she saw her daughter scoop up a spoonful of the heavily sweetened gruel and balance her spoon on the rim of her bowl.

_Uh oh…_

"Hn," said Sasuke, scratching at his scalp.

Mikoto laughed internally at her son's cowlicks. He must have been completely worn out if he had come downstairs like this, though he had been brooding quite a bit since he had gotten back. She suspected that it hadn't gone entirely well for him, but failing would do him good. He was far too sure of himself. He needed to learn that he wasn't infallible and to find his limits so he could break them. Only coming up against obstacles would do that for him. Speaking of obstacles…

"Yatta!" crowed Ryuuka, slamming her tiny fist onto the end of the spoon, which sent its burden flying at her brother. She quickly loaded her spoon up again and sent the next round flying as the first impacted with a wet splat. Sasuke managed to catch the second in his palm as Mikoto stifled laughter. Just what had Naruto taught her daughter?

Poor Sasuke looked grossed out with the porridge oozing through his fingers and over the tip of his nose. He glared at his sister, who was snorting into her porridge and wriggling her toes with glee as she squirmed about on her knees in a manner that reminded Mikoto of Naruto at eight when he had had a little too much sugar.

"Ryuuka!" Sasuke glared at her, but she merely giggled louder and ran around the table to hug him.

Mikoto smirked: Ryuuka knew exactly how to get out of being punished. It was hilarious to watch the rage leak out of Sasuke. Mikoto finally laughed when Ryuuka actually got her brother to eat the porridge he had caught while she scraped the stuff splattered all over his nose and left cheek and stuffed it into her mouth.

"Isn't it good, Oniitama?" she asked as he pushed her back to her cushion and indicated that she should finish her breakfast, obviously embarrassed at how easily she had twisted him around her finger. "Riko-bachan made it for me when Kaasan was away from the village for the weekend with Anko-san and Aoba-san. She says that Naruto-niichan used to eat it all the time and that's why he was such a good prankster! She says it made her Shiro-nii and her Itsuki-niichan into the best tricksters too! I'm going to be just like them after I get as good as you!"

That little suck-up! Mikoto hid her grin from her son, who wouldn't appreciate it since it was at his expense, by staring fixedly at the dishwater. Ryuuka was buttering him up. Maybe three more seconds…

"Oniitama, can you teach me the katon jutsu today so I can be a big dragon like you?"

Called it. Ryuuka did this occasionally. She really wanted to be a grownup Uchiha like the brother she idolized.

Sasuke sighed and picked at his rice as Mikoto watched him out of the corner of her eye. "Imouto…"

Ryuuka quickly tried to forestall his refusal. "Please?" She bounced on her knees. "Fusae-chan already knows how to throw kid kunai!"

That scamp… Sasuke's pride in his clan was only second to his pride in being a ninja. That some friend of Ryuuka's would know more than his sister did about being a ninja would gall him quite a bit.

"Ryuuka, I'm not going to teach you Goukakyuu no Jutsu until you turn six." She started whining, but he held up his hand. "I will throw kunai with you this afternoon though so long as you promise not to use them in the house."

The four-year-old girl's grin could have split her face in two. "Thanks, Oniitama! I'll work really hard, I promise."

Maybe the ten-year age gap between them wasn't such a bad thing. Ryuuka bolted down the rest of her porridge and ran around the table to hug him again and put a sloppy kiss on his porridge-smudged cheek before running upstairs so she could change into clothes she could play in the garden in. Sasuke was so whipped…

Mikoto had no doubt that Ryuuka would be a top kunoichi if she kept this up.

* * *

"Finally," grumbled Sakura when Sasuke appeared at the edge of the training ground.

Lee and Neji paused to watch him approach disapprovingly, though she couldn't really be sure with Neji. Only extreme emotions seemed to get past that mask. Sakura had no doubt he would make jounin if his control over his expression were any indication. In any case, Sasuke was four hours late. When he didn't make any effort to apologize, she clenched her fists and glared. He was so going to get pounded today. She suddenly felt a blast of air move behind her and a hand fasten around her throat, a kunai's cold edge pressing against the flesh covering her carotid artery. She froze, her anger turning to fear.

Sasuke's bored expression had fallen off his face. Lee and Neji had jumped up into ready positions, the latter glaring warily around the clearing. Three other presences flashed into existence around them and Sakura really began to worry. What was all this about?

Neji was obviously wondering the same thing. "What are Oto-nin doing in Konoha?" He fell into the ready position for Jyuuken, his face a mask of concentration.

The quartet ignored him, their focus on her teammate. He didn't look as angry as she expected given what Oto ninja had done the last time they had seen them.

"Uchiha Sasuke," called the one holding her, "Orochimaru-sama regrets not being able to put this offer before you earlier, but others interfered."

Angry mutters grew up from his three companions. They obviously despised those that had dared to thwart their leader. Sakura was suddenly reminded of the fanatical devotion of the man that had hurt her so badly during the invasion. His face, a mask of bestiality, had been twisted with such obscene loyalty as he had driven that kunai into her hip… She shuddered in the grip of this ninja and didn't doubt he would do the same thing if she pushed him. It was a much better idea to stay still for now.

When Sasuke didn't answer, another of the ninja growled. "Do you really not want to hear his most generous offer?" he asked, envy shadowing every word. "Do you not understand what an honour this is?"

Sakura waited for Sasuke to mimic Lee and Neji and get ready to get her out of this mess.

"What offer is this?" he asked.

_What the hell did it matter what that snake wanted?_ Sasuke… Sasuke was from Konoha! Sasuke would never have anything to do with the snake that had tried to take his sister away! The Snake Sannin had tried to bite him during the Chuunin Exam according to Naruto! Why was he even asking such stupid questions?

"What offer? You really don't know? You never bothered to find out? Surely you knew he was seeking to get into contact with you."

Neji and Lee began to mirror her incredulousness when Sasuke shrugged, his eyes opaque to her. He was wavering; she could tell. Why?

"Orochimaru-sensei offers you power of course," said the man that was holding her. "He attempted to bestow a seal upon you during the exam that would have tripled your power at least, but he was thwarted by a perverse brat. He offers you training and a path towards your goal. He promises that you will be able to kill your brother within a year should you decide to come with us now. He offers to make you realize your obvious potential. He will see to it that you will be able to kill Uchiha Itachi."

Sasuke didn't reject this offer immediately. Just what was going on in that boy's head? Fear and incomprehension turned to complete rage. Her fists clenched as the side of herself she usually suppressed rose, gnashing its teeth at this display of weakness in the boy she admired above all others. He was falling to temptation, to the easy path, to the solitude he would have to embrace to go to Orochimaru and learn what he promised with slimy, silver words. Chakra surged through her as the pair of boys from Team Gai stared at Sasuke, bewildered by his hesitation.

Sakura brushed aside her thoughts and truly acted for the first time in her life. Her left arm shot up to secure the offending wrist that threatened her neck, crunching the carpals and grinding the ulna and radius together with the force of her grip, while she pumped chakra into her other elbow and snapped it back into her captor's ribcage with a snarl and followed up with a kick that probably cracked his femur. He had forgotten her. He had passed her off as a simple damsel in distress. How dare he do such a thing! She didn't train everyday with Shishou to be disregarded like this!

Her initial passivity had given her the element of surprise. The names of the various parts of the body that she was damaging ran through her mind as a strange undercurrent to her infuriated actions. She nailed the stunned ninja in the gut, sending him flying into a tree with a sickening snap of his spine.

She was already twisting in place, ignoring Lee and Neji's fights with two other Oto-nin, and bypassed the third that was making a leap for her, intent on vengeance. No, she circumvented them all; all of her rage focussed on the boy she had obsessed over and still loved despite the hell he put her through. She had idolized him; she saw that now. She had been blind to his faults. A film of admiration had clouded her vision of him. She had never thought he would be the one to rip it away so brutally.

He was staring at her as though he had never seen her before. This was why they had clashed. He had never truly respected her. He had labelled her the fangirl and had kept her boxed up in that category despite her attempts to break out of it. It was his prejudices that she had been fighting all along, not herself.

She closed the distance between them, ignoring his shock, as she drew his fist back and slammed it into the esteemed alabaster skin. His cheekbone cracked, and he tumbled back. She chased after him, grabbing the front of his shirt and screaming right into his face, spittle flying as she shook him violently, trying to shake the stupidity out of him. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" When he stared at her blankly, she opened her fist and slapped him without mercy. "Snap out of it, you absolute prick!" she screamed, realizing that she was crying.

He had betrayed her. He was less than he had been, diminished in her eyes to something she could relate to for the first time. He wasn't some Adonis to worship on a pedestal. He was Sasuke, the bastard Naruto called him so often. Naruto had always known him best.

When the other Oto-nin dove for her, she dropped her teammate and spun under his attack. This was her moment of breaking and reforming. Hell if this asshole was going to ruin it for her. She slammed her fist into the ground, creating a crater some seven metres in radius. It was nowhere near as impressive as the fifty-metre craters that Tsunade-shishou had marred the earth with at the coast, but Sakura was filled with a fierce pride all the same. This was her skill at last.

The crater served its purpose: it knocked the Oto ninja off balance and allowed her to land a kick on his lower back, slamming him into the ground, but he didn't stay there for long. This guy actually seemed intent on fighting back. Good.

"Asshole!" she screamed at Sasuke as she batted aside some shuriken and dodged kunai. "Bloody bastard! Get your priorities sorted!"

She flipped out of range of the strange siren's call that this ninja used for ninjutsu. She could feel it pulling at her chakra, disturbing her control of it. She scowled and redoubled her efforts.

"So some kunoichi embarrassed you!" she shouted over the strange music. "I heard Zabuza telling Kaka-sensei about it. They thought I was asleep. So she humiliated you. So what? You think that I felt any better every time you or Ino humiliated me?"

The memories of those moments gave her the guts she needed to try to score another hit on the ninja. She failed; his music shattered her control of the chakra she had gathered in her hand. The impact of her punch didn't even phase him as he moved with it, allowed himself to absorb its momentum rather than standing firm against it.

"You're too bloody sensitive!" She backtracked and dashed away more useless tears as she took a moment to glance at him.

He had managed to get back to his feet, one hand hovering just over the bloody mess she had made of the left side of his face.

"You and your damn pride. You can't stand not being the best. You can't take it. But do you know what?" she asked, her voice cracking as she struggled to regain control over her chakra. Control was everything for her: she didn't have much else to attack with physically. Thoughts couldn't pummel this enemy into the ground, though she was willing to try.

"What?" She could almost swear that she heard him ask that of her.

"You want to take the easy road," she said as she cracked the earth open. Again, this was nowhere near the amount of damage Tsunade-sama would have done with less effort, but she was just learning. She could forgive herself some mistakes here. She had learned how to from necessity. "You want to take the easiest path to power, but you're going to find out that it's just going to make things harder. If you go, you'll have no one to turn to when things get rough. You won't have a team to rely on. You won't have backup.

"Being alone isn't all it's cracked up to be." She remembered those days in the earliest years at the Academy when she had been friendless, forced to face bullies like Ami alone. "Having a team, having someone to turn to for support—" she jumped out of the range of this strange opponent's attack and ducking another round of kunai "—it's the greatest thing ever.

"Having you, Kaka-sensei, and Naruto there, it makes things worth it. Putting up with training sessions past midnight, horrible missions, and lack of sleep—all of those things are easy when there's people around to share them with, you know? If you take the snake's offer, you won't ever get that."

She fended off the ninja's flurry of biting attacks to the best of her ability, mourning the lack of those teammates at her back as she struggled to understand the pattern of this man's attacks. He was different, and she had only started learning. Shishou had said that developing an eye for picking out the rhythm, the reason, and the rhyme of a ninja's attack style took lots of training. "Victory is better when it's shared."

His music started again, his strange set of panpipes emitting a different sort of tune that made her feel lethargic, like she was wading through thick mud. She didn't have the energy to resist the pull of gravity and fell to her knees. Oh, she tried to summon the will to form the release seal for genjutsu, but it was so hard…

"Kai," said Sasuke, his finger on her shoulder.

Sluggishness melted away. She was astonished that he knew that jutsu: his eyes made him immune to most genjutsu. Maybe Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, and everybody else had gotten through to him about this teamwork thing. She expected him to walk past her and prove his worth to himself by pummelling the Oto-nin alone. He didn't though. He waited for her to stand and nodded to her before disappearing to do his part.

The panpipes fell to the ground, shattered by a blast of lightning, and she advanced. Sasuke had opened up the way for her and he was waiting for her to help. If he was trying to make her hate him, he was doing a horrible job. If he was trying to help her lose this damn crush, he was failing utterly. Why couldn't he just be a bastard and stick to it? At least she wasn't blind anymore. She could see him, and she had the feeling that maybe he could really see her. That was enough.

* * *

"What happened here?" asked a familiar voice as two other ANBU prowled around the ruined training ground, inspecting the bodies of the Oto ninja they had taken down. The four chuunin glanced at each other. Sasuke stepped forward to explain, his face still maimed. Sakura had the feeling that Kakashi-sensei suspected her. She was proven right. "Ah, so you finally pissed her off enough? It took you long enough."

Sakura frowned and wondered why there was a slight blurriness in her sensei's motions. He must have just gotten back from one of his ANBU missions because there was blood splattered on his dog mask. He might not have even reported to the Hokage yet. He must have heard their battle and Neji's whistles calling for the black operatives to take charge of the situation on his way to the administration buildings and responded automatically. Oto was still supposed to be ANBU's especial duty to deal with.

"Hn."

"Ah, I'm sorry to have missed it. I told you so!" Kakashi teased before disappearing in a puff of leaves and smoke as two more agents responded to their call and took charge of the area.

Sakura rolled her eyes and raised a hand to Sasuke's face, healing the damage she had inflicted on him. He must have been in a lot of pain because he didn't protest at all. It made her want to cackle.

* * *

Naruto did cackle as Gamakichi disappeared, bound for Ni'i's apartment. This was the last one. He was so tempted to bounce around the room with it, hollering his success for the entire street to hear, but Ero-Sennin would gut him. He was writing another dirty scene in the next room.

Instead, Naruto snatched up Sasuke's latest letter (it was more of a note really; Sasuke wasn't a guy that liked to write much) and headed out into the woods around this roadside town. It was a small village set up along the main trading route to Grass Country and it catered especially to travellers. Unfortunately, it was busy enough that Ero-Sennin had recommended he wear a henge while here. News travelled very quickly from innocent places like this. It would not be a good thing to let anyone find out exactly where he was. He hated this henge though. It didn't feel quite right, like he was wearing a sandal that had been made for the other foot.

He found a likely clearing, hunkered down in the branches of a birch tree, and held out his hand, practicing what Temari had showed him. Wind was a difficult chakra type to shape, but she and Gaara had explained it to him during his visit there. Learning about fuuton chakra in Suna had seemed strangely appropriate. He plucked one of the birch leaves and held it lightly between two fingers. Slicing, scraping, grating, grinding, that was what fuuton felt like. To achieve that, he had to swirl it like Rasengan and yet manipulate it like scissors so the opposing edges created the slice. That was how he visualized it anyway. He would have to ask somebody who could actually see chakra what is was really like.

The leaf fluttered from his fingers, shorn in two. Glad that he hadn't lost the hang of this easy exercise, he moved on to harder things to cut, like rocks. Ero-Sennin had refused point blank to help him until he could pass a test: he had to be able to cut a two-metre swath in less than a second. Naruto had been practicing and gaining ground on this goal whenever he wasn't working on seals.

Seals were so hard! There were so many rules and every line had to be just so. Every little squiggle had some intricate meaning behind it that he had to research. He was working on one that had to be drawn under specific conditions to ensure that certain figures pointed north, east, and south while being depicted on paper. Why such alignment was necessary was complicated. Sealing actually seemed to have branched off of old shamanism at one point or another before ninja had adapted it. He had to remember so many things at any given time. That simple seeming seal he used to help Gamakichi go to Kumo was the result of three weeks of study during the moments between Ero-Sennin's instruction on properly dealing with genjutsu, and it hadn't even been complete.

It was good to be able to set aside the boring books occasionally and actually _do_ something though. He really missed missions. Sasuke and Sakura's other notes had described their last mission together. They had gotten to go kick ass while he had been trailing around looking at boring castles. He hadn't thought that a training mission with one of the Sannin would ever be this mind numbing. Training palled after months of it. At least bugging Ni'i-san kept him amused.

Just to work out some of his excess energy, he painstakingly formed Rasengan in his hand without a clone. He was cutting down the time it took slowly; he could do it in sixteen seconds now rather than the four minutes it had taken originally. It was hard to focus so much on shaping so much contrary chakra into so many different currents that all opposed each other and somehow didn't cancel each other out. Two minds really were better than one. Sixteen seconds was too long though: if he had been fighting in a real battle, he would have died by the time he got halfway there unless he had a teammate covering him. Fighting alone was hard.

Sasuke-bastard seemed to have finally gained an understanding of this. Naruto slammed Rasengan into the ground just so he could watch the awesome damage it did and pulled out Sasuke's note. Something must have happened that his best friend wasn't telling him about because the tone of these notes had changed recently. Where before Sasuke had sounded aggrieved at his lack of progress and annoyed with Sakura's insistence that they keep working together, Naruto had the feeling that Sasuke had finally sort of gotten over that and started respecting just how cool Sakura could be. Naruto snorted. Sakura must have finally bashed him over the head, as he deserved.

* * *

The rain fell, drowning any words that might have been said.

Red skies danced with black clouds.

Dark waters pooled below a wooden frame.

A familiar face hovered just out of view, one eye empty, accusing, as life spilled from him.

Lightning cracked the sky in two.

His lightning. His guilt. Obito's blood.

Red eyes promising death in a stony, pale face framed by dark hair ended the dream and cracked reality to pieces.

A dripping ninjatou was the last thing he saw before darkness claimed him.

* * *

Screaming woke Sasuke up on Sunday evening. He lay still as his hand sought the kunai behind his pillow. He wasn't surprised when Ryuuka scrambled through his door and burrowed into his side, but he was surprised to note that Gekkou Yuugao and Riko spat barbed words with his mother trying to interrupt occasionally. The pair seemed to be more interested in verbally skewering each other though. Sasuke had thought that they got along very well. Things finally became coherent.

"Fucking hell! This was the sort of shit I was worried about." Yuugao's shriek echoed through the house. "Look what happened! Why the fuck weren't you with him?"

Riko wasn't any quieter. "It would have happened either way! It's almost been a bloody _year_! That was the eighth episode as far as I know. Considering how private the bastard is, I wouldn't be surprised that he's been hiding away in his apartment, dealing with it himself unless he thinks he really needs help. I'm not surprised that he broke to tell you the truth."

"Why the fuck didn't he show?"

"As if I know!" Riko screamed back, fury mingled with guilt. "What did you want me to do, go force my way into his apartment?"

"Yes! That would have been a whole fucking lot better than this!"

"What? Great gods, what on earth do you think I am? Kakashi's not getting any better. He needs to—"

Sasuke froze at the mention of his sensei. He had the feeling that he was finally going to get some answers.

"He doesn't want to though, the bloody ass of a senpai!"

"So you're just going to lambaste me and not him, you dense twit?" Riko howled.

Sasuke patted Ryuuka's head and warned her to stay put as he crept out of his room and down the hall to listen at the top of the stairs.

"Now, calm down you two," his mother said, but Yuugao rolled right over her protests.

"Konoha is all about duty and teamwork and comrades and—"

"Frigging hell, Yuugao, I'm not a bloody ninja. I'm just a math freak. If you want miracles, go convince him to talk to Tsunade-sama. She's not blind. She's going to figure this out…"

"It's not April yet… We decided April. You should have—!"

"You're not _listening_ to me! Do you think this is some fairy tale where the damsel saves the fallen warrior, they fall in love, and everything comes out perfectly? Fuck that!" Sasuke cringed. Riko had to be furious: she was swearing pretty badly. "This is _life_, Yuugao. I'm not going to play your lovely healer. Ever. First off, I will not be 'lovely'; I despise that adjective. Don't apply it to me. It doesn't suit. He needs a bloody shrink or something!"

"You—" began Yuugao, sounding incredibly offended. Sasuke figured it was because Riko had accused her of substituting reality with crafted fantasy. Yuugao was ANBU after all.

"This needs to end now. I'm not doing this anymore," Riko spat out and the thud of a fist hitting the kitchen table followed. "I've got more self-respect than that."

"Riko, I had to…" Yuugao broke off, and Sasuke almost grunted with frustration. What had happened? "Gai had to… Mikoto was the one that finally took him down. Do you have any idea how terrifying that was?"

"So end this now, Yuugao. End this for him early. Whatever he's training for isn't working. Swing the axe or I will."

"Once more. Just once more. I want him to beat this on his own, like Gai does. He won't let me help him directly. Please?" There was such desperation in that tone that Sasuke felt sympathy even though he didn't know what the hell was going on.

Sasuke heard Riko sigh. "Fine, once more. For you, Yuugao, not for him." The door closed.

"Why is Senpai doing this?" asked Yuugao, sounding lost.

"I don't know," his mother said, "but one way or another, it's going to stop within the next two months. Riko's at the end of her rope. I'm torn between wanting to watch her scream at him and wanting to avoid getting in the line of fire."

Yuugao managed a weak chuckle as the door slid open.

"Give my regards to Hayate, would you?"

"Sure thing." The door shut and then there was silence.

Sasuke stood up and walked into the kitchen. His mother turned to face him, looking unsurprised. "They woke you?"

"Yes. Ryuuka too."

His mother scowled at the door and rubbed her eyes before yawning.

"What's going on?" he asked. He glared when she seemed to waver.

"Sasuke," she said at her most inscrutable, "do you know who your worst enemy is?"

"Itachi," he said without even pausing to think.

She shook her head sadly. "No, you're your own worst enemy, Sasuke. Always. Everyone is his or her own worst enemy because you can't escape yourself. Your flaws undermine you, your strengths go to your head, and maintaining a healthy balance is very hard sometimes. The sky isn't the limit; you are."

He stared at her, slowly comprehending.

"Kakashi's limits are making things difficult for him."


	54. Chapter 54

Chapter 54: A Bent Coin

Mikoto pulled the pins out of her hair as she leapt from roof to roof. That mission hadn't gone too badly. A bunch of jounin had been recently appointed, so the strain was easing, though slowly. At least the chuunin ranks were swelling "rapidly" enough with the onslaught of eligible genin. Still, the roster was only sixty percent of what it had been pre-invasion. That wasn't quite good enough, not with things like this going on.

Mikoto halted behind Yuugao, who was staring blankly down at a street as the cold March rain poured down. Mikoto gave the road a cursory glance. It looked much better than it had a week ago. The blasted walls were actually in various states of repair and the ruts in the road had been smoothed away. Most of the windows were still broken though and the scorch marks lingered.

"I thought he was getting better when things were so quiet for so long after January, and then he went and did this," Yuugao whispered as she glared at a man with a can of spray-paint in hand. She lobbed a kunai down in front of his feet and snarled at him when he made a move to tag one of the warehouses. He skedaddled.

Mikoto chuckled as she retrieved the kunai for her friend. "Riko kept things quiet?" Mikoto crouched behind the depressed Yuugao. Her hair was slicked against her scalp by the constant rain and her nose was slightly red from the cold.

"She tried." Yuugao sighed, her breath condensing in the chilly air. Mikoto wished that spring would hurry up and warm up the village. "She could only downplay things so much. You, Gai, and I were helping him brush up on his skills according to the 'official' story. She's been slipping repair costs in at intervals, so Tsunade doesn't quite realize just how bad it is. She says she'll have allocated enough funds to get this completely cleaned up in two days."

"She could get fired for this." Heck, Riko could get worse than fired for this if the wrong people found out. Interrogation was the least of her worries if someone figured she was up to traitorous activities. Tsunade would probably protect her a bit from that, but nothing was certain with Hokage-sama's popularity so precarious. Overworked ninja wanted a scapegoat, and Tsunade-sama had come to power immediately following the invasion. Griping about her was only too easy.

"Gai convinced her it was necessary," Yuugao said, fingering a bit of lichen. "Why didn't she…?"

"Riko hates this more than you do because she can't do anything." Mikoto looped an arm around the younger woman's shoulders. Even her clothes were soaked. How long had Yuugao been sitting out here in the rain? "What's really bothering you?" When Yuugao looked surprised, Mikoto laughed. "You've already screamed at her for this and forgave her because you finally began to understand that she's not you. No, something else brought this up. Is it Hayate?"

Yuugao shrugged sheepishly and fiddled with the gold band on her finger. "It's been so long already. I mean, we got married last autumn. I've checked and checked, but still no…" Yuugao set a hand on her abdomen. "What if I'm barren or something? That time that Oto-nin got inside me… what if he destroyed something? I had to gut myself to force him out; what if I ruined something and the doctors didn't fix it properly? Hayate really wants a kid. If I can't give that to him…"

Mikoto squeezed the girl and rested her cheek on her hair. Many kunoichi worried about this. Their worries were only too valid. Snake was living proof. "Have you gotten checked out?"

"I don't want to know for sure."

"Letting it hang over you isn't going to make things any easier. Knowing for sure may hurt, but at least you'll _know_. It could even be his fault. He hasn't been exceptionally healthy lately. I really don't think he's going to hate you if you're barren. It's not like you two can't adopt or something if you need to. There are only too many orphans waiting around for loving families. Ninja parents don't always survive long enough to see their children through to adulthood. You know that."

After the girl nodded, Mikoto pulled Jaguar to her feet. "Come on, let's get this over with right now. I've got enough time left before Sasuke starts ripping his hair out because of Ryuuka's antics that I can see you to the clinic."

Yuugao laughed and let herself be pulled away from the ruined street.

The clinic was busy, but it always was. It was to be expected in a village full of shinobi constantly coming and going. Where there were weapons, there were sure to be injuries. In fact, Mikoto had acquired quite a deep cut along her left forearm while out. Perhaps it would be a good idea to get it looked at while she was here.

The receptionist took down their names and gestured to some empty wall space since all the seats were filled. "I'll call you both when a doctor become available," the portly woman assured them as she penned notes down and stood up to call forward a young genin being supported by his sensei.

Exchanging glances, Yuugao and Mikoto leaned against the indicated wall.

"I never realized quite how powerful you were until you managed to subdue Senpai," Yuugao said.

Mikoto pushed down the memories of that night: the smell of ozone from Kakashi's jutsu, the coolness of the rain that had been falling, the darkness of the street, and the trio of tomoe in an eye that had been so full of confusion that she had almost not had the heart to send him into oblivion. He hadn't been aware of what he had been doing, and facing off against her had shoved that knowledge into his face with all the subtlety of hitting a concrete wall. He had been felled by that as much as by her genjutsu.

"Sharingan is the only thing that can really beat a Sharingan," Mikoto said. "At least, in most cases that's how it works. There are exceptions of course. Sharingan is just a tool. It can be abused or misused just like any tool. Incompetence can keep an Uchiha from advancing even with the Sharingan." Mikoto had only to think of Seiji to know that. It was a wonder he had managed to advance his eyes as far as he had.

Yuugao shook her head. "No, it's not your eyes I was talking about. It's your battle focus. You didn't let anything distract you. You were cool even in the face of having to take a fellow Leaf-nin down. I was sick and shaking, you were just there, and you just did it without a fuss. I tried to break him out of it before, and he didn't hear me. Gai… even Gai didn't have half of your calm."

"I've been expecting this," Mikoto admitted. "He held out longer than I anticipated. He has a more powerful will than I gave him credit for. I had estimated that this would happen before the end of August."

"It's the S-rank missions," Yuugao muttered as the gossip across the lobby generated enough noise to cover their conversation. "They screw with a ninja. Coming up against the most twisted dregs of society, carrying classified order that can call for the most inhumane things, killing people that can't fight back…"

Mikoto nodded. Guilt could kill. They fell into tense silence as people filtered in and out of the lobby, impatiently waiting for their turn. Finally, the stout receptionist beckoned to them and told them that a doctor was waiting in room eight. Mikoto grabbed Yuugao's elbow when she began to balk and tugged her along. The sight of the doctor waiting for them made them pause.

"Please come in, Uchiha-san, Gekkou-san," said Hyuuga Hinata with a tremulous smile. Trading looks, the two jounin did as she bid as the former Hyuuga heir closed the door and turned back to the pair of folders spread out on the counter. "Uchiha-san, it seems you are just here for a check-up on a minor mission injury. Perhaps I can see to that quickly while we discuss what Gekkou-san is here for?"

Mikoto nodded and unwound the bandages.

Hinata carefully cleaned and assessed the cut and ran a glowing green finger over the lips of the wound as her stump hovered, somehow responsible for pressing the edges together. The flesh knitted into a mostly whole red line. "I would heal it completely, but it is better to simply let the body heal itself sometimes. It isn't infected and there shouldn't be a scar now."

Hinata carefully wound a fresh roll of bandages around the limb as Yuugao collected herself. "What is it you needed today, Gekkou-san?" Hinata asked, her white eyes calm and full of encouragement.

"I… I just wanted to check that I wasn't barren," Yuugao murmured hurriedly, twisting her hands anxiously in her lap.

Hinata nodded. "I can do that. Please lie back on the examination table. I just—" The rest of her sentence was cut off by a knock on the door.

"Hinata?"

The girl smiled apologetically. "Do you mind if I allow Shizune-shishou to enter? She can confirm my findings."

Mikoto shrugged, and Yuugao nodded firmly, obviously having fixed her courage. Hinata allowed a shy grin to cross her face and let in the Hokage's right hand. The black-haired woman smiled at them as Hinata brought her up to speed. Shizune nodded and gestured that Hinata start. The girl approached the examination table at a speed designed not to appear threatening to a nervous jounin. The jounin in question blew her bangs out of her face, and Mikoto hid a grin.

Hinata sheepishly held her stump over Yuugao's pelvis and the veins around her eyes bulged in the skin suddenly. "I will use a standard scanning technique as well as my eyes. It is a simple procedure designed to ascertain the reliability of my vision in diagnosing internal injuries and such." Her eyes deactivated after another thirty seconds, but the stump stayed in place. A few moments later, Hinata stepped back and let Shizune take her place. "I discovered scar tissue."

Yuugao tensed, and Shizune nodded.

"It is only one side though. It simply means that you are fertile only about half the time."

Again, Shizune nodded and finally removed her hand as well. Mikoto let loose a relieved sigh as Yuugao slumped back against the cushion and folded her arms across her pelvis, breathing raggedly as a couple tears left streaks down the sides of her face from the corners of her eyes.

"You aren't barren," Hinata said, understanding just how much it needed to be spelled out for the woman. "You will just have a harder time conceiving than most."

Mikoto grinned. "Well, Yuugao, at least you'll have the excuse to get in lots of practice."

Hinata blushed to the roots of her hair as Yuugao chuckled between hiccups of relief. Shizune patted the Hyuuga girl's shoulder and she regained her composure as the two jounin prepared to leave, exchanging grins. Maybe they would have one of the books find its way into Hinata's possession. Familiarity bred contempt or at least tolerance.

* * *

"Oniitama?"

Sasuke glanced up from the thick manual full of chuunin codes he was painstakingly memorizing. Half of this crap was useless: who needed to know three ways to express "wheat" in code? He figured that some of the redundancies were leftovers from older codes that some people still knew. It made things damn inefficient though. If Naruto did become Hokage, Sasuke was going to make sure that he got rid of this idiocy. Ryuuka stood in his doorway. "What is it, Imouto?"

"Sakura-oneesan said something weird yesterday." He waited for her to continue, but it seemed she was going to be unusually reticent today. Something must have been wrong.

"What was that?"

"She said something about the Snake Man and you leaving."

He winced when her voice wobbled dangerously. Oh crap, she was going to cry. It was the most dangerous weapon in her arsenal simply because her wails always brought Kaasan running and he always got blamed. Little siblings were dangerous creatures, capable of manipulation at a level that left their elders in peril.

"You're not going away, are you? You can't! You aren't allowed to! You have to stay here so you can teach me the fireball so I can be a big dragon like you. You promised!"

Grimacing, he put a hand over her mouth to halt the noise barrage and wrinkled his nose when she slimed his palm with her tongue to make him let go as she struggled in his grasp. Little sisters were such pains, especially ones that had been influenced by Naruto. Why had he let the moron anywhere near his sister again?

"Are you going to let me talk or are you just going to keep yelling?" He had thought that her terrible twos were bad, but apparently four going on five was worse. He had never been this bad, right?

She crossed her arms and slumped in a heap in his arms, trying to punish him by being heavier. It didn't really work, but he set her down onto the floor so that she could sit cross-legged and pout more effectively in menacing silence.

Suppressing a grin at how silly her antics made her look, he faced her with his most serious stare. "Why were you eavesdropping on Sakura?"

Now Ryuuka looked sheepish. "Kaasan said she was getting good. I wanted to see if she was a dragon too."

He really hoped she outgrew this "dragon" thing. Naruto shouldn't have encouraged her. She would get teased about it in the Academy if she didn't stop making such a big deal about it.

"Ryuuka, do you remember how the masked ninja watched out for you and Kaasan while I was participating in the Chuunin Exam a couple years ago?"

She twisted her lips into a lopsided grimace as she thought back. She nodded uncertainly.

"That was because a ninja called Orochimaru was trying to get at you and me. He wanted to take one of us with him so he could have our eyes."

"But our eyes are ours!" She set her fists on her hips and glared.

He nodded in a placating manner and gestured that she calm down. "Yes, but Orochimaru didn't think of it like that."

"Why didn't you tell him that then?"

"I didn't see him. Naruto's clones met him instead."

Ryuuka blinked, not quite understanding.

"Do you remember how Naruto always makes copies of himself?"

"Oh, those clones! How come Kaasan can't do that? How come you don't?"

"I don't know why Kaasan doesn't use them. You'll have to ask her." He had never thought about that before. Why didn't Kaasan use bunshin at all? He had never seen her create a solid one even once… "I don't need to. It's not my attack style."

She nodded, her moment of questioning his superiority apparently having ended.

He was quite relieved. "Orochimaru is the snake man Sakura was talking about."

"Why does Naruto always call her Sakura-chan?" Ryuuka asked suddenly, her short attention span kicking in.

He blinked at her. Hadn't he taught her better than this? Not having a good answer to that decidedly awkward question, Sasuke rolled onwards, ignoring it. Such was Ryuuka's faith in him that she didn't bother to question him. "Orochimaru has been trying to take one of us with him for a long time now. Sakura was talking about a day a few months ago when some of his people came to persuade me in person. If they failed to convince me, they probably would have tried to take you."

"Kaasan wouldn't let them!" Ryuuka said, sticking her nose in the air a little. "Kaasan's the best kunoichi ever!"

He didn't try to contradict her. Their mother was a very good kunoichi after all. Kaasan was definitely right up there with the Hokage even if ANBU had taken her. ANBU would take anyone. That they had taken his mother and his sensei would have redeemed them if they hadn't taken the traitor as well.

"No, Kaasan wouldn't have let them, but they would have tried very hard. They were fairly strong and used strange genjutsu, but Kaasan would have seen right through it right away."

"So you weren't really going to leave? Sakura-oneesan was just saying that because they tried to make you go with them?"

He paused. It would be very easy to lie to her. However, he would be scum like his brother. He would be soothing her with false promises just like _that man_ had before he had gone and done the horrible deed.

Sasuke wavered for a long moment, feeling the phantom throb on his forehead where _that man_ had poked him before laughingly promising to train the morning after Naruto's party with Kaasan. He stared at his little sister, the only one that had gotten Father's brown hair and eyes. She would never be delicately elegant and beautiful like their mother was because she had more of Father in her than any of them. It was horrible that she, who would never know what Father looked like other than in that photo, was the one that resembled him the most. She would only ever need to look in the mirror to see Father.

He couldn't do it, not even to spare himself. He had promised to protect her: that included protecting her from himself.

"No, I thought about leaving," he said. "I was… embarrassed on the mission to the coast. I was fooled by a kunoichi who was almost as good as Kaasan. She… she made me look like a fool. I was… I was angry."

"Oniitama?" It was hard to face the mystification. She didn't believe that he had wavered.

"Orochimaru had said something about teaching me," he explained, trying to make her see what he was laying bare before her, but she didn't understand. For her, Konoha and Kakashi were the only village and teacher that there would ever be for him. For her, life was singular. There were no horizons to explore. "I was so embarrassed that I thought… I wondered if maybe I would be better if he had been."

"But Kaka-san is your sensei! He's your sensei and Sakura-oneesan's and Naruto-niichan's."

"Naruto is training with Jiraiya-sama while he's away. Sakura is studying under Tsunade-sama. Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama were on a team like mine with Orochimaru."

She giggled and shook her head at him as if he had told a joke. "Old Pervy Sage is too old to be on a team!"

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. Why did she keep getting off topic? "That's Jiraiya-sama, Ryuuka. He is a Sannin and is worthy of respect."

It took quite a bit of mental work to force that last sentence out. The Sennin had written Kakashi's books. He had taught the Yondaime. He did all sorts of lewd and immature things if Naruto was to be believed. Maybe leaving the honorific off the same way he did for Kakashi would cut it. Sasuke wasn't quite sure that Naruto's mentor deserved a title at all.

"Fine, fine." She waved away his correction. She was getting lippier as the months passed.

If this kept up, she would start disobeying his orders and undermining his authority. It would be like dealing with a Naruto he couldn't lose at home. It would be like… having a sister instead of a ward he was supposed to look after. He ignored that disturbing thought.

"So Snake Man was on a team with Hokage-sama and Jiraiya-sama."

"Yes, when they were younger." He ignored her giggles. Just because it was hard to imagine even Anko-san and Riko-oneesan as children, it didn't mean that they hadn't been ones once. As such, even the Sannin and, kami forbid, Sandaime-sama had been children once despite the fact that his brain wasn't quite capable of removing the wrinkles and turning the biological clock back even for the youthful looking Godaime. "Orochimaru was once a powerful Leaf jounin."

"Like Kaka-san?"

"Yes, even more so."

"But Kaasan says that Kaka-san is really elite! That means he's a really good jounin, right?"

"Right."

"So the Snake Man isn't so special, right?"

When had she become manipulative? Was it an inherently female trait? He was sure that she had no idea what she was doing, but she was managing anyway.

"… Right."

She beamed at him and clapped her hands and he was her genius brother again. He wasn't sure whether to be proud or offended.

"That's why you said no, right? Because you knew that the Snake Man wasn't as great as he said he was and that Kaka-san is great too."

He blinked at her, wondering if things had ever been that simple.

"I… I didn't say 'no' right away."

Now she stared at him, worry whisking that pert, happy smile away as he spoke.

"I thought about it for a while. He was offering me a way to get back at Itachi, Ryuuka," he explained almost desperately, almost frantic to make her see his reasoning. If she saw it, then maybe she would have mercy. It was so odd: he was worried about mercy from a girl that wasn't even five yet. She was his sister though; she _mattered_.

"But you would go away," she whispered.

"But I would make you and Kaasan safe again. I would be strong enough to make Itachi pay."

"But you would go away! And Snake Man would take your eyes like you said! He can't have your eyes! They're _yours_ and they're like Kaasan's! They're dragon eyes. Snake Man doesn't deserve our dragon eyes."

"Yes," he agreed, and she frowned at him for ruining the impetuous motion of her argument. "That's why I'm still here."

"And you're not leaving?" she said almost hesitantly for her.

"No, I'm not."

"Good," she chirped, reassured. "I'm glad. You can practice shuriken with me today. I want a piggyback ride."

Her lack of disappointment almost startled him. Sakura had been so bitter about it for two weeks after the fact and he could tell that it still bothered her. Ryuuka wasn't Sakura though. He was grateful enough that he let her nearly choke off his air supply on the walk to the park.

* * *

April rain pattered against the windows. Nariko paid it no heed, more interested in sleeping. Unfortunately, a warning Yuugao had given her was making this difficult. She strove to put it out of her mind and, but the rap of knuckles against her door halted that.

Grimacing, her stomach lurching uncomfortably, she lingered under her beautifully warm covers, trying to delay the inevitable. Another, more insistent knock put an end to her minimal resistance. She crawled out from under the comforter and snagged a hair tie from the top of her bookcase as she slipped out of her room. Tying up her hair, she glanced at the clock, which confirmed what she had dreaded; it was already two in the morning. Damn him.

"If you can pick the lock before I get there, that probably means you're fine," she called as she rubbed sleep from her eyes and yawned, keeping her voice down to escape the wrath of irate neighbours. She was going to be in so much trouble tomorrow.

According to Yuugao, she should have been grateful and humbled by the fact that he trusted her with this, but all she felt was peevishness. Lack of sleep, overwork, and other things did that to her.

"If you're going to let me in, do it already," he complained shakily.

Why the hell had she gotten herself mixed up in this again? Ah, yes, for her brother. Hmm… Her father really did have a point about that following blindly thing. Pursing her lips, she rotated the deadbolt before dealing with the doorknob.

He didn't look so good, poor bastard. Even his hair looked worn out, though that could have been because of the rain. He seemed haggard and haunted, but she knew that he wouldn't tell her what had made him that way. Her lack of ability to manipulate him into talking galled her.

She sighed and stepped out of the way so he could enter. She could feel the hands of the clan manipulating her, stringing her along in the appropriate motions. What if she didn't want to be compassionate? What then? The clan had no answers for that radical notion.

She shut the door behind him and locked it again. Locks on doors in a ninja village only stopped the incompetent. She didn't even know why she bothered anymore. If somebody wanted her dead, she would be so within five minutes. It was a disconcerting thought, but one she had grown "used to" over the years if one could ever grow used to coping with constant paranoia.

He sat at the dining room table and scrubbed at his face with his hands as she stalked into the kitchen. Nariko didn't know how he had done it with only this much of a reaction. Yuugao has said the mission had been for someone called Snake, but Snake had been out. According to Kakashi's posture, it had been gruelling beyond imagining.

She hid a grimace when she heard the metal plate of his forehead protector clank against the table. Geez, it really must have been horrific. It looked like this episode would be _bad_. She stilled a shiver as she pulled the pot of broth out of the fridge and reheated it.

Damn.

She poured him tea and finally spotted a freshly healed gash on his forearm. The angry red skin around the mostly healed mark warned her that it was likely that the body was combating some sort of infection. The way he was shivering worried her. The skin above his mask was flushed and gaunt. Something was more wrong than usual.

The glassiness of his eyes bothered her more than she could say, but she kept her gaze averted as usual when he managed to sip at the tea she offered. She still didn't know why he masked himself, but since he did, she would continue to respect that visual barrier. People all had their quirks.

As he drank, she impulsively set a palm on his forehead. He flinched at her touch and guilt speared her. It was hard, so hard, to remember that ninja like him hated being touched, especially after a mission. Her family was so tactile and Naruto trusted her enough to allow her touch that Kakashi's need for space baffled her. Both of his eyes glared at her for breaking that boundary, but she glared right back. She was right. He was burning up. Just for comparison's sake, she put her palm over her own forehead. Yup, he had at least two degrees on her. Not good.

"You," she informed him as she stalked away to check on the soup, "are an idiot."

He didn't argue with her, but he didn't need to. They both knew she was just being bitchy.

"You are also sick. You haven't been eating, you don't look like you've been sleeping much, and you have a fever. That's not helping things in the slightest, you idiot. You look more like a scarecrow than usual."

It might have amused her that he was mimicking her behaviour from last year, but she wasn't important like he was. If he got sick and hospitalized, there would be interesting repercussions. Whether he realized it or not, people counted on him and looked up to him as a standard of the times. If he started falling apart, people who relied upon his example were going to panic. Since Mikoto wasn't here to slap sense into him, it looked like it was up to her to berate it into him.

* * *

"Hmm." Her mockery of his name peeved him.

Apparently, that grunt wasn't the answer she was looking for because she slammed the wooden spoon and her open palm down on the counter and glared at him over her shoulder. "Spit it out, or I'm going to drag you to the hospital kicking and screaming just to embarrass you."

There was enough merit in that threat that he grimaced, summoned some dregs of chakra, and focused to the best of his ability. It took a couple minutes to achieve the proper control through the roiling, nameless terror that simply wouldn't go away. She stared blankly when he opened his eye again.

"That's not normal," she whispered.

"No," he agreed, dredging up enough control to put on a carefree mien, "Mangekyou Sharingan isn't normal."

She pressed her lips into a thin, pale line, nodded, and turned away. He let the doujutsu fade, his brief moment of control slipping away rapidly under another wave of idiotic terror.

He managed to roll his eyes when she continued muttering unflattering things under her breath as she stirred the broth and he continued to try to still his spasming muscles. He hated this. He had thought it was done, but that his mind had other ideas, as usual.

The mission, he could barely control his recollections of it. Fragments of horrible memories flitted behind shut eyelids as liquid trailed from beneath the lid over the Sharingan. Damn Obito, he was such a crybaby… Bruised muscles protested his shaking, but he couldn't seem to stop. His mind was more divided that ever, but it still received sensory information as attentively as ever.

There was so much blood, too much. He could smell it. Some of it was his. Lots of it wasn't. Even worse, some of it was hers. He cringed. No wonder she was in such a bad mood. The blood didn't help: it triggered memories that were only too fresh. Why had he just stood there, transfixed? Why had he just watched?

Memories overlapped and suddenly he was six again, staring down at a red puddle slowly congealing, soaking into the floorboards that had never been clean again, Otousan pale and stiff in its centre. He hadn't been breathing… Why hadn't he been breathing? Why hadn't that child been breathing? Why had that woman only stared as the red pooled around her knees as the flames had risen higher? Would the stain ever come off the steel? He had wiped it again and again on the way home, but it had always been there… Was a tool supposed to feel guilty about being the agent of petty, merciless revenge?

Gods, the smell! The smell of offal and blood and pain and terror and urine and…

"I'm going to have to shove this down your throat, aren't I?" she grumbled from far away. There was the fog of the past between him and her; the all too similar recollections chained him within himself. "Gods, I thought I was never going to have to do this again. Naruto knew how to feed himself when I adopted him, but Itsuki…"

The rest of her words blurred in the face of the memories of the fires and floods and the screams and howls and… He was jerked abruptly into the present when she gripped his jaw with surprisingly strong fingers and arched an eyebrow at him, uncompromising. That his reflexes hadn't automatically countered her motion frightened him.

"Eat, or I'm going to force-feed you. This is about as undignified for you as it is for me. Do you think I'm going to enjoy spooning this into your mouth?"

It was an empty threat as far as he could see. He couldn't formulate a reply to that quickly enough to appease her ire, but she merely shook her head and moved away. Nausea and terror battled for supremacy while the detached part of him merely observed with disgust. This was beyond stupid. There was no earthly reason—

He flinched when she dropped back into her chair, tucking loose strands of hair behind her ears as she set a small pile of letters on the table, but the image of the water rising higher and higher, engulfing the blackened corpse of the house on the hill unnaturally, as the charred bones—shattered into almost unrecognizable pieces by the explosion—were washed away and the ghostly screams buzzing in his ears preoccupied him and kept his attention away from the here and now.

She ignored him as she flipped through the missives, searching for something undecipherable to him. He got his answer when a slight, triumphant curl passed over the corners of her lips and she pulled the contents of an envelope free. Still ignoring him as though he wasn't doing a good job of rattling her table, she unfolded the pages and looked them over quickly before smiling.

"'Have you ever walked through this primeval part of the southern woods, Oneesan?'" she narrated quietly, almost to herself.

Slowly, the discrepancies between her letter and the fragments on replay in his mind came into focus. Forests and bloody massacres didn't relate very well in his experience.

"'I took Itsu-nii with me when I went, just to show him this place. Keiji deigned to let me pass through it only last September, but I could not get Aniki to come with me until now. He's been busy meeting some publishing deadlines. It was good of Daichi-sama to get him into contact with his publisher, but I sometimes wish that your father's tutor had simply stayed his hand and let Itsu-nii find his own way.'"

Daichi-sama? The sole sane and unafraid part of Kakashi's mind wondered why that name meant something to him before it drowned beneath another wave of irrational fear.

"'In any case, I took Itsu-nii with me at the end of March. It is a long walk through the mountains: the path narrow and often winding through the foothills before finding purchase in the highlands where the grasses grow tall and lush with the rains brought in from the coast.

"'We set out from the compound on a pale morning with the sun just barely glinting off the glass roofs of Haruka-basan's greenhouses. The younger ones weren't outside yet; even Irezumi was still asleep. I had bid him farewell the night before, so there was no reason to worry. It was just Itsu-nii and me.

"'Your father waved at us as we hiked across the gardens to the gate. He was puffing on his pipe, as usual. His return from Konoha heralded the return of that custom. I think he worries more than he can bear quietly, so he smokes to give himself an out. Is that truly a healthy habit for him? I know he only does it once in a while, but still… We waved back and accepted his wishes that our journey be swift and safe as we closed the gate behind us.'"

The letter's tale blocked out the memories harassing him and forced him to pay heed. Whoever had written this—Kakashi had the feeling it was a girl—was obviously well practiced at drawing people into her letters. Though he had no idea what the hell she was talking about, he knew Nariko did because her voice was oddly wistful and distant, as though she could see what her relative was describing. Usually, Nariko talked about mundane things to pull him out of his reaction. Apparently, she didn't have anything she wanted to relate this time and was relying upon other things to ground him.

"'Kaijin was still asleep at five in the morning. We passed through the familiar streets like shadows, no one awake to mark our passing. It is much the same when I leave with Keiji for my patrols.

"'Itsu-nii looked this way and that, still half asleep. He is not used to waking up so early anymore. I promise to remedy this; we cannot have him becoming lazier than he already is. Once we passed beyond the outermost farms and rice paddies, he began to show signs of life. He took out his panpipes and blew life into our first day with a tune he claimed to have just composed. It was new sounding, but sometimes I wonder.

"'In any case, our journey felt realer with his music and the sun finally beginning to warm the day, though we passed beyond its reach quickly as we moved onto the well-worn paths of the forest near the village. I'm sure you remember many of those paths. They have changed very little in the eight years or so of your absence. The forest endures.

"'We passed by that stone we all scraped our names onto when I was four. All five of us were there then. Irezumi hadn't even been conceived, but I still remember kneeling there with the four of you and clumsily scraping my initials into that rock. It is as strange looking as ever—as though it is a piece of dirty glass that has been carefully broken out in a shape rather like stairs, if stairs made so little sense. Mount Enka's gifts to us always did look rather outlandish. Whenever I see the porous rocks, I am always so glad that its time passed so long ago. The mountains to the south that carry on its duties now are more than enough worry on my mind with the way they smoke and blow ash now and again.

"'In any case, Itsuki and I stopped and looked for those old marks, but we couldn't find them. Fifteen years seems to have worn them away. All that is left are hazy memories. Sometimes I wish that Shiro-niisan had come back on that evening to make our marks more permanent. I know he wishes the same whenever we walk by here. When you find time to visit, we'll walk here again and maybe he can render Risako's name well enough that it will almost feel the same.

"'We passed through the maze of trunks, which were covered with lichen and moist in the cool of the morning. The smell of loam was so deep and thick that I could taste it on my tongue. Itsuki certainly could; he laughed and wrinkled his nose at me before remarking that it was no wonder that I stayed out here so much and ignored the village men. I hit him. Such punishment can only do him good. He becomes increasingly obnoxious and lewd as he grows more accustomed to his work.

"'I really wish you had kept your pen quiet. Without your suggestion, he might have done something more useful with his talents. Strangely enough, he has become petty and prim as well. When you next see him, I hope you beat him back into shape. He doesn't listen to me, as he should. It is vastly aggravating. Kick his ass.'"

The last remark was so out of place in the tone of the rest of the letter that Kakashi snorted even as Nariko's voice trembled with mirth.

"'The foliage kept the eye of the sun from us most of the day. Only filtered light reached us: heavily green and almost visible in the humid air. It had rained the night before, so the heat evaporated the moisture, pulling it back into the air. Mid-afternoon was horribly muggy. The insects were murder. We had to strip down to our lightest clothes to be able to keep up the pace required to get us where I wanted to go within four days. As I've said, the path is a long one. There was no breeze to relieve us, but we soldiered on, sweating rivers to soak back into the fertile earth.

"'I wondered at that moment if this is what those ninja of yours go through on their deadly missions. This battle of wills with nature and other opposing forces must either crush their resolve or make them so stubborn that they would walk through fire just to show the world that it cannot beat them. If that is so, I respect them more and maybe I can understand your resolve a little better, though I don't much like it.

"'Itsuki is as absentminded as you might remember. He lacks my hard-earned stamina and staggered in my wake for much of the afternoon, half in a dream and mumbling on about evil little sisters with legs of rock and hearts of steel. I ignored him, keeping my amusement to myself. It is his own fault that he let his body languish while writing.

"'He pokes me as I write this and calls me a hardhearted wretch. You might have noticed that my language is a little more poetic. I'm certain it doesn't surprise you at all that it is his fault. He is the one given to flowery words and beautiful speeches, not me. He insists that I mention that though his stamina seems to be lagging, it has improved in other areas. See what a disgusting, twofaced, silver-tongued idiot he is? Please kick him. He begs you not to, but I insist.'"

Nariko paused and snorted mockingly, rolling her eyes. Kakashi was beginning to see why she had complained about her male cousins.

"'The forest stretched on for days before the track beneath of feet hit the foothills of Mount Kilsa. Wildlife we saw in plenty: sambar ran at our passing, birds were quite happy to serenade us and shat on us, smaller vermin pillaged our campsites despite our care, and we spotted a cougar at a distance. Itsu pulled out his piercingly shrill pipe and set to making a racket to give the cat plenty of warning to avoid us. This one's territory is far enough away from the village that it fails to recognize humans as prey. Keiji is teaching me how to monitor the larger predators, so I knew this one was 'safe,' if a hunting cat could ever be called safe. It gave us a wide berth and soon fell behind us as our path impinged upon the roots of the mountain. Serow watched us with mild interest from distances as we trekked through their woodlands. Ah, I forget that you are a fan of birds rather than bovine creatures. Well, we saw many, but I cannot name most of them yet. My training is not quite that far along and you know them well enough. Be satisfied with the fact that we could hear them day and night.'"

She stopped and assessed him. "Eat."

Sighing, he picked up the bowl in hands that were mostly still now and gulped down the broth while she studied the rest of the letter in silence. "Who wrote that?"

"Teikan Okano. She's my youngest first cousin and my junior by ten years. Ono Itsuki helped her write it. I trust that you'll keep those names to yourself."

He blinked at her and raised a brow as he pulled his mask back up.

She didn't glance at him until she was sure his face was covered, but she interpreted his silence well enough. "I won't let my family be used against me because of what I do here. Neither of them shares my name, so I think they're a little safer than the others are. I'd like to keep it that way."

He nodded, and she relaxed slightly.

"Hokage-sama promised to see that my records vanished and that all references to my connection with the south were kept quiet, but I still worry as long as they continue to write me."

"They won't be safe until you're dead, maybe not even then."

"I know."

"Are you going to finish reading that?" he asked, testing the steadiness of his voice. He was almost satisfied.

"I have," she said shortly, gathering up her letters and pushing back her chair with her typical briskness. Grimacing, he shook his head. Why was she being obtuse on purpose? Maybe the fact that it was almost three in the morning had something to do with it… "Fine." She settled back into her chair and scanned the letter again.

"'We ranged some forty leagues south of Kaijin in those four days. I think that the farthest you have gone is twenty-six if Itsuki's memory is correct. I'm sure that those ninja of yours could cover the same distance in about two hours, but we're slower folk and we like taking our time. The sights along the way were well worth the slow pace. At this point, I hand over the narrative to Itsu-nii. He can describe it better than I.'"

"'Was it worth four days of torment and uninterrupted exposure to the implacable little sister I was forced to raise? That is debatable. Okano smacks me as I pen this down, but I refuse to repent. Do you know how much I hate bird shit in my hair? Of course you do. You used to let me fall asleep outside by the birdfeeders just to make sure that I got splattered with it. Had you forgotten that? I haven't! Sometimes, you were an exceptionally evil girl… But I digress. You're probably as irate as you can get. What are little brothers compared to trees and the beginning of creation?

"'Pillars were the trees in that belly of the mountains. Tall they stood in the gathering twilight when their guardian led me unsuspecting into their midst. Ancient spectres of wisdom, they brooded over the tangled brambles and the mists that dared to wrap filmy fingers around their bases. Four men couldn't touch fingers in a ring about their girth. If there were ever gods on earth, it would be these trees. They made me feel sufficiently insignificant.

"'The air beneath their boughs was cool and still. No light penetrates the canopy here, starving the subjects at the feet of these giants. Ghost plants, brambles of hell that live only on the scraps the gods deign to pass them, they made me cringe every time they touched me. Living things do reside in this gorge other than the gods and their serfs: birds of mournful calls and dark colours and hardy deer dwell alongside typical forest vermin.

"'There is a small temple hidden here. Apparently, it is Keiji's job to haul supplies out to the priests here every month from the village. They say this place is holy, a place where the kami dwell thickly. If you stood in the shadow of these trees, I know you would believe it too. There is no wind because the high walls of mountain stone prevent its entrance into this sacred place. Sun comes only to clearings from directly overhead. I stood in the middle of one during the two days we stayed with the monks. The contrast between the gloom and the light was blinding. It was like being touched by the hand of Amaterasu. I could feel her fiery regard just standing there.'"

She halted, a wistful smirk passing over her lips as her eyes inspected the rest. "And that's it," she said, folding the pages of the letter. "The rest is not suitable for children or people more than half dead." He shot her the blandest look he could conjure, but she merely waved her hand in the direction of the bathroom. "Get going before you pass out. Shower too; you stink. There are clothes in the second drawer on the right."

She always said that. It got annoying, mostly because she was usually right.

* * *

She stayed up long after his miniscule noises while settling into sleep halted. Internal debate would not allow her a similar luxury. It was only a matter of time now. He was very hard to read and shellshock, if it was shellshock, was tricky to judge. Sometimes, the shaking and minor dreams were all that plagued him, and she got no sleep because of his noises and the fear…

She clenched her fists on the table and grimaced as tell-tale noises reached her ears at last.

Shit.

It took more willpower than it ever had before to push back her chair and walk into her room. Leaning back against her closed door, she quieted her breathing and listened again. Yup, not good sounds, but perhaps not quite as bad as she had feared. Gritting her teeth, she knew that if she wanted to avoid being skinned alive by her landlord and her neighbours, she was going to have to keep him quiet. Damn. Yuugao had better appreciate this.

Why was it only in sleep that he lost the reins of complete control over his reaction to the trauma? More importantly, why did it follow him into sleep? She didn't know enough about what was wrong with him to answer those questions. He didn't talk to her and psychology really wasn't her bailiwick. All she knew was that he suffered differently awake and asleep.

Awake, he managed to keep things from her notice. She didn't mind. It was a comfortable illusion of control that she silently appreciated. She doubted his pride could handle completely breaking down anyway.

Asleep, things began to slip, masks began to crack, and his ability to hide things failed. To look upon that, to invade that desperate need of his for privacy, and to pry into whatever those dreams were tormenting him with was wrong and she knew it. She would respect that the same way she respected his need to conceal his face. There was always more than one mask. Respecting one meant respecting them all no matter how little she liked it.

For a long moment, her hand rested on top of Genma's "gift." The cool metal was coarse under her fingertips. Her fingers clenched around the braided wires when a muffled groan and a soft thud reached her ears. She let the cold suck away compassion.

Blowing flyaway strands of hair out of her face, she gathered her limited tatters of resolve and slipped across the hall as she forcibly suppressed the animalistic desire to flee. She rested her hand against the cool wood of the guestroom door, the last barrier between her and his demons. She stilled her breath and listened one last time, making sure he actually was asleep. It was a stupid effort; he never would have made such noises when awake. He took a great deal of childish pride in scaring the salt out of her by sneaking around with unnatural quiet.

Poor kid, he looked hounded by whatever was going through his head. She watched as the battle going on in his mind sometimes crossed into the physical world. He was trapped in that dream prison, unable to recognize what was going on around him. She had figured that out in late September when he hadn't reacted the touch of braided metal wires, only to some struggle between him and whatever enemy had been prominent in that moment. There seemed to be a lot of them. Obito came up a lot, but Rin, Namikaze-sama, and many other people seemed to plague him as well. She winced as the floor was punished for whatever his momentary primary enemy had said.

Oh joy, her landlord was going to forward complaints to her about that tomorrow morning. The old bat downstairs would have definitely been woken by that. Best to get this over with now.

Her musings were interrupted by the subject of contention. "Obito… I'm sorry."

Well, at least somebody was getting apologies. The dead meant more than the living if his willingness to beg forgiveness was any indication. He had never apologized to her.


	55. Chapter 55

Chapter 55: Dipper's Two Attendants

The ANBU commander frowned at the solo agent standing on the Shodaime's head next to him. This was as good a meeting place as any since Tsunade-sama wanted hard evidence, not suspicions. Since he didn't have enough solid proof behind him, this meeting was unofficial.

Hatake had always been a good agent. The fourteen-year-old had taken to the ANBU environment like a fish to water shortly after joining all those years ago. He had understood, almost instinctively the commander might have said, how ANBU worked and what sort of mindset was needed to accomplish what needed doing. The commander had trusted the boy completely despite his father's reputation.

He hadn't quite understood why Dog had started pulling away and had finally withdrawn the first time, but he knew that the creature beside him knew. She wasn't saying though. That was their business; fine, he understood that. However, the cycle was repeating. He needed to know for sure that things were okay. If Hatake was deviating from his routine, something was very wrong.

"Can he function?" he asked her at last. The question was weightier than his words implied. Should she answer negatively, Dog would definitely be interrogated. Function included trust. Broken trust meant a broken neck.

The wind tore her raspy answer away.

* * *

He came awake slowly to the unpleasant feeling of raw flesh being exposed to cold air. Only sheer willpower kept him from lashing out at the person methodically unwinding wires from around his wrists in the darkness just before dawn.

"You brought this on yourself," she said stoically, almost sounding like she believed it. He almost thought she knew he was awake until she kept going. "Such an idiot, for all the good it does him… Geez, ANBU must be insane. How am I going to get those bloodstains out of the bedding?" The hysterical edge to her words belied her previous calm.

He winced as she dabbed the ragged skin, washing out the welts with hot water, and then slathered some salve on them before lightly wrapping them. He heard the vile coils of wire rattle over the floorboards as she gathered up her things and left the room. If he could have done this on his own, he would have a thousand times. This indignity and the mangling of privacy weren't worth it. Habit was a hard thing to break though. Exhausted from fighting the restraints all night, he slipped back into sleep.

Hours later, he woke to the sound of several people moving in the main rooms.

"So it went well?" _What on earth was Yuugao doing here?_

"It went bloody awfully. This is done now."

"Yes, it's done. I've told Tsunade. She's expecting you to come clean as well."

"Shishou wants you to come back with me."

"Later. I'm not finished with him yet. Take a look at his wrists while you're here. I'll report to Tsunade-sama as soon as I'm done here. You'll tell her that I'll be late?"

Sakura grumbled some unflattering things under her breath. "Of course. I still don't understand how—"

"Some things are need-to-know only," Yuugao said, cutting off Sakura's questions. "If your sensei wants to tell you, he will. He did not tell us either."

"Then how did you—?"

"I'm a ninja," Yuugao said. "I don't need to be told anything to know."

_Well, damn._ Apparently, Yuugao was too loyal. Fighting and nearly dying time after time alongside each other in ANBU had earned him fealty he didn't want.

Sakura was apparently unnerved because her steps were timid. The door opened and three pairs of feet entered the room and someone knelt down next to him. The chakra aura immediately identified her as Sakura. She unwound the bandages and applied chakra to his flesh that made his own chakra in the area hum with dissonance.

"That's pretty deep." Yuugao didn't sound pleased.

"January was worse," Nariko said. "Why do you think I complained so much?"

"Because you're a wuss."

"And proud of it. I'm glad this is done with."

"As am I, though I do wish he had finished." Yuugao's tone was tinged with regret as Sakura went to work on his other wrist while he continued to feign sleep. "Senpai, we're not sorry for going behind your back. We'll do it again. You obviously can't keep care of yourself."

"He's hardly going to hear you."

"Oh, he'll hear me alright. Sakura, are you done?"

"Just about." Sakura wrapped fresh bandages around tender but whole skin. "Who did such a horrible thing to him?"

Nobody answered her, but he heard Nariko shift. "Thank you for doing such a thorough job, Sakura. He'll appreciate it."

"He hardly ever lets me really heal him," Sakura said. "I don't think he thinks I can really do it. He lets the hospital staff…"

"He's just paranoid. Don't let it get to you. He doesn't want you wasting chakra you might need to save your life later." Yuugao knew him far too well and was almost as good at making him feel guilty as Nariko. "Come on, Hokage-sama is waiting." Two pairs of feet left the room, and the third belatedly followed, shutting the door and leaving him to get back to sleep.

When he wandered into the kitchen some hours later after another shower, Nariko was waiting for him, glancing over the newspaper. She jerked her head at the counter, where a pot of coffee was waiting for him. Liquid wakefulness brought him up to speed.

"There's breakfast for you on the stove."

He served himself rice, vegetables, and tamagoyaki, wondering when the axe was going to fall. A quick and unnoticed glance at her calendar informed him that she was very late and yet she was here. Such patience could not be good, not when she was usually gone before he woke up save for that odd time she had crashed on the couch. She had rolled off and woken him. Tired much?

She ignored him until he pulled his mask back up. "Don't argue," she said, handing him the phone, which was already ringing. "Tsunade-sama wants to speak with you. Not doing so in person is good for your continued health."

That was hardly reassuring, especially when Sakura stumbled over her greeting before passing him off to Tsunade.

"Sakura, get off the line."

Nariko apparently heard her boss' voice, because she blanched and quickly disappeared into the living room, taking her paper with her.

There was a whispered curse and a click as Sakura signed out of the conversation. Kakashi was grateful considering the edge he could hear in the Hokage's voice. She was pissed.

"You can't keep doing this," she hissed. "Yuugao just brought me up to speed, and I'm appalled. I'm recommending that you get professional help."

What was it with people trying to send him to psychiatrists? Sure, even he admitted he was cracking slightly, but did he have to be shunted over into their hands every time something was remotely wrong with him?

"I know that that a growing number of those involved have insisted on the same thing."

He refused to answer.

"Kakashi, I mean it. Either you go see a psychiatrist or I'm pulling you out of ANBU. Pick one or the other, Kakashi: no S-ranked missions or a trip to a shrink. I don't care what sort of history you have with ANBU. Sporadic or not, I'm not letting this go on any longer to salve your ego."

What ego? The poor thing had ceased to exist long ago, and it was hardly his ego's fault… He was slightly offended that people thought he had done this with no useful purpose in mind, though it did reassure him that he still appeared as cryptic as ever. He had been wondering lately if his mask had been slipping.

"I do remember what happened the one time you didn't go see anyone, when you tried to deal with it alone. The damage reports called it a training session, but Mikoto doesn't usually involve herself in 'training sessions' like that. That street has been repaired, but we can't afford something like that again."

He winced at her reminder. Chidori and pavement, houses, or buildings in general did not mix well. It had something to do with the fact that Chidori had no problem blasting holes through bones or something…

"I'll tell you the time of your appointment when you come in. Keep an eye on Nariko. Her ANBU guard was sent off on what was going to be your next mission." There was a long pause on the line. "I'm sorry for this," she said almost apologetically before hanging up.

He eyed the phone before hanging it up and leaning his head against the wall. Facing off against nasty Kiri ninja would have been more fun. He had been hoping to avoid this. Psychiatrists were his least favourite people to deal with.

In his experience, psychiatrists were more interested in clinically curing the symptoms and then collecting their reward for curing their patient. At least, they had done so in all his dealings with them after his father's death. They had given him medication for the nightmares and then had sent him on his way once they had determined that he was just incredibly serious for his age, something they had written off as part of his shinobi training. They should have looked at Obito, the ultimate example of an unserious ninja.

He pushed aside the memories of those sessions that had somehow become very blurred with his memories of his training in resisting interrogation. The ANBU equivalent had been particularly harrowing. ANBU needed to be certain that an agent wouldn't break under pressure, so they took no chances on inexperience. All agents knew firsthand just what torture would be like if they didn't summon the will to commit suicide to keep the secrets of the Hokage safe.

At a loss and stuck for the next six hours, he wandered into the living room and brightened when he spotted what Sakura must have missed: a book on her desk hidden beneath piles of papers. He deftly swiped it despite the aura of doom and disaster hovering in the room. He settled into a chair to read for a while, ignoring Nariko's uneasy stare.

"I didn't know women liked bondage." He figured she was nervous because Yuugao's little slip had revealed his awareness of what had happened.

As expected, she exploded. Apparently, she was more than willing to rant her way out of this guilty rut of hers. He had no doubt that she was mentally dragging herself through the coals for hurting him. She was that sort of person. "You damn perverted bastard, go lay one of your stupid fangirls if you're going to be like that, or are you really too _green_ to handle them?"

He glared at her over the book.

She smirked wickedly. "Your comment left you completely open for that one, greenie."

He reviewed his remark and winced. Dammit, she was right. "Ah, come on," he cajoled, rubbing the back of his head wearily with his free hand, "You know I was just teasing."

He was exceptionally relieved when her mood swing ended. He could no longer feel murderous intent flying off her.

"No, I'm serious," she told him, still somewhat angry. "They've been bugging me again. Either you put one or two of them out of their misery so they gang up on each other instead of me, or I'm going to start making their lives and yours hell. I'm going to start actually fielding their requests to set you up with them. Persistence should be rewarded."

Holy shit, she was evil! That should have been as bad as committing murder. Drastic times called for suicidal measures. She had appreciated honesty in the past, so maybe he would survive.

"Maa, you should go back to sleep. You look like hell and you're starting to sound like it too."

That remark would have earned him death from Anko or Kurenai. Yuugao would have gutted him and laughed as he bled to death if he had commented on her appearance.

"Shut up. Go away," she grumbled with mock bitterness, rolling her eyes at what she perceived as a lame jab at her person.

He went back to reading. "Unfortunately for you, I've been assigned as your minder for the day. That means I have to stay put. You're being childish."

She stuck her tongue out at him before immersing herself in her paper again.

"Hypocrite," he muttered as he got to the end of the page of _her_ book.

"Look who's talking, greenie."

Kakashi suddenly had a lot more sympathy for Sasuke and the whole "poky" nickname.

"She booked you an appointment."

He didn't say anything, but she seemed to know anyway. Indeed, if her self-satisfied smirk was any indication, she was gloating.

He could almost see the next question forming in her mind. "Why do you have a higher level Sharingan than Mikoto?"

He chuckled. She scowled petulantly at him and crossed her arms. Sometimes he wondered which sibling had had the bigger effect upon the other: Naruto didn't seem to have picked up many of her mannerisms, but she had certainly acquired a couple of his.

"If Sasuke knew that he could advance his eyes further, I have no doubt he'd do it if he hasn't done it already. Why can you and why can't he?"

"The activation of the Mangekyou Sharingan requires a sacrifice of a sort." He considered stringing her along a bit, but in view of how fed up with him she seemed, he had no doubt she would make him suffer for treating her like his students. Considering what form her last punishment had taken, it was a good idea to get talking. "It requires the user to kill his closest friend and to witness that death."

Instead of being disgusted, she blinked at him, confused. "Why is Gai still walking about then?"

"Because," he elaborated, not bothering to question how she reckoned that Gai was his best friend, "I didn't need to."

"You're talking about Obito, aren't you? How though? You didn't really kill him and you didn't get to watch him die. You were fighting during his last moments."

So, she had stooped to digging up old reports. She must have really hated how no one had explained the incident to her in full. It might have bothered him more if this victory over her precious ethics hadn't been so sweet. He didn't bother with explaining. It didn't take her long.

"You bloody bastard," she whispered, staring at him in awe. Hmm, her language was still suffering today. "You're really a bloody tough genius, aren't you? There's nothing you wouldn't do for Konoha, is there?" The disbelief and trepidation in her voice was a little disconcerting. "Gods, if you keep that up, they're going to either make you into Hokage or end up having you killed. You and Naruto… To use your mental instability to train… You're shinobi to the core. You'll use anything, anybody, to get what needs to be done finished. I ought to…" She shook her head at him as though unable to believe the extent of his brilliance.

He eye-smiled wearily. At least she wasn't furious.

"You really put me through hell just so you could get to the point where you killed Obito in one of your episodes? How did you know it would work?"

"Perspective is all that is required when defining truth. Belief, if you will, is what shapes reality. To activate Mangekyou, one has to believe that he has caused and witnessed the death of a close friend. That belief had to shift unconsciously."

"It was the last time, wasn't it? Mikoto thought something odd had happened, but she wasn't sure, so she didn't say anything until just recently." She stared at him, appalled. "You killed him in your head, in your dream, didn't you? That's why you broke and made that mess."

He kept quiet.

"But it's not stopping. That's why you're here again. You got what you needed from it, but it's not finished with you. What you kill in your head won't stay dead because it isn't real."

"Apparently."

"You owe me," she said suddenly, fixing him with a glare. He had to wonder how much sleep she had gotten considering how she kept jumping from topic to topic according to no discernable logic.

"Excuse me?"

"You owe me. You admitted to using me to help you train. Thus, you owe me big time."

That was true… "What you do want from me?"

A sneaky grin sprouted on her face. He had a very bad feeling about this. "I can ask for anything? Anything at all?"

"I suppose, as long as it's not beyond my ability to provide."

"Oh, trust me; I'm hardly going to ask for something impossible for you to give." That smile really was getting scary. What the hell did she want from him? "It's merely a trifle. It will be good for you besides."

He narrowed his eyes at her, suddenly having a very horrible feeling about what she was going to ask for.

"It will take some work on your part, but I'm sure it will pay off in the end. You may even end up enjoying yourself."

Oh hell no…

"What?" he asked dubiously, but she set aside her newspaper and disappeared into the kitchen, cackling quietly.

He suddenly had a lot more sympathy for anyone he had ever stung along with partial explanations. Any trust in her was entirely misplaced and she was a filthy hypocrite if his guess was right. There was no way he was going to do that for her. She didn't answer, and he was left warring between absolute terror and the need to appear properly calm and disinterested. Twenty minutes of internal struggle was about all he could take.

He crept into the kitchen and glared at her as she ignored him while she washed dishes and stared out the window. "What is it?"

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and burst out laughing. "Ah! You should see your face! Gods, what on earth do you think I'm going to ask you for?"

He kept that to himself. He had heard things…

She glared at him until he shrugged and went back to pretending to read the book. "Honestly, I'm just going to ask you tell me a story."

Relief and scepticism replaced terror and maintaining appearances as the main combatants. "A what?"

"A story, stupid. Geez, you need your ears checked or something. History is just a story, so I want you to tell me about some of the missions you've been on, starting with the D-rank ones you did as a genin. Don't leave anything out. I expect the telling to be a lot more detailed than a mission report. I want to hear about the client, the team, and the sensei."

"Why?"

"Why indeed," she mused aloud, going back to staring out the window, smiling slightly. "I'm sure to you it seems like a waste of a once in a lifetime opportunity. Tell me when you figure it out. In return for hearing about the most boring, embarrassing, or dismal performances of your team _as genin_, I promise to give you blackmail material in the form of embarrassing moments or stories about how I got my many scars; they usually go hand in hand."

She was offering him blackmail material. Just how stupid was she? He considered carefully; simple stories about his genin team in return for material that would give him enough leverage to make her do his taxes for free. It shouldn't have been a hard choice, but her motives worried him.

"Tell me one reason why, and I'll consider."

"Hmm, you really are suspicious. I suppose it would reassure you if I asked you to rob a bank or something. Is that what you thought I was going to ask for?"

He kept his mouth shut.

She shook her head at him and smirked. "I don't hear stories about missions anymore. Naruto used to tell me all sorts of stories about his adventures, but he's gone. Sasuke doesn't brag to me like that, only to Ryuuka. I miss it. Besides, I'll be hearing about Namikaze-sama."

That clicked.

"You're wasting this on Naruto? You ask just so you can hear about his father?"

She shrugged. "You don't have siblings, so I can't expect you to understand. I do many things just for his benefit, but I'm hardly that selfless. I benefit from this as well. Once you figure out my selfish reason, tell me. Do we have a deal?"

He nodded at last. "You owe me a story about that scar on your cheekbone."

She gestured that should he start telling her about his first D-rank mission.

* * *

In a dark room, a tailless cat sat and stared at six pieces of paper with unblinking eyes. The notes bore marks of having been subjected to quite a bit of punishment: they were creased, crumpled, and dirty and the edges were showing signs of disintegrating from the number of times that they had been made to lie flat on the table. A pale hand shot out and adjusted the position of the one of the papers, rotating it ninety degrees in an attempt to make the lines match up from where they spilled off the two adjacent pages. The tension around her gave off the impression that if she had had a tail, it would have been twitching.

The pages were odd. The lines scrawled over them followed no logic known to man and didn't seem to form any sort of recognizable script if one looked at the pages individually. Her hand shot out again and rotated a page in the centre row by one hundred and eighty degrees before picking it up and trading it with the paper in the bottom right-hand corner.

She pulled her hands away and stared at the twisting lines of differing widths, her strange eyes trying to make sense of the chaos. The creator of this paper and ink disaster had to be twisted in some way because the cat creature was falling to that level in the attempt to figure it out.

For hours, this room had witnessed her playing with these sheets of paper ever since they had first started arriving out of nowhere. There had been strange scents lingering around them: toad musk, hotel cleaner, varnish that was commonly used on tables made oak or cherry wood in the southern nations, many trees, foods too diverse to separate out, and finally the odd stench of a young male. This last smell was the oddest because it was not completely adolescent. No, there was some odd pong clinging to it, something dangerous and dark. It made the cat creature more nervous than she could express. She had been tempted to throw the fist missive away, but its odd designs had tugged at her, making her pull it from the trash bin and set it on this very table to spin it in lazy circles as she perused its figures keenly without comprehension.

All the notes were like that. They had trickled into these rooms one by one, slowly adding to her puzzlement. Some of them seemed to connect with one another.

The arrival of the fifth note had convinced her that this really was some idiot trying to get into contact with her in the most convoluted way imaginable. Now she had the sixth, and she had the feeling that this was the last one. This had gone on for far too long for it to be otherwise. She was so impatient to finally figure this out that she was close to ripping the precious pieces of paper to shreds.

An hour's passing rewarded her restraint. Lines were starting to connect and familiar characters were leaping out of the mess at her, pressing against the bars of the misleading lines that had hidden them from her before. Almost twitching with excitement, a slender arm reached out one last time to rotate the top corner page by two hundred and seventy degrees to complete her puzzle at last.

"_Come and meet me at Juujiro Village. I've got something to tell you. Take that C-rank mission that asks for a person good with cats to escort a merchant around southern Lightning Country. Come on; don't be late!"_

An irritated hiss and the sound of nails scraping against the varnished table echoed through the barren room. Paper shredded and littered the floor.

"Punk."

* * *

Sakura padded down the stairs as quietly as she could, trying not to wake her parents. They were trying, she supposed, but there was still this chasm widening between them. She wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do about it, so she was just trying to pretend it didn't exist. It wasn't working. Conversations were strained and uncertain.

She slipped out the door and shut it quietly behind her, feeling as though she was some burglar escaping a victim's home. Biting her lip, she tried to suppress the freedom she felt at being out of her house. It was a futile effort. Almost skipping, she pushed chakra into her feet and leapt onto the rooftops.

"Running away again, Forehead-girl?"

Sakura flipped into a crouch and had a kunai in her hand before she even placed that voice. "Ino-pig, what are you talking about?"

"You think I'm blind or something?" Ino snorted, setting her hands on her hips and tossing her bangs. "Do you really think I haven't noticed just how much you aren't connecting with your mom and dad anymore?"

"What's it to you?" Sakura spat, worried that Tsunade-shishou would break her head open if she was late. Shishou was usually late a little late (nowhere near Kaka-sensei's usual lateness), but Sakura doubted the reverse would be good for her continued good health. Hokage-sama wasn't the most even-tempered person, and Sakura had been the one to blackmail her into training her…

She really had picked up more from Kaka-sensei than was healthy now that she thought about it. She really hoped she didn't pick up everything. Turning out like Kaka-sensei would be too horrible to contemplate. A terrifying image of herself as a lopsided spinster at twenty-eight with a bunch of brats trailing after her made her shudder. Never! If she had to be single, she would be dignified in her status like Tsunade-shishou, though with a lot less alcohol involved.

"What's it to me?" Ino asked. "Forehead-girl, you're being stupid. Use that brain of yours. Unless you straighten this out by yourself, I'm going to butt in and make you."

"Mind your own business, Pig."

"No. Get going on it or I will." With that parting shot, Ino dropped off the building and sauntered through the streets, ignoring the way Sakura was trying to burn a hole in the back of her rival's head.

* * *

Setting aside the projectiles she had been lobbing at Sakura that morning, Tsunade frowned when Rat-18 appeared before her instead of Tiger or Snake. "What's the news?"

"Dragon-15 is dead," he reported in clipped tones. "Boar-3 located his corpse in Lightning Country. He was found out by the Akatsuki pair he was trailing after. It appears as though Kisame dealt the blow that eventually finished him off because of Dragon's inability to get it treated in time. His body has been appropriately dealt with. No Kumo-nin suspected his presence as far as we know."

Tsunade closed her eyes and spared a moment on sorrow for the wily young man she had known. She would grieve later. Another funeral to attend and another person under her command lost. Every single one cut at her.

"Where are his killers headed?"

"For Kumo from Iwa. According to Dragon's notes, they skirted through Rain some months ago, if you'll recall." Rat set down the old reports and the fresh translations. "Their penetration of that border occurred with great ease, as Dragon mentions here and here." He pointed out the sections with a gloved finger.

Dragon's every word immortalized the young man's nerviness about the skill of his targets. Itachi and Kisame were more than dangerous. She couldn't kill them yet though. They were a known pair, the only truly known and traceable pair of that mysterious organization that she had too little information on. Besides, if what Jiraiya was sending her was even partially correct, this pair wasn't the most dangerous Akatsuki had to offer. If ANBU could trace this pair long enough, perhaps they could unearth something that would lead her to the right people…

"It is unknown if this is simply reconnaissance or if there is something that they are targeting. They should be there in a day or two unless they deviate from their projected course by quite a bit."

Tsunade rubbed at her temples and desperately wished that she still had some sake lying around. "Who's available to be sent out as a replacement?"

"Tiger-19, Jaguar and her team, Dog-12, and Snake-28. There are others, but they aren't qualified for the job, Ram-9, for instance."

"Dog-12 is off active duty at the moment. Be sure the commander gets word that he's not cleared for S-rank missions until I give the go-ahead. Send out Snake."

* * *

"Good afternoon, Hatake-san; thank you for coming in almost on time. I am Dr. Fuu," said the sage-like man sitting on the tatami mats. "This is Hyuuga Hinata, a med-nin that is studying under me today. She will not be involved in the session, merely observing so that she may better treat her own patients some day. Be assured of her confidentiality. I hope you do not mind."

Kakashi shrugged and sat down, cursing Tsunade for the hundredth time. She had been insistent, so here he was.

"Now, I was given some information by Hokage-sama, but I would like to hear your version of events, if you please."

"I've been problems in dealing with work." Kakashi elaborated in his usual style: blunt yet dismissive and somehow skirting around the true seriousness of the matter. Fuu took careful notes as Hinata listened unobtrusively, her focus more upon the psychiatrist than on him. That hardly reassured him though: Hyuuga could see through the backs of their heads.

"These shaking fits you experience while you are awake, how long do they last?"

He shrugged. "I don't know; they vary according to the episode. Sometimes my associates manage to pull me out of it by talking. It's gone by morning."

"So the missions that cause these episodes usually end with you returning in the evening?"

"Most of the time. There was one time I got back in the early morning and it hit me; I hung around the jounin lounge, talking with the others to try and keep it down."

Fuu nodded and scrawled some more. "This isn't the first time I've dealt with ANBU suffering from trauma. Now, I need you to tell me everything you can about every episode."

Kakashi cursed Tsunade again and began.

* * *

"Well, how did it go?" Nariko asked as she prepared her dinner.

Kakashi was lounging on her couch. "_Maa_, he asked a whole bunch of questions, took a whole bunch of notes, and then said I could go."

"I'm not surprised. He's not going to know what to do off the shot. While this sort of reaction to trauma isn't unique, the way he's going to have to deal with it is. He can't assign you drugs because most will interfere with your ability to do missions and may end up getting you killed."

"He said the same sort of thing. Hinata was there."

"Really? She did tell me she wanted to branch into psychiatry a bit the last time I talked to her, some time in January if I remember right… The training she received at the Academy about how to deal with injury and death mentally was very basic as far as she was concerned. She wanted to expand upon it so that she wouldn't be reduced to a crying mess if something went wrong. She wanted to be able to help her teammates cope too."

"Hmm."

"Your enthusiasm is overwhelming. Please stop jabbering away over there. Do you want some supper? I made enough."

Food? Edible food was always good, especially when he didn't have to pay for it or manipulate other people into paying for him. "That would be good."

"You owe me a chess game for this and the story's next chapter."

Chess was good too. "Then you owe me the story about that ragged scar on your right forearm right near your elbow." Blackmail was the best.

"That's fine."

* * *

"No, gaki, that was not fine. Do it again."

Naruto suppressed the desire to bang his head against the table and grabbed a fresh piece of paper. Every line had to be perfect or the seal would screw up and do something it wasn't supposed to. He was quickly learning that becoming as good a seal master as his dad had been was going to take a long time. He sighed, focused all his attention on his brush, and began drawing the seal pattern again. This time he managed to get the stroke order perfectly and his drawing was reasonably accurate.

"That's better," said Jiraiya. "Keep doing this while we look for your kunoichi and you might be ready for the next seal in a couple weeks."

Naruto grimaced at the time it would take, but had to admit that he was happy. He was much closer to using his father's jutsu and he finally understood what the strange markings on his belly meant… sort of. If he kept learning, he would eventually be able to patch up Gaara's seal so that he wouldn't have to deal with Shukaku's voice.

He and Jiraiya were sitting in a restaurant in Lightning Country, hoping that Ni'i Yugito would get his message and would take the time to show up. It had taken quite a bit of blackmail to get Jiraiya to agree to take him here. The old hermit had been determined to keep him out of real danger, and Kumo was evidently far more dangerous for him to be near than Suna despite the newness of Suna's treaty with Konoha. He and Jiraiya hadn't dared to venture into Hidden Cloud Village for good reason: the treaty between Konoha and Kumo was still on shaky terms even after the delivery of Hyuuga Hizashi's body.

Naruto and Jiraiya were in disguise as they lingered in a small tourist city where their presence wouldn't attract much attention. Ni'i-san was supposed to meet them at this restaurant about a C-rank mission he had commissioned in his infinite sneaky wisdom. It was risky to have done that because Kumo had probably sensed a trap of some sort for their jinchuuriki, but they might have let her come. She was supposed to be a very capable jounin.

Sure enough, a blonde Kumo kunoichi walked into the restaurant two hours later and scoped out the crowds before she spotted them and made her way over. She wasn't alone: a pair of Kumo-nin waited outside. They didn't look happy, but they didn't make any move to enter the building. Naruto had the feeling they were keepers. Ni'i-san was obviously watched to an extent. That or his mission had been a little too obviously intended for her. Huh, maybe he was going to have to work on subtlety like Gaara had been saying.

"Which one of you is Uruhara-san?" she asked, glancing between him and Jiraiya.

"I am." Naruto was grateful for Riko's lessons on etiquette. Being rude to a sadist was a bad idea. Besides, it made him sound older and that could only be good. There was no way she would take what he was saying seriously if she realized he was a fourteen-year-old kid. "Ni'i-san, please sit down." Despite his unaffected manner, Naruto was floundering. He didn't actually have a clue how to do this. Winging it seemed the best option.

"Nii-san, this mission is a conversation and an open mind on your part. I need to you hear me out until the end." Suspicion began to creep across her face, but Naruto ignored it. "I'm here to find my sibling; I've heard you and I are brother and sister in power, though I think I've got more tails than you."

Her face became tense.

"Don't worry; we are siblings, so fighting is not what I am after."

"You are like me then?" she asked, glancing around the restaurant, but Naruto and Jiraiya hadn't chosen this spot for nothing. Everyone around them was very talkative and rather self-absorbed. "You are a weapon?"

"Not really," he said. "I was created to be a cage more than anything."

"You are easy prey then." She grinned. Her teeth were very white and sharp looking.

Naruto resisted the urge to gulp. She was supposed to be jounin. Not good. "No, not really. Our Brother is one you could defeat if you both were really trying, but I don't think you could match my demon."

"Nibi works for the Shinigami. Your demon cannot match that."

Holy crud, it was like talking to a female Sasuke! The haughtiness was stifling! All internal theatrics aside, that arrogance really was annoying. He would have to respond in kind. She was way too cocky. Besides, it had been way too long since he had knocked Sasuke down a couple pegs. Ni'i-san would have to serve as a replacement until next year.

"Kyuubi has unlimited power at his disposal."

That shut her up. Nibi had lost to Kyuubi once. Ni'i and he both knew this.

"Anyway, I'm not here to challenge you to a fight. I'm here to meet my Sister." He put a lot of emphasis on that word. She was tense and he didn't doubt that if she had been a cat, she would have had her claws unsheathed. He had gotten scratched too many times by the Daimyo's wife's cat not to recognize the signs. She needed to be calmed down, fast. "I was hoping to hear that they were treating you well and I've come to warn you."

"Warn me?"

Ah, that was better. Not fighting was good. It would be bad idea to fight with her for many reasons. Firstly, he was supposed to be in hiding. Everybody standing around would not conveniently ignore a fight. Secondly, Tsunade-baachan would flatten him if she found out. Thirdly… well, there wasn't a thirdly. If Baachan did that to him, he wouldn't be able to care about the third bad thing. He and fox face would be going to hell or whatever. "There's a group hunting our family."

"Family?"

"We jinchuuriki should look out for each other," he said, feeling as though he was arguing his point to Gaara again. At least Gaara had been willing to listen. This cat woman wasn't really. She was still suspicious, but all he could do was to carry on. "I've made it my goal to find all my siblings. I decided that shortly after meeting our Brother for the first time. He needed family." It felt odd to call Gaara "brother"; "Brother" worked better for him. It made things sound cooler, like they were a secret organization or something out of _The Adventures of Hiroji_ novels.

"The suffering of the jinchuuriki is similar no matter where we are. The fear that follows us, the loneliness because of it…" He could see understanding in her face and a softening. Ah, good. He wasn't going to get clawed now. "I'm trying to find all my Brothers and Sisters so that we can all protect each other from Akatsuki, the group hunting us. I'm on the run because of them."

"A couple nukenin for hire could never take me down."

Again with the arrogance! Weren't ninja supposed be super paranoid like Kaka-sensei?

"You're wrong there," said Jiraiya, speaking for the first time.

Naruto resisted the urge to pout. This was supposed to be his meeting! How dare Ero-Sennin take over! He was doing some very important work here, paving his way towards the end of those that wanted to destroy him and setting the stones for becoming Hokage. These links were going to be important; bonds were always important because he knew that he had relatively few. He had plans… fuzzy plans to be sure, but still plans. Plans were what made a ninja more than just a weapon. A weapon couldn't plan. Leaders planned and a Hokage was supposed to be the best leader. Neechan had said that once and Old Man had mentioned similar things over the years. He had never forgotten.

"The strongest nukenin in the world belong to that group. Have you ever heard of Uchiha Itachi or Hoshigaki Kisame?"

That shut her up. Okay, maybe, just maybe, Ero-Sennin had said something useful for once. Itachi-empty-face was infamous for his near total annihilation of one of the three powerful eye-oriented bloodlines.

"Why are they after us?" She was all ears now.

"They want what makes us brethren." Wow, maybe reading all these books on sealing was influencing his language. That had sounded archaic… More notes to his friends were definitely the order of the day. They would make sure he got his slang back. "They want our demons. Sennin here says that the removal of our bijuu would kill us." Naruto jabbed a thumb at Jiraiya.

"Pity the removal causes death," she muttered under her breath.

He immediately liked her better. He had wondered if he and Gaara were weird for hating their demons as much as they did. She obviously resented Nibi's presence as much as he hated Kyuubi's. "Yeah, I know; Fox-bastard and I both agree with that."

"If you are Kyuubi's container then you must be from Konoha…"

He didn't answer. She didn't seem too sure about this, and he wasn't interested in giving her too much to use against him. He was a little surprised that she didn't know this right off the top of her head. It wasn't every day that one of the bijuu tried to flatten a hidden village after all. Maybe being in Konoha had placed too much importance on the incident. For him, it was the pivot point of his life; for everyone else, it was a myth from far away.

"Where is our other 'brother'?" she asked, slight sarcasm lingering on the sibling title.

"He's safe in the desert." He really hoped that he hadn't said too much. If he put Gaara in danger because of his big mouth, he would never forgive himself. He quickly changed the subject. "Do you have any family?" It was a safe enough question. She had brought the topic up.

"No," she admitted slowly, obviously wondering why he had asked. She was just as paranoid as Kaka-sensei: Sensei always said that asking too many questions, especially personal ones, got people killed. "I'm an orphan."

"Me too. Our Brother isn't, but his siblings didn't mean anything to him until recently. His father was the one that stuck the Ichibi in him, so that kind of screwed him up. His seal isn't very strong, which didn't help things."

"My seal is strong; I have good control over it. I can assume Nibi's form."

Even Jiraiya looked impressed. Way cool! Naruto was really jealous. Stupid Kyuubi didn't let him do things like that…

"Our Brother can do that, but he's put in a trance and the Ichibi has total control at that point." He still wasn't sure telling her about this stuff was a good idea, but he had to trade information for information. "His demon and the attitudes of the people around him had unhinged him to the point that he was homicidal. His father had been trying to kill him before the bastard died." The fact that this didn't surprise her was testimony that her own life was just as bad. "Anyway, I've passed on the warning. Now what I want to know is if you are willing to be our Sister."

"You want to know if I'll what?" Why did she look so surprised? He had said he wanted to be family of a sort.

"My Brother and I want to know if you are willing to accept us like we are willing to accept you. We want to know if you'll protect us if we get into trouble if we'll do the same for you. We want to know if you are willing to be family. Your mission lasts a week or so. Your mission is to decide." He slurped the last of his ramen before continuing. "Sennin and I will be sticking around town. I'm sure you can find us when you have your answer or if you have more questions." Naruto glanced at the disguised Jiraiya and signalled that he was done by slapping some money down on the table. It was time to disappear quickly without a trace. "I hope you'll be willing to ask more questions next time."

He saluted her and released Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Beside him, 'Jiraiya' did the same.

Grinning, Naruto glanced at his guardian, who was startled out of his nap against a tree when the memories of his clone hit him. This entire meeting had only been allowed as an infiltration training exercise. It had been twofold: the bunshin meeting with Ni'i and Naruto successfully blending in so that Ni'i Yugito couldn't actually find him. To achieve this, he had had to take on a civilian position well enough that none asked questions. Ero-Sennin just got to evaluate his work.

He was currently working in a vineyard. Juujiro Village was a tourist destination because a bunch of refugees from Earth Country had carried their odd viticulture with them to this little valley, which was uniquely suited to carrying on the winemaking tradition; at least that was what the portly vintner with a strangely red nose had assured him. Naruto was just happy that he got to work with plants again.

He could have gone to one of the plum or apple orchards or to the rice paddies, but he had worked on those other options during D-rank missions around Konoha. Grapes were new and interesting and had turned out to be not all that hard to get along with. They were tough, unlike a lot of his plants, which he really hoped were okay. Neechan had said they were all good in her last letter, but…

He pulled one of the canes down, counted off buds, and cut off the excess length before wrapping the cane around the wire and tying it down.

These vineyard people seemed to like punishing their plants. They denied them water quite a bit, cut them back every year, and then stole their fruit. According to his boss, that made better wine. Naruto couldn't tell—he still wasn't old enough to drink—but Ero-Sennin seemed to agree. Most of the reason that Naruto was working was to pay off the pervert's debt. The old pervert had tons of money according to his bankbook, but he never seemed to use it… Naruto constantly had to suffer the depletion of his wallet. He would have to recruit Riko-nee in getting the pervert to pay him back. Naruto was sure that she would enjoy it.

Naruto had discovered over the last week and a half that infiltration wasn't that hard, at least not in tourist towns. There were so many different people going through here that no one cared where he had come from. Oh, the locals knew he was visiting, but they had accepted his answers about coming from Grass Country and that a runaway horse had crunched his nose without question. His current henge's nose was very bad… It was too bad that he couldn't fix it now.

Still, Naruto and Jiraiya were hardly unique enough to warrant a second glance the way Ni'i and her two Kumo companions had. Ninja from Lightning Country's hidden village didn't seem to come here very often. From what his clone remembered, it seemed that they had garnered a lot of attention until Yugito had come and sat down with them quietly. People had kept their distance after that. Getting tangled up in ninja matters apparently wasn't something many people wanted to do here.

The crowds and her watchers would delay N'ii's probable attempt to track him down. That was good. It had looked like she wanted to scratch his eyes out a couple times. Naruto quite liked his eyes and preferred them in working condition, so he supposed that giving her time to cool down was only a good thing.

Focusing back on his work when one of the thicker canes snapped, he snarled at it and bent another one to his will. It was a good thing whatever unlucky sod had pruned these had left multiple canes for the ones that went through afterwards to tie them down. He swiftly got to the nearest post and dallied a bit, pulling off a bunch of the strange bark the vines grew and cutting it up as he mulled over the details of the meeting and the memories of eating ramen. What a waste! He could have been digesting it right now… Oh well. Clones couldn't do everything.

When the vineyard manager appeared with a shovel slung over his shoulder, Naruto quickly finished his row and ran over to wheedle his way out of working for the afternoon. The man acknowledged that he had finished the section assigned to him for the day, so Naruto managed to get a break out of the man.

He tramped back through the vines to where the pervert was going over some reports that would probably end up in Baachan's hands after stashing his clippers and string in the shed. He rifled through his pack and grabbed his old water bottle. Hopefully it would hold until he could afford a replacement: if it leaked and ruined his books and scrolls, he was going to be pissed. Some of those books had been expensive and were the other part of the reason he was broke.

Happy with how the initial contact had gone (he had thought he really was going to die the first time he had spotted her; she hadn't looked very happy), Naruto grinned and turned to Ero-Sennin. "Training!"

"Not Hiraishin," grumbled the old man, making a couple more notes on the scroll before rolling it up and stashing it in his pack.

"Did I say Hiraishin?" Naruto asked, exasperated. He could learn other things, it was just he _really_ wanted to learn that one jutsu… If Ero-Sennin were going to be this stupid about it though, Naruto would save the badgering until after the pervert had taught him something else. "Can we try katon jutsu again?"

"Gaki, you're hopeless with fire, pathetic actually. Stick to exploding tags unless you want to singe your throat shut again. No, you're going to do speed training with Reppushou again to show me that you're ready to advance with fuuton." Satisfied with this arrangement, Naruto happily bounded after Ero-Sennin into the pine-covered hills around the holiday town of Juujiro. "Clones this time, brat." Even that didn't dampen his step. Accumulating fatigue on that level was hardly a burden. "Cutting water too," the pervert insisted when the rush of a waterfall reached their ears.

Lightning Country seemed to have a lot of mountains and enough cascades to match. Cutting water meant he would have to redirect the flow completely, which wasn't quite as fun. It was training though and training was always fun in some way or another, though it was even better when there were other people around to learn with him. He missed training under Mikoto with Sasuke and the other guys. Asking Mikoto questions had always gotten him vastly helpful answers about what he was doing wrong; the Sennin always expected him to figure things out for himself.

* * *

"No more questions? Good, you may go now."

Kakashi fled the office, heading for his apartment. His briefing for his first mission since the start of therapy had run late (mostly due to his tardiness, but he wasn't about to admit to that).

Slipping through the window, he immediately noticed Yuugao and Nariko's scents in the apartment. So, the partners in crime had broken in…

A note lay on his bookcase. "Good luck, Kakashi-senpai," Yuugao had written.

"Try not to hurt yourself for once." Nariko's spindly script mocked him. "Maa, that might be asking too much of you. Toads and blondes might be in the offing if you don't manage by yourself. In other words, come through this in one piece or I'll make sure that you get warts. Sasuke reminds you that you had better keep your promise about Chidori if he waters your plant while you're gone. Also, I think I've had enough chapters. Keep your secrets."

* * *

Hinata had had a rare good morning. Her sister had woken her by sneaking in to get her to braid her hair. Hanabi was more concerned with her appearance since being officially made heir, but she went to her disgraced sister for help, not the maid her father had hired for her in recognition of the accomplishment. "You're better at braiding with no hand at all," Hanabi-chan had told her when Hinata had asked. "You don't pull my hair."

Hinata had smiled and kept running the comb through her little sister's hair with her not-hand.

"Oneesan?"

"Yes?"

"Why did you abandon Jyuuken, really?"

"Was I ever very good at it? Hanabi-chan, I don't like Jyuuken. I don't… I don't like being so close while fighting."

Hanabi had frowned. "But these threads… Are they really going to be better? Father doesn't like that you're not an open-combat shinobi."

"I am more comfortable with this. I can be a better medic like this."

Hanabi had snorted, but she hadn't moved her head as Hinata's chakra threads twisted her hair into the herringbone braid efficiently. "What are you learning at the Academy right now?"

"Division and poetry in the regular classes. The kunoichi instructor is teaching us the tea ceremony. We're working on knocking kunai out of the air outside when we get to do real training. Nobody is very good yet, but I am the best. I've knocked two of the kunai Sensei threw already."

"From what angle?"

"We're starting at the side, but Sensei says that if we manage to knock five, we can try when the kunai are coming straight at us with another sensei helping to knock aside any we miss."

Mornings with Hanabi were filled with more talking and sharing than Hinata had thought possible before. They hadn't been sisters before; they had been prized hounds raced against each other at every opportunity, Hanabi given every opportunity and encouragement to show up her frail sister. Now that the competition was officially won by Hanabi, they were allowed to be sisters as Hinata had only before read about in books.

The rest of her days were emptier now that she was no longer welcome or expected in the family dojo. Neji trained there now against Hanabi under her father's watchful eye. Hinata was free to disgrace herself as she chose with lessons from Shizune-shishou and Fuu-sensei. Missions and training with Team Kurenai also filled the days, but there was no Hyuuga expectation anymore except the one that weighed on her.

When Hanabi officially succeeded their father, Hinata would be sealed as a branch clan member. She shuddered now to think of it, despite the warmth of the day. Neji had warmed to her considerably since the shift in succession, had even whispered that it wouldn't be so bad while her father made his speech at the clan dinner that had made it public and official unless Hanabi died. Neji-niisan's guard duty had been shifted to Hanabi and Hinata had been left to her own devices for the first time, truly.

But today was an empty day. There was no training, no lessons, no shift at the clinic, so Hinata was at a loss. She had just walked, ignoring it when people stared at her stump encased in the silver cuff and whispered about her Hyuuga eyes. They knew she had been passed over, and they talked. Hinata couldn't find it in herself to mind too much though. The experience was instead nearly treasured as it helped her understand what Naruto-kun had gone through. He had always been whispered about and stared at. She had witnessed it so many times, aching with guilt at being unable to even bring words of comfort past her lips. He had never even noticed her watching.

Why was speaking so hard?

"It's not hard," Kiba-kun had told her the one time she had managed to stutter out her problem. "You just open your mouth and say it." But Kiba-kun had always been loud, been encouraged to be loud. It was hard. Shino-kun understood, but even he could talk.

Hinata could only stutter when the person wasn't Hanabi or a patient she could wear a calm mask for.

"Practice," Kurenai-sensei had told her many times, and she did, but patients were different.

Maybe today…

Hinata spotted Nariko-san walking down an alley, probably on her lunch break. She was the best source of news about Naruto according to Sasuke-kun and Sakura-san, but Hinata had never been able to bring herself to ask. Maybe today…!

"N… Na…" It was so hard! "Nariko-san!"

Naruto's sister turned to her and donned a welcoming smile. "Hinata-san, good afternoon. How can I help you?"

Hinata ran over to her so that she would have an excuse for her pounding heart. "C… Can… Can I ask…?"

"Ask what, Hinata-san?"

"A-Are you getting l-l-lunch?"

Nariko-san smiled and nodded. "I was going to go to Ichiraku's for old time's sake. I've been missing Naruto. Would you like to come with me, Hinata-san?"

Hinata managed to summon a smile and nod.

"Kakashi-san told me that you were at some of his sessions with Fuu-sensei. I'm glad that you managed to get an apprenticeship with him like you wanted. Shizune-san says that you are really coming along in your other medical studies too. Uchiha-san said that she saw you at the clinic and that you did a very good job."

Hinata blushed under this profuse praise. Naruto's sister was always so nice to her even though they had only met at the parties Naruto had hosted. Nariko-san seemed to actually keep an eye on her progress, almost like Kiba-kun and Shino-kun's parents did. Father had stopped keeping track after her second year at the Academy. Shizune-shishou and Kurenai-sensei did the same thing. Even Genkichi-sensei checked in with her every couple months. They were all so proud, so encouraging.

Hinata smiled genuinely, and Nariko-san grinned and squeezed her shoulder. "They whisper about you," Naruto sister said darkly, glancing over at a pair of chuunin watching them. "I'm sorry that the rest of village gossips like this about your troubles. They never change."

Hinata shook her head. "It's all right. I am not sad about not being heir. My sister has worked very hard for the honour."

"But I am sad for you that your choices earned you such censure from those that have no right to even discuss it."

Hinata shook her head and sat down on a stool with a nod to Chef Teuchi as Nariko-san laughed at the chef's teasing and dished out information about Naruto from the latest letters. Hinata listened in, happy that she hadn't even had to probe.

Talk of Naruto slowly turned into talk about Kakashi-sensei's sessions with Fuu-sensei. Hinata had heard through the grapevine that Nariko-san knew quite a lot about Kakashi-sensei's episodes, the grapevine being what Kiba-kun called fangirls, what Hinata understood to be women interested in Kakashi-san romantically who were quite unhappy with any woman that was on good terms with Kakashi-san, which included Nariko-san.

"… and his episodes are a lot less violent," said Nariko-san, pausing afterward to slurp up some broth.

"Fuu-sensei says that Kakashi-san hasn't been totally cooperative, and I a-a-agree. He hasn't told us half of what you just did about his reaction to the trigger memories."

"He's Kakashi," Nariko-san said as though it explained everything. Perhaps it did. "Sometimes people don't like to know about how they have shamed themselves."

So Nariko-san was salving pride by keeping secrets. Hinata slurped noodles for a moment to give herself time to gather courage. "Kakashi-sensei will not be pleased to find out that you haven't been forthcoming."

"He never asked."

Hinata donned her med-nin mask. "Kakashi-sensei doesn't need or want you to shield him. He is used to doing the protecting and won't be happy if he discovers you have usurped his role."

"Wise, Hinata," said Nariko-san with a smirk as Hinata struggled against her blush of shame. "So you propose I tell him everything that he made me cope with after I have already punished him for it?"

Hinata considered. "If you have…"

"I have. I forced him to dig up memories he would rather not have shared with anyone. It was not protection so much as reading his wishes. Kakashi is very much a private person. He knows enough that he dislikes being reminded of it by my company. Wouldn't it be better just to let it lie at this point?"

"It would hurt him now, yes, but it would prove that you do trust his maturity and his ability to deal with it. He needs that, I think. He has been coddled these past few weeks. He needs that trust. You do trust him, right?"

Nariko was silent.

"Don't you, Nariko-san?"

"Ah, Hinata-san, you are a far better person than I can ever hope to be. You aren't infected by prejudice. You simply accept and want to be accepted. Me, I am no longer so clean. I cannot trust a killer."

Hinata watched her uneasily. _A killer…_ Was that how Nariko-san saw all ninja?

She sighed. "Never mind, ignore me. If you say I should tell him, I'll trust you."

"Thank you. If you did make him share his memories, maybe that is helping a bit. It probably helps him redefine his complete personality."

"It's just a story," muttered Nariko-san, going back to her broth.

Hinata followed her example before shedding the doctor mask and dredging up the will to speak. "Nariko-san, is something wrong?"

"Why do you say that?"

"It is… I just…" Hinata paused and took a deep breath as her cheeks burned. "You seem troubled."

One corner of Nariko-san's mouth quirked up. "I am. I am in the process of arranging how I will answer the summons of my clan head. Getting leave and setting up the meeting location has been a lengthy process. Why the clan head wants to see me though, that troubles me. All my letters go through such scrutiny though, I have discovered. It takes so long… And I am anxious for Naruto too. He is in Lightning Country right now, trying to meet with another of his kind. He wants to make a pact with her, but he isn't certain of his success. And my own goal…" She shook her head.

"What goal is this, Nariko-san?"

"I want greater transparency in Konoha. The governing body needs to be able to be held accountable by the citizens here; otherwise, we are all at the mercy of the Hokage and the council when we have no power over who is chosen for the seats.

"Of course, getting those in power to release any documentation for public perusal is hard. There are privacy and security concerns. But also, the system is in their favour. Why would they change it when it is so easy for them to promote their own agenda and circle of friends?"

Hinata frowned. "You wish that anyone can look records or agreements?"

"Yes." The woman turned to gaze down the road, south. "It is the least I can do before…"

"Before?"

The woman smiled. "Before." She would say no more.


	56. Chapter 56

Chapter 56: Ten Cups of Poison

Snake-28 was shadow.

She competed with the real shadows for insignificance. Losing simply wasn't an option. If it did happen, she pushed herself harder until she won. The race, the war, the battle for supremacy; all of those were her sole reason, her sole joy in life since her maiming. Singing had been secondary, but the gilled bastard had taken that from her. Competition was all she had left. At least she was winning; neither of her targets had noticed her.

Hoshigaki Kisame walked ahead of her shadow. She hated him. Given half a chance, she would slit his throat and dance her bestial triumph on his corpse and to hell with whoever was around to watch the blood soak into the ground.

Orders were orders though. Orders said that she was to tail the bastard, not kill him. She so wanted to though. Her legs trembled with the desire, and her fingers involuntarily caressed the cool metal rings of the kunai in her hip pouch. A quick approach, her fist around the wrapped handle, and a flick that would send the tip slicing through his carotid artery; that was all it would take…

She licked her lips and slowed her racing heart. She wanted to do that more than she had ever wanted anything else in her life. Tsunade-sama had said not to kill him. The lingering desire was there though, pulsing just beneath the surface of her mind. Her eyes burned into the back of his head through the holes in her porcelain mask. His wrapped "blade" swayed with his every leisurely step, almost seeming to taunt her.

Her gloved fingers clenched as she struggled to keep her breathing even. Every exhalation warmed the air between her face and her mask, further chapping her lips and making the cracks in them sting painfully. Stupid masks needed better ventilation… Of all the idiocies… Her target passed the fifty-metre mark, and she scouted out the next promising shadow to meld with.

Beside him was one that Snake had watched for a long time. She remembered the first time he had put on his ANBU mask. She had been there all those years ago at his inauguration ceremony in the ANBU commander's office. Four witnesses were always required to welcome a new agent into the fold. She had been one of the few in the village at the time and off duty, so she had been called in on a whim of the commander's to watch the disturbing event, as she had when Inu and Monkey had been admitted.

Tiger had jokingly suggested the eleven-year-old wear a monkey mask, and she had laughed with him, humouring the young man that had been hard done by early in life. At least she had had parents to lose. He had nothing to tie him to any family save genes that weren't his.

It had been amusing to watch the little boy fumble with the ties of his red-marked porcelain piece. Yet somehow it had been criminal to watch him receive the ninjatou that all agents carried whether they used it or not. He had been so young… too young. This nonsense of sending hatchlings out to do a mature creature's work was supposed to have stopped with the ending of the war with Kumo, but times hadn't changed much because he had been there, standing before her and looking rather nervous and pale.

He had been so raw, so green. Oh, she had never doubted his control; she had worked with his mother before Monkey-17 had retired to get away from the pressure of being an Uchiha within ANBU. Itachi had been very much his mother's son. He had lost that nervousness very quickly and had become a captain within two years of his entrance.

His speed had made Snake nervous. His promotion had little effect upon her, but watching him rise so quickly in the ranks had made her leery. She was sure that part of it had been his skill, but there was another hand shadowing his progress. She had felt threatened enough that she had tried to find out who had been pushing his promotions, but it had been classified. Her security clearance hadn't been high enough to access that information. It had been a slap in the face.

She had never had much faith in Konoha. To her, the village was just a place full of humans; therefore, it was just as twisted and disgusting as any place humans lived. She had lived in it for such a long time—too long. It didn't make it better, but it did make it her territory to defend in the game of war. She had ended many, many lives for it, though she readily admitted that it had been for herself more than the village.

That Konoha had dared to deny her access to records after thirty-five years of service had rankled deeply. Now with more than forty years to her name, she no longer cared.

Uchiha Itachi would get what was coming to him eventually, and her kohai would see to the rest. Mikoto-san had never been one to let things lie unfinished. Snake had no doubt that the woman would find out eventually what had gone on there. It would be good fun to watch it, but Snake was more interested in her current game: guessing how close she could get to Uchiha Itachi without dying.

* * *

Naruto washed his hands in the public restroom, carefully checking the mirror as the other man finished his business and left. As soon as the washroom was empty, Naruto formed the handseal for Kage Bunshin. He traded a grin with the clone, feeling its presence in his mind. The clone assumed "Uruhara-san's" appearance and slipped into a stall to wait until it was safe to leave without linking himself to Naruto.

Whistling, Naruto meandered back towards the vineyard, checking out all of the various booths and little shops. He would have money soon, and he needed to pick up some birthday presents for the guys back home.

Tourist season was really getting into full swing. The streets, which had been mostly empty in early April, were starting to show signs that summer really was approaching. Families on holiday strolled shoulder to shoulder with business moguls that were taking a break from work at the end of the spring quarter. Naruto watched them all, making sure that he didn't draw attention. He really looked like a vineyard hand in frayed clothes stained with dirt and plant guck, so no one paid him any mind.

He was hiking along the beaten track up into the hills where the vineyard was situated when he felt an almost quiver from his clone. Blinking, he paused and delved into the clone's mind. He had discovered that he could do this recently. He had to consciously distance himself from "himself" and then use a significant portion of chakra to imprint the clone's recent memories into his own brain. He couldn't do it if he was occupied because his focus had to be completely internal, rendering him a sitting target. It was useful though. It was hard to update orders without actually knowing the situation.

A few moments of tedious mental work later, Naruto grinned under his own henge. Poor kitty cat really was annoyed. At least she was thinking about his offer.

Naruto could see sand out of the corner of his eye now that people weren't nearby. The animated sculpture was lurking in the trees as it constantly reformed itself. Naruto beckoned it over. It cost Gaara quite a bit of chakra to keep the thing animated at such a distance. No wonder it was stalking him.

Communication was a problem. It wasn't as if Gaara could simply pick up a phone and call him, and the sandy guy didn't have any summons to track him down. So, Naruto had adapted one of the seals in his books for Gaara so that it would maintain a sandy messenger and direct it to find the owner of the blood, which Naruto had provided with instructions for the seal. While a little vulnerable to interception, this method was working.

Naruto bit his thumb open and released the complex locking seal on the note as the sand around the message fell in a heap. Such precautions were necessary. Who knew how skilled Akatsuki was?

Naruto didn't have the faintest clue of where the group's members were, though Ero-Sennin probably did. That was why they were moving around so much: to avoid detection and to let his guardian keep doing reconnaissance on the mysterious organization. That was where Ero-Sennin was now: off poking and prying. Naruto had gotten left behind since his infiltration had seemed uncompromised at the time of departure. Naruto had been torn between wanting to tag along and staying behind to convince Yugito. Yugito had won.

"_Konoha tells me that Akatsuki is in Lightning Country, formerly heading towards Kumo. The duo was in Konoha once._

_Hurry."_

Grimacing, Naruto slipped the note into his pocket, resolving to destroy it later. Leaving evidence around was one of the biggest things Ero-Sennin had warned him against while on infiltration missions.

He had to hurry now, but rushing Yugito was a bad idea. He couldn't push her too much or she would react violently, and violent cats had never been his favourite things to deal with. He grimaced at the memory of Tora, a.k.a the Furball of Doom. The Fire Lady fed it steroids or something. There was no way that fat thing should have been able to slice him open like that. Remembering the iodine that had followed, Naruto sped up. His boss would be mad if he was late completing today's assigned section.

Working in the grapes was boring: it required minimal thought. It was perfect though because it allowed him to plan as his hands automatically performed the required motions. Brilliant schemes floated through his brain as the vines submitted to his will and the sun trekked across the sky. He was astonished when he sidestepped to work on the next plant and his hands ran into the end post instead. Creaking laughter made him look up.

"You get to the point where you don't even realize how much you've done." The old man on the porch beckoned him over.

Naruto obeyed when his boss' father gestured at a chair and pointed at a tall glass of apple juice.

"How do you like my grapes?" the man asked, leaning back in his chair as Naruto gulped down the drink greedily.

"They're cool."

"Ah, so they are. They grow well in this soil, you know. Do you have any idea why?"

Naruto shook his head.

The elder chuckled almost sinisterly and swirled dark red wine in his delicate glass, holding it to his nose and inhaling carefully as scraggly, grey hair fell into his weathered face. "Ah, a good nose," he murmured before he took a careful sip, letting the liquid settle over his tongue with a strange sort of sucking noise before swallowing it down. "Good oak, some spice, and nice and dry. The bouquet will mature with more time in the barrel. Yes, a very good year." He set his glass on the table.

"Did you know that there was a war between Lightning Country and Fire Country not so long ago?"

Naruto nodded.

"There have been many such wars over the years. Many ninja battles, many deaths, it is bad and good."

Naruto wondered how it could be good.

"This valley has been the site of many battles over the last few centuries," the elder explained with a distant smile at the pine-speckled horizon. There was an almost homesick look about him as he gazed westward. "Supply lines were often run through this pass to the south. This is a strategically important spot, or it was until Kumo and Konoha were formed at their specific locations. This pass has no particular use now. The cities along it have dwindled, save this one.

"Ninja battles are horribly destructive, you know. In Earth Country, we saw many of them while we fled. Forest or field, the earth is destroyed to some extent with no regard for who it might belong to or who might have their livelihood tied to it. My old vineyard was levelled with barely any compensation. I was lucky to escape with my life and my son. My wife was not so lucky. She was crushed in that battle. No amount of recompense from Iwa or Konoha can bring her back."

Bitterness flooded the ancient man's tone. "Murderers, the lot of them, filthy contract killers that claim a higher cause when they take life. They're no better than the common cutthroat is.

"Oh, they say that ninja wars are between ninja, but we all get caught up in them in one way or another. There's no special barrier protecting the innocent from their rampages. Kumo pretends that and then sends assassins after important _civilian_ political figures when commissioned to do so. All of the villages do, but Kumo is the only village that slipped up and let the news get out. It was all over the papers four years back. There was a huge outcry. Respect for Kumo has dwindled."

The old man gestured at the tiny wine shop erected near the cellars, not far from the house. Naruto resisted the urge to tense when one of the ninja that had arrived with Yugito exited the shop with a bottle in his fist. He didn't look very happy.

"His kind walk carefully now. Before, he would have come here with smiles and expected true respect. Now, he knows better. He knows he is lucky we don't throw him out with the rest of his filthy folk. We know what he is and what he does. You do too now. Be careful around ninja. They know how to kill a man with one finger and many of them follow their own rules. We small folk must stick together and keep them at arm's length when we can.

"Rumour has it that there are three hanging around the village: that man there, another man, and a blonde woman. Beware and stay out of their way until your travelling companion returns. He has the look of a man that knows how to stay out of trouble when he isn't wasting my son's wine. Follow him and you should be all right."

Naruto swallowed down a gulp. Anti-ninja sentiment this bitter was new to him. He had heard about it years ago from his sister and he had encountered it in a very mild sense in Wave Country, but here it was obvious. It made him nervous.

"Those ninja, they are good for something though. My plants grow well because their corpses lie among their roots. Blood and bone keeps my grapes healthy. It is a good turnaround, no?"

Naruto forced himself to smile and nod.

* * *

Anko leaned against a wall next to Mikoto and evaluated the harpies that were flocking to squabble and trade notes. "Are you positive you aren't going to get your throat slit for this?" When those fangirls found out about how they were being manipulated, someone was liable to get burned by their passionate wrath. It made Anko chuckle.

"Not really," chirped Riko from the branches she was perched in above them, "but what do you care? They'll be out of your way then. I'll handle it."

Anko snorted and rolled her eyes. Riko had some twisted sense of responsibility. Just because Anko had mentioned, just once, that she was looking for an opportunity to corner Kakashi and have a go at him, the woman took it to a whole new level of convoluted with Mikoto right on her heels to help keep Yuugao from finding out. That one was a little overprotective of her old ANBU captain. The Uchiha woman seemed to like meddling with people's affairs almost as much as the accountant, though she restrained herself to messing with romantic prospects, which Riko generally left alone. Anko was thankful though. It was nice of them to try to help, though Anko had no illusions: Riko was deriving some enjoyment from tormenting those that hounded her, including the dog himself. It was all good fun.

"Mikoto, what have you got?" she asked.

"That one," Mikoto said with a sly grin, pointing to one that looked more amused than interested in the lunch hour proceedings.

"Which one?" Riko asked, peering through the foliage. "The blonde or the one with 'sable' hair?"

"The black-haired one."

"Miki-san?"

Anko flipped through her memory of all the chuunin that she knew and nodded. "Yep, that's her. What do you think?"

Riko tilted her head to the side and considered. "Hmm, she's pretty similar to you, Anko: wider hips, more of an oval face, different features, but still more like you than like Mikoto. Are you sure?"

Anko shrugged. "He's less than likely to actually go for this. You've managed to get your hands on his book. What's your verdict?"

"Maa, she'll work."

Anko snorted at how Riko mocked the dog's language. That woman was going to get in such trouble someday.

"He ought to thank us. She fits the descriptions in the books. She's definitely curvy enough to be his type and she doesn't have the look of a complete fanatic about her. Is that why you picked her, Koto?"

The Uchiha nodded with a sly grin. "I felt like being kind off the bat. We have plenty of time to torment him properly later."

Anko smirked and shook her head. So much trouble just to pester a jounin… If he hadn't been so intent on playing hard to get, she would have left him alone years ago, but he insisted on being annoyingly resistant to her charms and that made him a prime target. It would have been easier just to get Kakashi drunk and to pick him off then, but he didn't drink most of the time. It was damn hard to get him to unless it was a special occasion. It was almost as if he suspected her or something…

She chuckled under her breath. Word got around quickly then. Wise of him considering just how many fangirls were out for his blood and other things if Riko's complaints were accurate. It was amazing how useful they could be if their special… talents… were used correctly. "Well, if that's everything, I'll go. I've got another fish to fry tonight." Just because Kakashi was retarded, it didn't mean that she was going to leave other options at the wayside.

"Which one?" Mikoto asked as Riko dropped out of the tree with a curious expression on her face.

"One of the translators," Anko said. "The one that works morning shift on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

Riko donned an approving smirk. Anko was glad that Riko could appreciate just how fine a specimen she had managed to wrangle on short notice. This brief lull between missions couldn't be wasted.

"Jealous?"

Mikoto snorted and rolled her eyes while Riko merely laughed and shook her head. "Ever gonna settle on one for more than two weeks?"

"Pfft, not for a bit. I've got tons of time to test the waters yet. None of them have complained."

"Why would they?" Riko laughed. "They know better."

"Really though, are you jealous?" Anko mocked her in a singsong tone, and Riko frowned slightly, genuine ire flickering across her face for a moment. It was hard to remember sometimes that Riko wasn't quite like the rest of them. She certainly acted like them most of the time, so it was always odd to watch everyone else shy away as though she had leprosy.

"Sometimes," she admitted, and Mikoto's expression flickered into sorrow for a moment.

Anko cringed at her double tactlessness. Mikoto had had everything—husband, clan, power—and had lost it. Anko had all but raked a kunai's edge over that tender scar.

"It's not all that important though. I've got enough to keep me busy. Have your fun."

Mikoto nodded her agreement, and Anko was grateful. Ibiki would make her wallow in guilt just by twisting some words if he found out about this. Best that he didn't ever hear of it. Interrogation was second nature to him, so the prospect was a bit difficult. He still had yet to let her live down the time she had barged into the written chuunin exam a little too early. What was two minutes? Ibiki was a finicky ass.

* * *

When Ero-Sennin got back, he didn't look very happy.

"Hurry, gaki. We haven't got much time. There are Akatsuki groups moving around Lightning Country right now. Get this Ni'i-san to agree or disagree and let's get out of here. Tsunade will have my hide if we get caught out here."

"I'm working on it." Naruto wrinkled his nose. The dirty old fart needed a bath. Had he been touring the sewers? "She doesn't trust me, so it's taking a long time to get her to realize I'm serious."

"Throw yourself off a cliff for her or something to prove your sincerity. Just hurry it up before rumour brings them here. It isn't every day that three Kumo ninja hang around Juujiro Village. People are talking, and tourists are taking those tales farther and farther…"

* * *

It turned out that word spread farther than anyone could have guessed. That or Akatsuki had more spies than even Jiraiya was comfortable with.

Fortunately, ANBU wasn't sleeping. Two days on foot from Juujiro, Snake pulled out a map and figured out where exactly in the chain of valleys creating the ancient pass they were headed. The knowledge puzzled her and she created a mizu bunshin to scout ahead. She found Jiraiya mulling over a certain passage of his manuscript in a bar. The knowledge of who travelled with the Toad Sage and just how he was connected with her targets did not settle her.

Disquiet drove her clone to breaking Jiraiya's cover to an extent. It was not a happy meeting. She hadn't really liked the older boy even before her mauling. Perhaps it was because something about a marriage union had jokingly been passed over her head. The remembrance still made her cringe forty years after the fact, mostly because her reaction had been humiliating. Those memories, for the most part, were mercifully gone. Just the taint remained.

"You're going to be in trouble," her clone told him the moment it sat down beside him and stonily ordered cognac from a list of foreign liquors. The bartender was pleased since her choice was expensive. A happy bartender was less likely to pay heed to any disturbances at her section of the counter.

"Oh no." Jiraiya groaned as his pencil scratched across the page. "It's you."

She stayed silent, awaiting his usual crappy excuses for his poor welcome.

"You always make writing difficult. Last time, you deliberately destroyed my papers in a swamp and your scars kept me from writing for three weeks."

"You are blunt." She buried wrath deep down at the salt over raw and ragged wounds. Time would never heal this bitterness; it would simply make it less immediate.

The bartender set her drink before her, all smiles, and she threw it back without regard for proper etiquette. She needed the buzz that distilled drink could still give her, though even it wouldn't make her happy.

He realized his blunder in the silence that followed. "Sorry," he said belatedly, the words sounding awkward.

Ninja didn't apologize. It was actually a rule to keep the courteous in the proper mindset. She appreciated that he had broken it, but didn't acknowledge it. The single word didn't stop the burning wrath in her chest cavity or erase the ragged, discoloured scars spanning skin that was beginning to sag with age and hard usage.

Uncomfortable silence reigned for a time as he waited for forgiveness that she didn't feel like giving him. "… You said trouble."

"I'm tracking an Akatsuki pair. They're a day from here."

"What!"

"A day and swiftly closing. I would recommend running."

The older ninja's lips pressed together in a strained line. "I can't yet. There's another one here. Naruto's trying to work a deal with her."

"Deals don't make the presence of Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame a non-issue."

"The kid needs another two days."

"Not possible. My orders are to step out of surveillance mode if Akatsuki threatens Konoha-nin or their allies with their presence. Should my targets arrive and you still be here, I will begin to subdue them in the most permanent manner at my disposal."

"That's stepping outside of orders," Jiraiya noted with a frown. "You want to kill them, don't you?"

"Hoshigaki is dead the moment he steps within a kilometre of the Uzumaki boy."

"He's skilled, Snaky. Are you sure you can handle him? He's water, and he's got an Uchiha genius guarding his back." He shut his trap the moment he saw her eyes. "Okay, fine, do it your way. I'll tell the kid he's got to arrange the meeting for tomorrow, rain or shine."

She nodded, paid for her drink, and headed far enough out of town that her dissolution didn't alert anyone to the presence of a water clone. Back at her post, she raised her eyes to the sky for a moment and prayed for rain.

* * *

Yugito knew very few truths about her kind. One was that she was both expendable and yet something to be protected. She, Yugito, wasn't a treasure for her nation. No, Nekomata, the demon, was the valuable one. She was constantly reminded that she was nothing special without Nibi. Without Nibi, she wouldn't have made chuunin. Without Nibi, she wouldn't have been promoted to jounin. No, Yugito the person was not special. Yugito the jinchuuriki was.

She knew vaguely that Hidden Cloud had other jinchuuriki. She knew only of them, not them in person. Meetings between demon hosts were not encouraged by the Raikage. Only a select group of Kumo-nin knew exactly who the jinchuuriki were. Containers were never among that number.

Yugito also knew for a fact that she would die in the hands of her own people. Nibi would keep her alive until another baby was selected to bear the monster in her place. It had been this way since Nibi had fallen into Kumo hands. Yugito had no illusions that this transfer would wait until her lifespan was nearing its end. She knew perfectly well from rumours that her predecessor had received Nibi from the previous container when that man had only been in his mid-twenties. He had proven incompetent one too many times, and Nibi had been inflicted upon her predecessor, who had been snuffed out at forty when Nekomata had been transferred to her. Such was the fate of all carriers.

Yugito was merely a mortal cage keeping the immortal demon on a short leash. With the threat of death, disease, and disability now chaining the great cat, Nibi was more willing to act in Hidden Cloud's best interest. She supposed that Death's cat was somewhat "domesticated" if compared to the other demons the Shodaime Hokage had recklessly handed out. Nibi knew its place and submitted to her control to a small degree when it felt like it. Oh, Nibi crafted escape schemes, but those that she encountered while dreaming had become increasingly farfetched over the years. It was as if the great cat merely planned to while away the long hours of Yugito's life until the next host to terrorize came along.

_You think too much._ The words burbled up through her subconscious and floated on her steady stream of surface thoughts. _Go find a mouse to play with._

'_Go lick yourself,_' she shot back. Being sadistic when dealing with the Sadist himself was something she had learned very quickly was a bad plan. Defensive jibes were a much better idea.

_What a good idea, kitten. Why don't you think about something useful for yourself as well, like a plan for truly meeting with fox face?_ There was such glee in Nekomata's tone that Yugito had no doubt that he was rejoicing in Kyuubi's fate.

'_There's no need,_' she shot back, feeling like she was tossing daggers back and forth like hot potatoes.

_Then get going, mortal._

'_It's not for another hour or so._'

_That was an hour or so ago, Blondie. You think too much and waste time. Get moving; or would you like to revisit the delicacies of stripping flesh from bones?_

'_One word, Furball: declawing._'

Tazuki and Hiro were out for the moment, attempting once again to dig up dirt on their elusive employer. They had ordered her to stay put while they scoped out the situation; their chances of finding anything were slim. Their job was to keep her in line with Kumo policies. If she was Nibi's leash, they were hers, or they were supposed to be. Realistically, she could make them into corpses to dance to her tune quite easily.

The thing was that they were acquaintances of hers that she knew from her extensive jinchuuriki training. They had coached her in managing aspects of Nibi's power. As such, they were best equipped to manage any traitorous behaviour, limited though their powers were. Their presence was another indication of her lack of trust. Praised as Nibi was, he was as heartless and without loyalty as he was sadistic.

A cat on a leash; what a strange image. What cat had ever accepted a leash? What fox for that matter? Maybe she and this elusive Brother had more in common than she had thought initially. She picked up her knives, slipping a stiletto blade into the wrapping around her hair and concealing several others in her clothing. He hadn't told her to come unarmed, but appearing as such might make him lower his guard, making him an easier target.

She didn't feel a lot of experience around him the way she could feel it around his companion. He was probably young, younger than she was by five years or so. As she slipped out the window of her hotel room, she dredged up what little she had managed to glean over the years about the other tailed beasts. Bijuu were a restricted subject, especially around her. Gossip was hard to stop though.

_There was a yellow one. He died._

For once, Nibi was useful for something other than intimidation and as a chakra bank. The yellow one had to be the one that they told stories about in Earth: the Yellow Flash. There, he was the bogeyman. In Fire, he had been their Hokage for a very short time, yet the most beloved of their four, five now. How long ago had he died?

_Fourteen winters_, Nibi spat at her, impatient to meet up with his nemesis.

Only fourteen? That couldn't be right… Uruhara-san had spoken in the manner of one much older, one wise in the horrors of the world. Then again, she had disconcerted her caretakers with her solemn manner at four. A year later, she had begun serious training and minor missions, Nibi slashing at her to get her moving in the right direction more often than not. Even then, the cat had known to make her need him. Jinchuuriki in Kumo learned the meaning of their status very young. Would Konoha really squander their fortuitous advantage by not doing the same? She doubted it. Uruhara must have been taking on C-rank missions by the time he had turned eight.

She dropped to the ground in the centre of the clearing he had indicated yesterday, absorbing the momentum of her fall by landing crouched on all fours. Her bound hair slipped over the smooth fabric of her wrap and twitched towards the ground, heeding gravity's call, before she jerked it away from the dirt with a flick of her head. She knew perfectly well how much like her cat she was. It had been encouraged. Maybe now she would finally see how much the fox had seeped into this man.

"Ohayo!" called a friendly voice with a lighter timbre than she was used to. She found him hanging from his knees from a branch, apparently still wearing a henge because no man of the age his features indicated would have had the desire to aggravate the beginnings of arthritis like that. "I'm really glad you showed up after all! I was worried I was going to have to leave town without talking to you again."

"You're leaving?" That was news to her. She had thought he was keeping their interaction off a time limit to keep her from feeling pressured. What had changed?

"Yeah, things are getting dangerous. You and your pals aren't all that subtle, you know. Akatsuki has noticed and they're coming here if they aren't here already. I wanted to see what you thought before I got going though. I put a lot of effort into this, too much to walk away from."

She watched the abused features—the obviously previously broken nose, the deep-set eyes, and the patchy lips—sway back and forth as the brown hair dangled. Languorously, she got to her feet, never taking her eyes off of his strange henge. Was this one the real one or another clone? She didn't know the answer to that. The easy way to tell would upset him.

"What rank are you?"

"Why does that matter?" he asked her with a small frown, twisting his body in an attempt to look at her right side up.

"Curiosity."

"Okay… I'm chuunin."

Only chuunin? So he was either unskilled or younger than she thought. She was leaning towards younger, but maybe she had overestimated him.

"I don't see why this is so difficult. I mean, I just want to be family. Why is it so hard to believe that?"

"Do you know what we are meant to do?"

"Balance each other out; keep the nations from becoming too out of sync." He shrugged, heaving himself into a crouch on his branch. "I don't see why being family would matter to that. It's got nothing to do with fighting each other or taking down bad guys; it's about having someone there for you when you need it. Me and my Brother, we didn't have that before, but we're gonna rely on each other now."

Definitely younger, the slang he was using now made it too obvious. Her doubts redoubled and faded. Maybe he was as naïve as he sounded. Maybe he did mean what he was saying. Why deceive her if he was so honest then?

_Fear, uncommon in Kyuubi, self-proclaimed lord of the bijuu. The brat comes into his status painfully._

Nekomata's input didn't quite clear the fog of confusion, but it was a guiding light. Hadn't this child already come into to his status? Hadn't he learned to harness the powers of his occupant to their fullest potential? He dared to offer her an alliance, one that would land her in hot water with the Raikage if he discovered it, when he was so little use?

Nibi hissed insults in the back of her mind, and she strove to shut him out. He was tainting her perception. With Nibi's mewling and yowling silenced at last, she rolled the other container's proposal over in her mind. It was laughably simple. He wanted to be friends. It was terrifying. She didn't think she had ever had a friend that was not out to find protection under the halo of her occupant's power and the status that granted her. He didn't need her and yet he offered anyway. It was strange. It wasn't something Nibi approved of.

That decided her.

"What should I call you? 'Brother' doesn't seem quite right and would bring unwanted attention."

He stared at her. "You agree?" he asked her with such surprise and glee in his tone that she almost cracked a smile despite the way Nekomata was attempting to shred the barrier with ghostly claws.

She kept her response to a simple slow blink, one that questioned his hearing. She was astonished beyond all measure when he pumped his arm in the air and started dancing around like a maniac.

"Awesome! Gaara's gonna eat crow!" A small cough from her brought him back to business. Still grinning widely enough to engulf a ship, he stepped closer and extended his hand. "Maybe we should swear in blood or something, but I think that this is good enough."

"I won't shake with an illusion."

He blinked, almost as if he had forgotten his deception, and the henge dissolved to reveal a young blonde with an obviously vulpine cast to his features.

"Yondaime Hokage?" she asked, staring at the face she recalled vaguely from her history textbooks with her brow furrowed. "I thought he died…"

"He did," the boy told her with a sad sort of smile. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, not Namikaze Minato."

"You are related."

He shrugged in response, extending his hand again, his blue eyes full of earnest goodwill.

"You're not a clone?"

He shook his head, the beginnings of impatience tingeing his expression. Solemnly, ignoring Nibi's yowls of protest, she extended her hand and did something she, Yugito the person, wanted to do to defy Yugito the jinchuuriki. His hand was not as delicate as hers; it was still a little smaller. Their calluses were similar though.

"Glad to have you with us, Ni'i Yugito."

"Who is the other I must heed?" she asked, worried that this Uzumaki was only a pawn to the other.

His expression contradicted this. "Gaara's in Wind Country. Shukaku's bugging the hell out of him, but this'll cheer him up. Oh, that reminds me, I need to write him about this."

He nicked his finger open, summoned a small green toad, and pulled out a scrap of paper. As he scribbled nonsense down, she knelt down and studied the toad, who returned her stare disinterestedly. This summoning skill was one she had seen before, but she hadn't thought that a jinchuuriki could use it. Their bijuu surely should have counteracted the contract. Apparently not. This deserved investigation in future. Maybe those cat stalkers could be good for something other than stinking up her apartment.

Now Uzumaki glanced at her almost nervously. "I need a bit of blood from you. Gaara's messengers, these sand constructs, they need blood for targeting the recipient."

Now she hesitated. Blood could be used as a focus for many things, especially for older jutsu styles that were quite nasty. She had always taken care to leave nothing of hers behind. Taking out a jinchuuriki with a long-distance jutsu would be the perfect way to counter the advantages given by the bijuu. He wanted her to break this code though…

Nibi screamed obscenities as he broke through her barrier, threatening to absorb her if she went through with this. Fury lending her will, she struggled against his influence and slit the tip of her finger. She pressed it against the paper, letting the blood seep into it until a large spot covered the bottom corner. Uzumaki nodded with that grin of his and carefully rolled up the message, taking care to hide her blood before handing it off to the toad, which disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

"If I were you, I'd skedaddle. There's an Uchiha and his shark partner heading this way and another group coming from the other direction. Maybe you could fight them, maybe not. Me and the old man are heading out though. We're not supposed to run into… Oh shit."

She smelled smoke.

* * *

How had it come to this again? First, they had quietly been settled in a simple shop, sipping tea and nibbling on dango. Snake had almost dared to stop breaking her remaining teeth. Then a pair of Kumo-nin had spotted them and their slashed forehead protectors. Kumo was going to be furious. Snake hoped that she didn't get blamed. The Godaime had said nothing about protecting worthless Kumo ninja. Unfortunately, that fight had gotten them going and Jiraiya had had the most unfortunate timing, stumbling out of a bar with his damn book under his arm. Things had gotten increasingly ugly from that point and Snake definitely knew ugly when she saw it.

Snake dropped to the ground and drew her ninjatou. "Go," she rasped, glaring at Jiraiya over her shoulder as Kisame and the slight Uchiha approached rapidly.

"What about you?"

"You cannot die here. You were assigned to guard the fox boy. Keep him safe. This is my mission. Do not interfere."

"I could leave you a clone—"

"Fuck off, toad. They're mine, and who's to say your clone would survive the first five seconds?"

"Ugly and without sense," he grumbled, but he cracked a grin when she flipped him the bird, and he did as she bid.

She watched death come. One hand involuntarily released her ninjatou to finger the puckered scar marring her throat.

The sword that had caused that destruction arced towards her. She rolled her eyes and darted out of range. How had this fool managed to become so feared if he charged and swung like a deranged monkey? Where was the stealth, the elegance, the cunning? Was there only raw power and clumsiness? Was this what had beaten her before? Her lip curled, and she launched herself up into the branches to counter Itachi's fireball with a watery bullet.

She barely managed to get her blade up in time to block Samehada.

She loved suffocating her opponents simply because of the ease she could achieve this. She would watch them go down and then slit their throats the moment they were so weak from lack of oxygen that they couldn't resist the blade the exact same way she had been so incapable of. Pain shared was supposed to be pain halved, but inflicting her suffering upon her victims hardly ever kept the dreams at bay. It satisfied some void inside her enough that she kept at it. She didn't deviate from this love now, not when it would save her skin.

After disengaging from Samehada with a chakra-assisted push, she slipped through several handseals. Chakra couldn't understand how much she wanted to watch that blue face go black with lack of air. Chakra only understood that she wanted earth and it gave it to her, spraying it towards Kisame's hated face.

Holding the _mi_ seal, she sent the mud towards his nostrils and his open mouth, aiming it towards the unintended and easily exploitable weakness of the epiglottis. Attempting to suck air that the expansion of his ribs and diaphragm couldn't create a vacuum for, he went so far as to drop his sword and claw at his throat. Her breathing sped up and something inside her twisted with joy, the closest to sexual high she had ever come. She relished his panic until the impact of her stupid sadism took her.

Kisame dissolved, and Samehada sent her flying.

Pain was such an undignified thing because it made even the stiffest spines bend. She hit the dirt, her back shattered beyond recognition. She couldn't feel her legs, and her ribcage was reporting that it had been severely mashed. Such stupidity! Using that scraper like a baseball bat shouldn't have been allowed, but good ninja used whatever worked.

Struggling to master her agony, she shaped doton chakra as they stupidly sauntered towards her. They should have gone for the kill the moment she had touched the earth. She would make them pay for that stupidity dearly. Earth wrapped around her shattered back and stemmed the blood flowing away from her with her chances of winning. She wouldn't lose here; she didn't know how. Ribbons of dirt formed thick braces for her legs and manipulated the nerve-dead appendages into supporting her weight as Itachi approached.

"As expected of a member of Konoha's ANBU forces," he said as she worked past the dizziness and raised her blade again. "Even beaten you fight on."

"Whelp, I don't let other people win."

She manipulated the doton braces so she met the wall of water speeding towards her head-on. Forcing chakra into her feet with any sort of accuracy was impossible with no live nerve endings down there, so she flipped onto her hands and pushed out of the way. Landing in the tree on dead limbs was beyond difficult, and she collapsed painfully against the trunk as Kisame's flood lapped the lowest branches.

Damned gilled bastard. Slitting his throat was impossible now. That tattered dream's death stung. Still, there was more than one way to kill a fish. Cutting its head off was the most satisfying way, but stabbing it through the middle or clubbing it to leave it to drown in air worked just as well.

Suiton was second nature to her, and Kisame's flood only gave her more to work with. As far as information went, she had a clear advantage. She knew them. She had observed Itachi fight before, and she had information on Kisame's tricks. This flood was hardly original, though its scope was impressive.

Gagging, she forced more earth past her lips, letting it run between her mask and her chin before dribbling into the flood below, where it dissolved, the particulate spreading and making the waters murky. The grit coating her teeth made a horrible noise in her skull. Swirling spit over her tongue to gather up the last of the dirt coating her mouth, she pushed the disgusting slime over the bleeding cracks in her lips even as she extended her awareness through the dirt scattered through the rising water. Kisame was there somewhere. If she could find him… there. How did you drown a not fish? By forcing it to learn to breathe water of course.

The dirt converged on him, disobeying the principle of diffusion only because of her energy offering. Assembling with beguiling slowness, a snake formed around him and dragged him farther under than he had intended to go, anchoring him far below the surface. Her snake bound him and forbade him the use of Shunshin or Kawarimi. Slowly, slowly, she dragged scraps of life from him as his struggles increased. She wrapped the tail around his throat through the horrible throb of pain and the dizziness blood loss was beginning to inflict upon her.

Doton beat Suiton.

However, her tunnel vision blinded her once again. She forgot about the one that used water, fire, and the devil's eyes.

Her control over her lethal jutsu was broken when the flesh of her lower back reported that it was on fire. Now, it had been reporting something similar ever since Samehada had ripped it open, but this fire was different. This was _fire_.

Biting back a hiss and turning it into a hacking cough that caused her even more pain, she pulled fresh chakra from her rapidly dwindling reserves. Her ninjatou batted away the kunai intent on impaling her even as one hand and a doton brace pushed her out of her perch. She swore filthily when Kisame broke the water's surface with a toothy grin. _Failed! Lost! Too much to bear!_

Itachi was in front of her, his stare tinged with the red she knew only too well to fear.

"Broken corpses, he left," she whispered, snippets of a song hauling the Uchiha bodies had inspired in her. The song hardly encouraged glorious feelings or melancholy; it merely told of war's wasted ones, the garbage not quite strong or aware enough to survive. "Parents lied, tried, and died. Children sprawled in their wake, felled by Death's scythe for crimes that had yet to stain their shrouds alongside their life's worth. We carry them in sheets that hold no honour, the same as our hands, to the fires where they will all burn to ashes and bones, to be returned to the earth."

His response was a furious Goukakyuu that obviously intended the same fate for her, but she wielded earth. The remnants of the snake, now useless since Kisame was racing across the water's surface towards her, flowed rapidly through the water and created a muddy barrier, only to be baked hard by the torrential heat.

As Akatsuki converged on her barrier, the earthen slabs exploded into diamond-hard fragments, slicing their surroundings and the ninja too slow to get out of range, namely the one she intended to turn into sushi. Itachi, as always, was too quick to score much of a hit on. He was also too fast to escape when he wasn't feeling merciful.

She blinked and refused to look in his eyes when he appeared in front of her, but a single gesture with his fingers caught her in a less exotic genjutsu. The wolfling had warned her, so she would not make his mistake. She could handle less potent genjutsu. Snakes and dreams went hand in hand. She was an unknown to him, so it was unlikely he would be able to trigger her weakness. This total anonymity was the reason she had requested that her entire identity disappear.

He tried tormenting her with guilt, but only humanity felt that.

He tried to burn Konoha around her, but she cared nothing for the village.

He murdered countless villagers, but she had killed many humans. One was hardly all that different from another, be it the wolfling, her kohai, or the two living Hokage.

He tried torment—probably having heard some of the gossip that had once made her larger than life to people who were long dead—but his idea fell far short of her living memories.

However, there was enough resonance that the mizu bunshin shuddered and dissolved. Maybe it was also because one of Kisame's sharks was adding insult to injury as she crouched on what had once been the forest floor, augmenting what little air she had in her lungs with chakra as she tried to counter the shark attack.

As a rock impaled the shark, a watery whip latched onto a tree branch and yanked her battered frame out of the way of Itachi's merciless suiton strike, Suigadan.

Propelling her useless form with suiton lines and willpower alone as her doton patches began to dissolve, she tried to find a position she could retaliate from, but the water level was dropping, attempting to strand her now that her mobility was entirely dependant upon suiton. Dragging her body through the shallows of what had once been a forest and was now a muddy mess of a swamp, she struggled for every breath. Earth would have to save her.

She allowed the ground to suck her under and moved her body into a waterlogged nest of roots. An air vent went unnoticed among the gnarled tangle of exposed roots. Feeling relatively safe for the first time in a very long time, she wondered if she had won something by buying the time the damn Yondaime's brat needed to escape. She didn't know why he needed to live instead of her. Why was his life worth more than hers? She figured it was because he understood what she could not. According to the wolfling and the Hokage, he understood the Will of Fire. The concept was stupid and outdated, but her opinions didn't seem to matter.

Her brief moment of safety ended when unnatural heat reached her through the cold muck. Understanding come too late made her eyes widen behind the flimsy protection of porcelain. Fire baked the air hole's sides, and terror paralyzed what little of her body was still mobile when a horrible twinge of exhaustion running through her system informed her that her reserves were done. All the chakra would have to come from her pathetic vitality, which was waning swiftly now that the blood was beginning to escape her again.

Her lungs were filling with something because she could _feel_ the sensation of suffocation, and the fire's brilliance only made the spots dancing through her vision more obvious. She couldn't move. She couldn't escape. Snarling internally with bestial terror and rage, she pushed herself deeper into the tangle of roots with only the strength of her scarred arms.

It wasn't enough. A watery whip, one she was certain that the damn monkey had "acquired" from her, burst from her air vent and unerringly wrapped around her throat.

Memories of all the times she had used this exact move on the dead raced through her head as she was yanked forward with enough force that her neck would have snapped upon colliding with the muddy walls of her warren had a huge suiton blast, Suigadan again, not torn them apart in front of her eyes. Her broken body was dragged through the thinning mire and walloped against the spongy ground hard enough to make her undamaged front hurt as much as the ripped open back. Winded, she wheezed desperately as feet approached.

"You never trusted me, did you?" murmured Itachi, his feet in front of her face. "Even when we were in ANBU together, you never stopped watching me."

"Danzou was too interested in you," she managed to hack out. "I never liked him. He was never a good sport about losing. Sore losers like sticking together to complain about games they should have won."

"War is never a game."

"War is always a game," she corrected him, spitting some phlegm mixed with blood on his stupid painted toenails. "The greatest game of all is one where you bet your life. Emerging victorious is the sweetest rush…"

"You sicken me." He sighed, crouching down in front of her as her vision went black around the edges. He paused for a long moment before slipping something into her glove. It was papery; she could tell from the texture of the surface touching her wrist.

His hand reached out, pulled her cowl away, and untied her mask. He moved it away a little so that it would reveal her identity even if her body were too mangled to make out. She forced back terror and forcibly resigned herself to whatever fate he or Kisame dished out, Thanatos at its peak. Her face bare to the gentle May breeze, she met his cool stare.

"Snake, what is your name?"

"Beniha."

What point was there in keeping it secret? He would never know if she had lied or not, and she was bare seconds away from her end. Her name had been lost years and years ago. She hadn't used it since she had joined the black ops. Since her stint in enemy hands, it hadn't seemed to fit anymore. It was good to dig it out of dusty halls in her mind to utter one last time. She wanted to run, to scramble away and live, but there was no strength left in her.

"Can you keep that safe for me, Beniha-san?" he mouthed as his partner approached. She stared. What on earth was he doing? "The Hokage and the Uchiha will want to see that."

She blinked at him and killed the flinch that threatened to shake her when she saw the shadow of Kisame's blade as it arced towards her skull. She would not scream! She would not beg for mercy. Mercy was for losers. Her last thought was full of disappointment.

She had lost.

A guttural, broken scream was abruptly cut off with a sickening crunch.


	57. Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Page Bearing the Standard

"Snake-28 is dead," Tiger reported. Tsunade stared at him, aghast. "Rooster-7 found her remains four days ago. Her skull was crushed beyond recognition, but her mask was intact. He found this on her person."

Tiger set a note that reeked of death on her desk as Tsunade struggled to comprehend how one of her top agents was no longer alive. She had only been in her early fifties, one of the few that remained from around Tsunade's age bracket. More faces she had known now gone. ANBU gave no mercy and received none in return. Tsunade shook those numb thoughts away. At least the woman would have some peace now.

The Godaime smoothed her face and unfolded the note, only to scowl and slam it flat beneath her hand. "Bring Sarutobi-sensei here." The old geezer had some explaining to do. If this reached the ears of the wrong people…

"Tsunade-sama, Tora-san said that you might need my assistance," called Shizune hesitantly as she knocked.

"Yes. Go find Snake-28's will and any related documents."

Her subordinate ran off. In the meantime, Tsunade filled out the appropriate forms to requisition the funds necessary to see to Snake's burial.

"Here they are," Shizune said as she slipped into the office a few moments later. "They're rather odd…"

"Let's see." She glanced over the will and frowned in puzzlement. Snake's sole heir surprised the Hokage. They had never gotten along, but there it was. "What agreement is she referring to in section four?"

"This one," Shizune explained as she handed over a document marked with the Yondaime's seal and signature. Tsunade's brows rose as she scanned the particulars. Now this was very, very interesting.

"Call him in, would you? He's still in town, right?"

"He is."

"Good. I want to settle this right now."

How on earth had this become so complicated?

* * *

Kakashi grimaced as he strolled behind the Godaime in the securest wing of the hospital. He hated this place. The walls were thick concrete, the only light was from banks of fluorescents, and the air was stale. Prisoners and ANBU agents alike recovered in these stifling halls. He had been put here times beyond count and had despised every second of it. These rooms were lifeless. He wouldn't have come here at all, but Godaime-sama had summoned him and had instructed him to follow her here. She was worried. He could smell anxious sweat about her. Something had gone wrong.

"Snake is dead," Tsunade said.

That made Kakashi start. Snake couldn't be dead. She was too much of a stubborn old bitch to die. If the Hokage said so though… But why was she telling him and why the heck did this concern him specifically? ANBU agents died all the time.

"Kisame finished her off. Her remains will be interred tomorrow." The Godaime stopped before room thirty-six and pulled out a key. "I've called you because you were mentioned in her will. She has no functioning family remaining, so she left everything she had to you."

Now that shocked him. Snake had never liked him; the sentiment had been mutual. Why on earth…? What did Tsunade mean when she said "functioning family"? The door opened, and he got his answer.

"Washi-san," Tsunade said as she approached the washed-out man in the wheelchair, "your niece has fallen."

The man didn't even blink.

"I know you took your dosage today, so there's no point in pretending to be in a stupor." Kakashi watched the Hokage as the silence stretched on. The clenching of her fists and the angry twitch of her eyebrow gave him more than enough reason to casually slide a few feet away from her.

"Beniha-chan…" Washi whispered at last, turning to stare at them with strangely translucent seeming green eyes. So, that was Snake's name. It didn't suit her; too gentle and soft sounding to fit the battered and brutal agent Kakashi had known. "She died years ago…"

"No," the Hokage corrected him, "she survived the interrogation and managed to break you out and got you back to Konoha despite her injuries. She was promoted to jounin for that."

"It was my fault," the man said, going back to staring up at the small window near the ceiling, barred and grilled though it was. "It was my fault they caught us. It was my fault she died. Poor Beniha-chan…" Kakashi's discomfort grew a hundredfold when the man started sobbing. "They did such horrible things to her. Night and day, I could hear her screaming, begging, and crying and…! I could have made it all stop. If I had told them…"

"You acted in Konoha's best interest," Tsunade told him sternly. "You performed your duty as a jounin."

"What of my duty as an uncle?" the man growled, his palms slamming down on the armrests of his wheelchair. "That was my _niece_ they were mutilating there! My sister's daughter, the one I was supposed to raise when her parents died. I kept my mouth shut, and she died! That… thing… you call my niece wasn't her. That cold piece of work was never my niece. That was the demon that they shoved into her body to take her place when they pulled her out to beat her to a pulp!" He was shouting by the end, spittle flying from his lips and his eyes wild with rage and self-hatred. "No, my niece has been dead for years. That snake creature is better off dead."

Tsunade glared at him as he subsided back into stillness and blank sorrow. "Despite how you feel, Beniha made provisions for your future. She signed a deal with the Yondaime that you would be cared for by Konoha long past the term that had originally been allotted to you in the face of your disabilities. Konoha will make provisions for whatever future you choose despite your niece's death until you pass from this world. Apparently, she was aware of how you felt about who she had become because she otherwise left you out of her will. Her sole devisee is Hatake Kakashi, the one the Yondaime charged her to watch out for in return for your future."

So, this was the reason for her surveillance. He had no doubt that she had eased things for him from a distance as well. How else had he escaped the ire of the ANBU commander during his attempts to acquire the Mangekyou Sharingan? She must have pulled strings for him, vouched for him, and covered for him when the efforts of the others hadn't been enough.

That broken old man stared at him, knowing who he was despite the lack of introduction. It was like being blasted by cold water. "So, she left it all to you. Rubble for the ghost Hatake. How fitting: the rubble of the last of one line to the last of another. What is Konoha coming to when its clans are so quickly rendered extinct? When I was a young man, clan lines were ensured with marriages at young ages. That custom has petered out. Look at what has happened: the Kakuho line ended the moment Beniha-chan died, the Hatake clan is down to one member with a broken heirloom and a fixed bachelor status, and the Senju line…" The man barked a laugh and almost leered at Tsunade. "The Senju line ended the moment that young Dan died, didn't it?"

He snickered in the face of Tsunade's glare. Kakashi had to say he wouldn't have minded if the Hokage had snapped and had punched this ancient windbag through the wall at this point. "And then there was the Uchiha clan, hmm? What happened to them? Down to two useful heirs from what I've heard the nurses gossiping about; that cannot be good."

"What do you know of the Uchiha clan?" Tsunade asked. Kakashi had the oddest feeling that this was where she had wanted the conversation to go.

"Only what gossip I collected. None of it has been good over the last twenty years."

"And what of Beniha?"

Now the old man's gaze became guarded and almost crafty. "Beniha died long before the Uchiha clan was massacred."

"What of Snake then? What did she tell you?"

"She didn't come often because she knew that I didn't like her." Tsunade continued to glare at him until he squirmed in his chair. "She had suspicions…"

"Suspicions."

"Yes, suspicions. The Snake woman didn't trust Konoha's heads any further than she trusted an enemy nukenin."

"You're saying she believed in a conspiracy theory."

"She always was going on about conspiracies and plots. She thrived off of them. She would mutter away about them to me when I wouldn't talk to her. I think it reassured her to hear her own voice during those visits. There was one time she was quiet though. It was about five years ago. A woman came with her and stood outside the door while she talked to me. She was beautiful, I suppose—young, stern, pregnant, with black hair and dark eyes, if I remember correctly. She had the look of an Uchiha. She was older than the ghost Hatake though."

"Uchiha Mikoto?"

"Maybe. I cannot be sure. I have not left this room in a very long time, and Snake didn't introduce her."

"Ryuuka would have been born around the time specified," Kakashi said.

The Hokage nodded. She looked almost worried. "Did Snake ever say if she had spoken of her concerns with an Uchiha?" Tsunade asked in the most serious tone Kakashi had ever heard from her, looking every inch a Hokage in this moment.

"No, Hokage-sama, she didn't," Washi admitted quietly.

"Thank you, Washi-san. You have been most helpful."

He inclined his head in the nearest approximation to a bow he could manage in his disabled state as the Hokage made her way out the door.

Kakashi dogged her heels, the gears in his head working rapidly. Snake must have known something—something important, something dangerous, and something that Uchiha Mikoto shouldn't have known. Considering what had been said in front of him, it didn't take long to come up with a plausible theory. He didn't dare to ask though, not when Tsunade looked ready to belt the next annoyance into the next millennium.

"Damn," she growled quietly just before they passed out the concealed door back into the main hospital. She didn't dismiss him on the way back to Admin, so he reluctantly stayed with her.

For a moment, he thought she would put her fist through a tree on the roadside, but instead she set her hand upon the trunk before moving on. "Kakashi, what do you know about the Uchiha massacre?"

He blinked before he walked at her side as she indicated. "I was out of the village when it occurred."

"ANBU mission."

"Yes." He had admitted that all his knowledge was from potentially doctored reports and gossip. "It was said that Uchiha Itachi waited until twilight before making his move. He killed more than one hundred people, some extremely competent ninja, within the space of an hour and a half. From the oldest grandfather to the youngest child, he killed them all wherever they stood. He left his father for last according to autopsy reports. Speculation insists that he lay in wait for his mother and his younger brother for a time before ANBU reinforcements arrived and routed him to an extent."

"And what happened to the original ANBU watch?"

Now Kakashi truly hesitated. "I don't know."

He could have sworn that the Hokage muttered, "I don't either," under her breath. It wasn't reassuring in the least. "Go see Kotetsu when you find the time. He's handling the matter of Snake's legacy to you. For all I know, it could all be debts." From Kakashi's experience with Snake, he didn't doubt it. "You'll need to clean out her clan home if you intend to sell it. Kotetsu should be able to get you the keys."

* * *

Uchiha Mikoto seemed the perfect mourning mother, sorrow written in the beginnings of wrinkles and Ryuuka clasped in her arms, propped against her shoulder. The girl wore a peaceful expression in slumber that didn't match her mother's pain at the loss of her old ANBU captain. Tsunade, standing beside the ANBU commander, wondered if Mikoto's voluntary attendance at this unpopular funeral meant something.

"What would you do with a potential traitor?" she asked Dragon-1 as they walked to Admin.

"I'd have had Snake kill him the moment it could be done without suspicion. Staying the hand on potential innocence can be suicidal."

"Yet Kabuto still walks."

Dragon shrugged. "Sandaime-sama stayed our hand for too long. He wanted proof. Danzou and the Elders protested, but ANBU belongs to the Hokage."

Tsunade stayed silent as she led the way to her office, Jaguar and Tiger's squads keeping the floor clear. A headache waited within: two elders, the Sandaime, and Danzou.

"Why haven't you taken her into custody?" asked Koharu. "We know she is unstable, and now we have proof of a motive that could lead her to threaten Konoha. Uchiha are known for their vengeful tendencies."

"Uchiha Mikoto has yet to prove herself a threat," the geezer said. "She brought us warning—!"

"To keep her children safe! Who's to say the village factored into that decision?"

"She's a wild card," Homura said. "She should be—!"

"Enough!" Tsunade's desk crunched under the force of her fist. "You worry about the loyalty of an Uchiha when Snake was definitely a danger?"

"We held Washi-san. Her insubordination and threat to Konoha was within reasonable levels because of that," Dragon-1 said.

She glanced at the Sandaime for confirmation, who looked rather uncomfortable. "She was too dangerous to be released from duty."

"We often make our own monsters," Fuu-sensei said as Tiger admitted him.

Tsunade gestured that he sit as the four elders shuffled. "Dragon, hold back your best agents. Fuu, how is Dog-12's progress? I want him on this mission."

The doctor shrugged. "The mind scars like the body, but there is no medical jutsu to make those scars fade. However, it should be safe enough to test the scar tissue."

"Good. His experience in Earth will be essential. We've waited long enough."

* * *

"How did he rope all of us into this again?" Sakura complained as she carried a load of boxes up to the door of the traditional clan home that apparently belonged to her sensei now.

"Because he's a cunning brat," Riko-san said as she set down her own load of boxes and rifled through her pockets for keys.

"Isn't he almost as old as you?" Sasuke asked as he carted mops, buckets, and other cleaning supplies up the walkway. "How do you figure you can call him a brat?"

"I have a year and several months on him. I am well within my rights to treat him just as I would treat Itsuki. If Itsuki managed to manipulate me into this, I would definitely call him a brat and then I would swipe his legs out from under him. Unfortunately, your sensei doesn't feel like letting me acquaint his ass with the ground, so I have to content myself with maligning his name. Besides, only a childish sort of person would dare recruit all of those associated with him to clean up his inheritance while he is out on a mission."

"Hear, hear," Sakura said as she glanced around the yard.

This place looked as though it had been completely abandoned for a couple decades. She couldn't believe that the woman that had lived in this house had only died a few short weeks ago.

Weeds had conquered all of the old gardens and were well on their way to choking a couple trees. Leaves littered the grounds, several layers deep. Sakura had no doubt that they hadn't been raked in twenty years since the smell of rotting foliage was thick in the air.

The windows were grimy, and cobwebs had taken up residence in every space undisturbed by the wind. The rocks that made up the path to the door were being forced apart and into mountains by the progress of tree roots and grasses that were taking up residence in the cracks. The roof looked partially watertight at best, and Sakura had no doubt that the eaves troughs didn't work anymore if they were as choked with leaves as the rest of the grounds were.

The rain barrel that was supposed to feed the pond looked as though algae had attempted to redecorate it. Sakura didn't doubt that the pipe had been blocked for at least fifteen years if the leaf-covered divot surrounded by mossy boulders had been the pond at one point. Those poor koi must have drowned in those sludgy waters…

"Kakashi can't seriously think we're going to manage to clean all of this up in the two-day break he has between missions," Sasuke said, aghast.

"Your sensei was never someone I considered serious or especially sane," Riko said as she finally got the key to turn in the lock. "Closer contact with him has only confirmed my original estimation."

Even the door was discouraging. The cracked and peeling coat it wore was faded and grimy at best. Sakura stifled snickers as Riko continued to hiss demeaning things about Kaka-sensei as she shoved the door open with some difficulty. From the way that Sasuke had to drop his burdens to help Naruto's sister manage, Sakura doubted that this portal had been used at all in a very long time.

"Is Asuma-sensei or Kurenai-sensei going to show up to help?" asked Sakura plaintively the moment she saw the state of the interior.

"I don't think so," Nariko said, sounding just as daunted. "They both have more sense. Yuugao might come, but Gai-san and his team are out, though he did say he would make it back in time or suffer the indignity of carrying your sensei around for the next month to make up for being an unhelpful rival. Sasuke, what about your mother?"

"She waved off the moment she heard that this house belonged to Kakuho Beniha. She did tell me to warn you all about the traps that probably are still lying around. Kaasan said that she was very, very paranoid."

He was proven right when kunai flew out of the depths of the hallway straight at them. Sasuke shoved Riko aside and ducked under the assault instinctively. Sakura watched the kunai vibrate to dissipate unrealized momentum when they managed to impact dead centre in a tree knot. Apparently, Kakuho-san had liked being precise whenever possible.

"Riko, maybe you should stay out here and wait for us to deactivate any traps," Sasuke said with feigned casualness as he eyed the dark hallway.

The woman dusted off her pants and nodded. "Ever the intelligent shinobi, Spry Hawk. Feel free to do your thing while I wait out here. I'll maim your sensei when he shows up, if he shows up at all."

Sakura nodded, set aside the last of her burdens, and drew a kunai to better deflect anything that came her way. Sasuke pulled out the kodachi his mother had given him and activated his eyes as he stepped into the gloom. Out of habit if nothing else, she moved forward to take up her usual stance by his left side. Her eyes roamed over every nook and cranny, searching for any sign of traps. The stale air carried the scents of mouldy curtains and mildew. She fought back a sneeze as their soft passage stirred up dust in the corridor. Who would ever want to live here? Maybe Kakuho-san hadn't actually lived here…

"Who was Kakuho-san?" Sakura called to Riko and Sasuke.

"She was an ANBU agent," Riko-san called back. "She died recently at Hoshigaki Kisame's hands. She battled him and Itachi to allow Naruto and Jiraiya a chance to escape the area."

Beside her, Sasuke tensed. Sakura touched his elbow, drawing him out of the memories. He couldn't afford to let his mind wander now, not when his eyes were the ones that would catch the traps in this poor light. He shook his head, dispelling the fragments of the past, and nodded thanks to her. She smiled brightly at him, silently telling him that it was fine.

"She was Snake-28," Sasuke said. "Mother knew her. She was Mother's ANBU captain before she became a senior solo agent. She was brutal and without mercy. She was the one they sent after traitors in special cases. More often, she took on any sort of assassination or surveillance missions according to Kaasan. She didn't spend a lot of time in the village."

Sakura shivered. This woman didn't sound much like a human at all, only a killing machine.

"Be very careful," Riko-san called, having caught some of what Sasuke had said.

"We're always careful," Sakura called back as she dismantled trip wires while Sasuke handled the more complex mechanism that was hooked up to several wicked looking blades on a pivot that would allow them to cleave through the skull of a passer-by. As he started pulling the blades off the well-oiled rod that served as the axle, she hacked through several exploding tags attached to pressure sensitive boards on the floor. With the careful arrangement of lines disrupted, they were rendered useless, allowing her to disable the trigger boards.

For the next hour, they combed the house. There were several close calls: Sakura nearly lost her fingers to a guillotine-like structure set up in the kitchen. Sasuke nearly got doused with oil when he pulled a string they had both thought would open the curtains to let in some badly needed light.

One door was sealed shut beyond their ability to break open. It would have to wait until Kaka-sensei showed up. Attempting to touch the door resulted in every nerve screaming. Riko had needed a lot of reassurance after Sakura had accidentally brushed the casing with her fingers.

After running through the house three more times just to be sure, Sakura went to grab some boxes, and Riko cautiously followed in her wake. "I guess this is what happens every time I get a funeral request," the woman said, indicating this entire cleanout operation with her hand the moment she set down her burdens in the living room. "I never used to think about what happened to their homes and their belongings."

Sakura nodded, a little anxious. Who would comb her home for keepsakes or garage sale items if she went down?

"I don't know what we can do in a day," Riko continued, looking a little overwhelmed. "This place is falling apart."

"Hardly," Kaka-sensei said from where he was suddenly leaning casually against the wall, reading his porn as usual. "It just looks that way. Snake wouldn't have stayed here if it hadn't been up to her standards. Appearances are always important."

"So it's just surface damage?" asked Sakura. "The structure is actually sound?"

"What do you think?"

Sasuke appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. "There's a door that we can't open." He jerked his head in the general direction of the room. "The windows aren't usable as an entryway either. The door is sealed with a complex pattern."

Kakashi gestured that someone lead the way, so Sakura stepped forward, leaving Riko and Sasuke to figure out what to do with the broken junk in the living room. She described the effects of the seal as they ascended the squeaky stairs. The door in question was hardly distinguishable from the rest of the upstairs hall: just as grimy, just as worn, with just as much paint flaking off of it.

Her sensei must have seen something else though because he traced what she had thought were signs of mildew above the surface of the door. "She must have had someone do this for her. This pattern is an original; see the marks there and there?"

She nodded as she squinted at the points he had gestured at.

"Those are something of a signature. They're not integral to the design, but they lock it to tampering from anyone but the creator."

"Do you know whose mark it is?"

"Maa, that would be telling." He chuckled as he slit the tip of his finger and began drawing characters on the walls around the door, taking care not to touch the casing or the treacherous wood.

What she had thought would be a three-minute process stretched on for nearly an hour. While she waited, she crouched against the opposite wall, watching him work in a daze. The seal must have been incredibly complex for him to need to draw so many lines to counter each of its functions and firewalls. At last, he stood back and ran through a series of handseals. His design went from red to rusty brown and began to slither across the wall towards the faint design on the door. When they clashed, the enemy lines dissolved into smoke, clearing the door one section at a time. Despite the evidence before her, she held her breath when he reached out to slide the door out of the way. He didn't scream, but he didn't make any progress either.

"What is it now?"

"The door is locked," he said cheerfully after a tense pause. He crouched down in front of the lock and began expertly manipulating the tumblers. The click was audible, but the door still refused to budge. Grumbling a little, her sensei tested the resistance. "A combination lock on the inside. It's like shedding skin with her. The moment one layer is off, the next begins to peel away. Remember that; it's a useful strategy for guarding things: traps within traps, locks within locks. That's how jounin think." He was explaining things again. Worry made her question him. "Insider knowledge about your next couple assignments and potential enemies."

That didn't reassure her.

Since the edge of the door was inset within the frame to prevent even a slip of paper from finding its way in, how to counter the combo lock stumped her. Slight changes in her sensei's chakra alerted her to his use of ninjutsu. Of course! Lightning beat earth, and the metal of the lock was earth. There was a slight thud as the lock hit the floor. At least they wouldn't have to replace the door. She had worried that he would make her blast a hole in it with a fist. Shooting her a cheeky eye-smile over his shoulder, he tried the door again. It wriggled, but it didn't slide freely.

"Wedges," he grumbled, moving a couple of feet to the right and kneeling. With a finger of lightning, he drilled a hole in the wall that could be easily plastered over later. Shoving the door all the way shut again, he manipulated the wooden wedge out of the track with a senbon after using more raiton chakra to slice through the screw holding it in place. Now the door slid open about ten centimetres before it jolted to a halt. Another slice with raiton chakra, another thud as another wooden wedge fell from the top of the track. The door now slid open twenty centimetres before it hit the next obstruction. Another hole in the wall, another screw bisected, and another block removed.

Now the door slid peacefully aside, letting muted daylight into the hall. Red muslin curtains were partially open, letting in enough light to make Sakura squint after the gloom. She wasn't quite blinded enough that she didn't notice what her sensei did.

Sakura stared around Kakashi's form, wondering what had made him freeze. When she finally did see, she couldn't stop the gasp.

As ugly as the rest of the mansion was, this room was beautiful in its artistry. It was a living memory, a scrapbook on a much larger scale than Sakura had ever seen. No wall could be seen.

Pictures, hundreds of them, plastered the walls. All of them were of people. Some of them were ringed with notes written in an unsteady hand, short remarks by this Kakuho-san about who she thought the people were and why the photo had been taken. Bits of tickets to old shows, pay stubs from restaurants faded in the light from a heavily barred window, and old menus were tacked up alongside pages ripped out of books on various topics from gardening to the proper way to establish a memory block with genjutsu.

All around the window, scraps of fabric had been nailed or pinned to the wall with kunai or senbon. Sheet music and an old koto were piled carefully in the corner where they couldn't be seen from the window. Clothes, clean and neatly folded, created a rainbow of silks and satins against another wall. None of them looked as though they had been touched in years.

This was a room dedicated to memory: a haven for one who couldn't rely upon her mind to keep these remembrances for her anymore.

"Alzheimer's?" Sakura asked, glancing at her sensei.

"Too many concussions," he said, staring at the only dark and morbid part of the room. A spare poison-green-marked ANBU mask was meticulously arranged on top of a carefully folded uniform and armour. Several other black articles of clothing and some wigs were piled nearby and a dark red futon was folded up in the open closet with a black journal lying on top. "One too many head wounds."

* * *

When his student disappeared to help Sasuke and Nariko clean up the living room, Kakashi finally walked towards the picture he had spotted very early on. He knew those people, though he had few enough photos of them. His mother grinned broadly at the camera, arrayed in the traditional wedding costume, with his sombre father cracking a small smile behind her back.

Several wedding guests stood around them, many of them familiar to him, most of them long dead. One in particular he couldn't quite place until he noticed how her face wasn't quite symmetrical. Long, dirty blonde hair arranged in loose ringlets framed a much-changed face. She held a sake dish reverently, saluting the photographer with it. She wasn't very close to his parents, but she wasn't quite on the fringe either. He glanced over Snake's notes on the picture.

"All dead. Wedding day, pre-mutilation, I had hair then. Forgot what colour it was. Was I seventeen then? Don't remember. Glad I dug this out of Boar's apartment after she got beheaded. Might be Haku in the corner there and maybe that's Sakumo in the middle? What a sour bastard; couldn't even crack a good smile on his wedding day. I don't remember his wife's name. I think I knew her. Her brat son got her nose. Maybe I'll show him this when he admits to having parents. Then again, he's the one that chose to get rid of his ancestral home and sold her clothes. Good thing I bought some of them or I wouldn't remember what she smelled like at all."

He spun and stared at the piles of folded silk garments with newfound interest. Labels were carefully pinned to the delicate fabric that detailed which of the ghosts Snake couldn't remember had worn each article and how she had come by it. One deep blue robe was only marked with a single word that he was sure he had heard recently: Daichi. Snake obviously hadn't been able to salvage that ghost, at least not with any accuracy.

* * *

Sixty paces left, a silver flash.

Ten paces up, kunai thrown. A gasp, blood drips, but he is gone.

No past exists; he has already forgotten the engagement, save for the fact that his analytical mind knows that he is short one kunai now and that there is one less target to track.

Left: porcelain mask, green design; comrade; no danger; no henge and the correct smell. The blade is in her hand; she gestures behind them and to the side.

Moon gleams off a screw used at the shoulder of a flak jacket to bind the panels together to allow maximum flexibility. Colour marks enemy.

Rat is already moving, a flash of green and white, ninjatou dully reflecting the moon where blood has yet to stain.

He moves, snarls sounding at his command. His pack finds the other that is setting traps.

He leads the hunt, tracing the blood, and pulls his own blade out, aiming for the spinal cord behind a curtain of hair or the vulnerable throat, so easy to ruin because it was so exposed.

Cartilage was no match for his blade; blood spatters. Snarls of his pack as they bring down the dead one's partner and the scent of fear and offal from exposed intestines reach him and death follows.

Target in sight; the musty smell of paper and fragments of memories about a lewd orange book are brushed aside, a familiar smell slides through his mind for a split second. It lingers; plant life, paper, ink, a blue-eyed student, green eyes framed by pink, and then black…

_Pain!_

He curses, angry at his distracted nature. His pack takes down the attacker as he removes any blood he has spilled, hiding his tracks.

Gloved hands flash through seals, chakra flows, cancelling out wards so that his hands may reach out, securing the musty paper that is so dearly bought. Now is the time for a retreat rather than a rout.

He whistles softly, using hand signs when he can to keep his location hidden from the enemy that can use sound to track just as he can. His pack spreads out, creating false trails, as he pulls chakra from himself, and suddenly he is no longer himself: red and white mask becomes grey and furry, claws form, skeleton changes from biped to quadruped. Burden is no longer visible; now he is much safer.

Wolf runs through the forest, fleeing the fight. Soon a strange pack fans out behind him. A hare runs behind and to the left. A stag and a doe run together ahead by a bit and to the right going in a slightly different direction through the forest.

The wolf increases his pace, knowing that he is far out of his territory and needs to return to his own pack.

But he is followed.


	58. Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Seven Sisters

_I told him that I didn't want the lights, so he brought a candle instead. Risa knelt at my bedside while he was gone and tried to convince me to share my sins so I could go in peace. I couldn't though, not with my daughter. I want her to see what I have strived to become for her and for Michi. Yasu came in and led her away, his wise owl-grey eyes piercing me and forcing me to see the blood again. It was a silent order I appreciated enough to honour._

_As my breath became shallower and shallower, I spilled what I could to Michi. Perhaps I wanted him to come to hate me so that our parting would be easier upon him. I should have known better. He forgives as all of his clan does. It's not enough though. He forgives me until his voice breaks, but I can still see the blood on the hand he kisses with his warm, dry lips._

_I remember how I cried and cried the first time until Sensei told me to shut up and bear it. He told me that we were only tools. I always remembered that, used it as my excuse, but somehow, it never quite saved me. Even Michi, beloved and most trusted, can't bring me the respite I crave as my lungs scream for the air that I suddenly can't seem to pull in anymore. My heart thuds erratically, the pulse audible, and Michi fades as the candle swallows me whole._

* * *

Naruto crouched against a tree, waiting impatiently for Ero-Sennin to pass along news from Konoha. They had sent a message just after nearly getting hunted down by Itachi-empty-face and Shark-man, but a reply had been slow to come. Naruto wondered if Baachan was getting into her stash again or something.

"Aw, shit."

Now Naruto knew it wasn't good. Ero-Sennin never swore like that unless somebody had died. The old fart was lewd as they came, had the alcohol tolerance of a tin bucket, and could go through money like anything, but he seemed to deem common swearing below him. Naruto usually found this funny.

When Ero-Sennin tossed the scroll his way with a guilty look on his old face, Naruto pounced on it and read the opening lines.

"_She didn't survive. Don't put my people into another situation like that. ANBU don't grow on trees_."

Guilt, horrible and heavy, speared him. Dread settled on his shoulders. "Ero-Sennin, which agent was it?"

"Snake-bitch. She was too into it. She lost her head. I knew she wasn't stable enough… Damn."

_Aw, shit._ This was his fault… He hadn't protected her even if she was horrible. No, she had protected him. What kind of Hokage let that happen? Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to read over the rest of Baachan's angry missive, letting her harsh words lash at him.

Naruto felt a little uneasy when Ero-Sennin actually looked his age for once, all of the wrinkles messing with the skin until the old perv looked a hundred years old. "Brat, we're going to have to rush this. I wanted to wait a little longer, but we can't have this happen again or Tsunade really will castrate me."

"Hiraishin?" Naruto asked eagerly, clutching at the scroll to keep down the guilt. That was twice that Snake had saved his ass. He owed her, but she would have to wait. He didn't intend to die just yet so he could find her and pay her back.

"That's right. We need to get you ready now that they've got a sense of what's up. They're on to you. You need to be able to outrun them until you're strong enough to beat them."

* * *

_I won't let you kill me._

"So Tazuki and Hiro were murdered by nukenin on the way back to Kumo."

"Yes, Raikage-sama." _I will escape you._

"How was it that you survived again?"

_You won't take the cat from me._ "The pair was intent on capturing me alive. Fearing for the safety of Nekomata, they ordered me to retreat while they attempted to keep Uchiha and Hoshigaki off my trail."

The Raikage mourned freely, and Yugito let the corners of her mouth droop with sorrow for the benefit of her audience. "Their sacrifice will not be in vain. How soon will you be ready to train?"

"By tomorrow morning, Raikage-sama. I will not let others sacrifice themselves for me again, but the run was gruelling. Uchiha was relentless."

"He and Hoshigaki will be hunted without mercy then. Go rest, Yugito."

"Thank you, Raikage-sama. I'm sorry that my power was not enough. I will put everything into my training to make sure that this doesn't happen again." _Don't replace me!_

"I'm sure you will."

_To live, yes._

* * *

When Kakashi next woke, he found himself in a very familiar place: the hospital. The white walls and smell of antibacterial cleaner gave it away. There was a strange smell though: whetstone, flint, steel, and rope—Yuugao. She slept in a chair by his bedside, propped against the bedside table with a slight frown on her angular face. A familiar orange book was set on top of it. She must have broken into his apartment. Now he could read… He smiled behind his mask and attempted to move. It ended in painful failure.

A soft knock sounded on his door before it slid open to reveal Sasuke with Ryuuka perched on his back. Yuugao snapped to awareness, her hand straying towards a weapon that wasn't there before she recognized the intruders. Her jumpiness didn't reassure him.

Ryuuka grinned at him and ran to grab his cast-encased hand as soon as her brother set her down. She was so big now. In only two years, she would be in the Academy. "Kaka-san! Momma said that you had a really dangerous mission that kept you away. Momma's always right. See, it was so dangerous that you're in the hospital!"

She sat on the chair by his bed when he eye-smiled wearily at her before she tuned to Yuugao. "Yuu-san, why were you sleeping? Won't Haya-san be sad that you're not home? Mama came home after her turn watching Kaka-san."

Yuugao smiled slightly at the impudent child and stretched, lacing her fingers together and pushing them away from herself, palm out, to flex every joint. "Hayate's on a mission right now. Besides, it was my turn to watch Kakashi."

"But Bachan's coming right now to take her turn," Ryuuka said, folding her arms. "You'll go home then? Sleeping in chairs isn't fun!"

"No, it isn't," Yuugao agreed with a hidden grin as she got up to grab herself a glass of water. Kakashi catalogued what hurt and what should not be moved in the near future as Ryuuka jabbered away at him about what presents she would like from him for her approaching birthday.

"Ryuuka, calm down. Kakashi can't talk much right now." Sasuke's exasperation was apparent.

"Oh," said Ryuuka, putting her chin in her hands and gazing up at Kakashi again with her big, dark eyes. "Kaka-san, you look funny without your headband over your eye. Where did you get that scar from and why is that eye always closed?"

He grunted, signalling that he was unable to answer.

"Imouto, he can't really talk right now," said Sasuke, palming his forehead as his vexation mounted. "Now that you've seen him, why don't you go see Kaasan in the lobby?"

"Okay, Oniitama. Bye, Kaka-san!"

Sasuke shook his head and sat down in the chair that his sister had just vacated as Yuugao followed Ryuuka out, giving Sasuke the illusion of privacy.

"You worried them for a few days. Kaasan, Yuugao, and Riko took turns with Gai watching over you because they thought you were going to go comatose."

The image of Gai weeping over his sleeping body was not comforting.

"They say that you got in a huge battle on the journey back to Konoha. Kaasan says that you used the same eyes that Itachi has."

Kakashi nodded. The way Sasuke spat out his brother's name was not reassuring, but Kakashi really wasn't in a position where he could interrogate his student. An ability to talk was a prerequisite for that.

"They say that because you used it too much you can barely move."

He nodded painfully. Being pounded by tonnes of earth was not fun even days after the fact. He would have to be quicker on his feet next time.

"I've read the scrolls. Mother told me that it took you so long because you're too human: you didn't want to kill Gai, Genma, Yuugao, or Riko, so you limited yourself. If that's true, what was your sacrifice?"

_Sanity and peace of mind_. Kakashi shrugged and closed his eye.

"Personal question, hn," Sasuke said. "Do you want some water?"

He shook his head.

"You don't want me seeing what's under your mask?" Another brief headshake, and Sasuke rolled his eyes impatiently. "You're weak enough that I could force the issue."

Kakashi shot his student a warning glare, which caused Sasuke to smirk smugly.

"Sasuke-_chan_," said someone in the doorway, leaning against the frame, "you're asking for it. Kakashi is certain to whip your butt in your next sparing match now."

"I know."

"You are far too cocky. I'm going to sic Naruto on you when he gets back so that you'll be knocked down a few pegs. That or I'll find a way to make Sakura fight you full out. She's getting good from what I've seen of her training sessions with Tsunade when I was getting signatures from the Hokage. She's creating forty-metre craters ten metres deep with a single punch now."

Sasuke paled, made his excuses, and left. Kakashi wished he could laugh as Nariko did.

"Ah, it's wonderful that he respects her power now. She'll be able to keep him in line." She sat down in the chair Yuugao had abandoned with a self-satisfied look on her face, setting the ominously large pile of papers on the table beside her. "Water?"

He shrugged painfully, attempting nonchalance, but she smirked and returned the favour he had done for her after the invasion, keeping her gaze averted as usual. Afterwards, she rapped his forehead three times with her knuckles. She was lucky he was in bad enough shape that he hadn't accidentally tried to break her arm. She still registered as "menace" according to his instincts.

"Well," she said, settling back into her chair and pulling her papers into her lap, "you came back. How unfortunate."

"I did try not to," he rasped, glad the water had unclogged his throat.

"I have yet to classify you as masochistic despite the overwhelming evidence," she said dryly, shuffling through the papers until she found the one she wanted. "You're lucky. I almost had Naruto take a toad after you. All your pretty, weird, silver hair would've been for nothing. With warts, you would've never gotten laid."

He rolled his eyes at her usual mocking. This was getting old. That didn't stop her from continuing as she scratched down figures.

"You wouldn't believe the number of women that are still quizzing me about you now that I've started hinting I'm willing to listen to their pleas. Warts would scare them off though."

He barked a laugh. Warts could hardly accomplish the impossible.

"Tsunade-sama says that you won't be able to move for quite a bit. I'm surprised you can talk at all. Since you can, you can help me out."

He cocked an eyebrow at her. She took is as permission to continue.

"Kotetsu passed your taxes off to me since you've decided to blackmail me into doing them for free." Her amusement told him that she didn't consider his threat serious and was just going along with this for the heck of it. After half an hour of questioning, she scanned what she had managed to get out of him and nodded briskly. "That's good enough for now. I'll get Yuugao or Mikoto to break me into your apartment so I can find the other papers I need. I'll make a fortune auctioning off your clothes."

She ignored his annoyance and reached out to ruffle "his pretty, weird, silver hair." "Poor scarecrow, so strung up you can't even read!" She laughed cruelly, grabbed his orange book, and waved it in front of him. "Do you want me to read it to you since you can't hold it? Breaking your fingers didn't help things. Tsunade-sama didn't want to push your healing along too quickly: apparently, it's bad for you. Your book is still crap, but since you like it I'll make an exception."

He grinned wickedly. Being stuck in the hospital wasn't going to be so bad after all.

He revised this opinion an hour later when Gai came in to take Nariko's place. "Rival Kakashi! How could you taint this precious flower of innocence with your sordid literature? Her youth could be withered by such rubbish!"

The "victim" burst out laughing at the description.

Kakashi snorted. "Gai, she's older than the both of us."

"Are you insinuating that I'm old?" asked Nariko. "Why, greenie, how could you? You're the one with grey hair." If Gai figured out what her nickname was about, she was dead.

"Ha-ha! Rival, the fair lady has insulted you!"

"Hmm?"

Gai was just about to make a loud rejoinder about the "coolness" of his rival when Hinata marched in, her normally serene face stern. "Gai-sensei, I must ask that you keep your voice down. There are patients here that need rest, something that the noise you are generating prevents."

"Right you are! If I cannot keep my voice down I will do ten thousand push-ups—!"

"That's quite all right, Gai-sensei. Two hundred should be more than enough," Hinata said, continuing into the room. "Kakashi-sensei, I am glad you are awake. Fuu-sensei was hoping to drop by today to speak with you."

"That's fine."

Kurenai's student smiled at him and checked over his charts. "You should be on solid food in a couple days, Kakashi-sensei. In your current state, I don't think you could keep it down. Other than that, the wound on your back is healing very nicely and your broken bones appear to be mending. There may not even be a scar from that gash. Tsunade-sama is very skilled. The only thing that still obviously ails you other than the bruising you sustained is the state you put yourself in by overusing your Sharingan eye. Chakra depletion is nothing to scoff at.

"I'm supposed to check for any deterioration in your vision. Please close your other eye and read the chart on that far wall." As he did as she asked, she activated her bloodline limit and studied him.

"I am examining the internal structure of your eye for any abnormalities since the last time you were here by watching the chakra flow. Everything seems in order, but the deterioration may take years. You cannot turn off the doujutsu, so you may eventually be blind in one eye. Please refrain from overusing _that_ technique in future."

She turned to Nariko. "Nariko-san, a message was sent to the hospital. Shizune-shishou reminds you that you have a meeting in half an hour."

"Thank you, Hinata. I'll go then."

Hinata smiled, bowed, and left. Kakashi's hopes for a respite were blown away very quickly.

"Maa, Kakashi," the menace began after a brief pause, "I think I've got some good news for you."

Had cringing not been so painful, he would have done it in a heartbeat. Nariko looked pleased with herself. That had never been particularly good for him.

"In fact, I suppose you could say it's 'youthful.'"

He did cringe despite the way his muscles protested. That had been horrible, though Gai didn't seem to mind. He almost looked… smug. She leaned back in her chair, looking equally smug. It was almost as though they were ganging up on him…

"Remember how I said persistence should be rewarded?"

He drew an uncomfortable blank for a moment before dismay flooded him. She wouldn't have, would she? She wasn't cruel enough to do this to him when he was incapacitated, right?

"Well, I think I've settled on one for the moment."

Shit. She had.

"No." It was so hard to keep the revulsion out of his tone.

"But she's damn cute!" Nariko said, frowning at him. "She's not scarily obsessed with you the way a lot of the others are, and she's not shy about how much she wants to get in your pants."

Gai coughed a little at her crude wording, but he was ignored. When Kakashi shot her a disturbed look, she arched an eyebrow at him questioningly.

"Damn cute?" he rasped.

"What? Am I suddenly not capable of evaluating physical appearance? Mikoto's beautiful, Yuugao is elegant, Anko is hot, and Kurenai is gorgeous. Of the four of them, Miki reminds me of Anko the most." A very strange suspicion grew at her uncomfortably blunt words.

"Are you—?"

"Bisexual?" Her smirk at his reaction to how completely off the mark she was told him that she was deliberately avoiding his real question. "No, but I do know what boys look for." That she had grouped him with "boys" didn't reassure him. "Cousins, remember, talkative and very blunt cousins. Your reading choice really helps too. Anko could pass for any of the love interests in that book. Give the Miki girl a chance," she wheedled, an evil gin on her face.

Gai was oddly silent in the background, though his shoulders were shaking very slightly. Kakashi really didn't appreciate the probable laughter being contained.

"Or are you afraid she's going to ruin your image?"

He blinked, confused as to her meaning.

"She's only a chuunin; I very much doubt she could successfully molest you unless you gave her the opportunity."

Gai looked uncomfortable, shifting from foot to foot, but Nariko gestured that he should take a seat and listen in greater comfort as Kakashi arched an eyebrow at her.

"My image?"

He was miffed when she snorted at him. "You know perfectly well that you wouldn't have as many women after you as you do if you didn't wear that damn mask. You're nothing special without it."

Ouch. Way to step all over his ego.

"Yes, I realize that I'm being blunt past the point of rudeness, but you aren't." She shrugged helplessly at him as though to say it wasn't her fault what genetics had dealt him.

He wished she would shut up so he could make a stinging retort. He was disappointed.

"You're a scarecrow, Kakashi, and that mask can only keep them guessing. They'll conjure you to be outrageously handsome like Sasuke, and thus your ego is fed." She ignored his glare as Gai stared between them nervously.

"You like stomping on my ego, don't you?" Kakashi growled.

She shrugged again, not looking up from the pages. "Someone has to. It keeps me occupied. I don't like to lie to those I consider friends. You don't need an ego boost from me. That not why you put up with me."

"Then why do I?"

"Because you find my naivety amusing. It makes you feel justifiably jaded and superior."

Gods, she really was blunt. Gai looked as though he didn't know who was winning this battle of words.

"Got it in one." Kakashi chuckled, hoping to faze her, but she laughed off the insult he had just confirmed, much to his disappointment.

"That and Naruto made you promise," she said, all traces of humour gone. "You don't want to betray his trust, so you force yourself to put up with my jabs. You would hardly trouble yourself otherwise."

He nodded, and she smiled, appreciating his honesty.

"Thus, I take advantage of your loyalty and bash you as much as possible for personal gratification. What do you think, Gai-san?"

The beast sputtered for a few moments at his sudden inclusion in the conversation until Nariko took pity on him and laughed. "Kakashi should embrace his youth," the jounin said at last. The unsaid "while it lasts" made Kakashi certain that Gai was going to pay the next time he asked for a match.

"There, the paragon of wisdom has spoken."

Gai almost preened, and Kakashi stared at her. She had to be joking: "Gai" and "wisdom" did not belong in the same sentence unless they were joined by "does not possess any." He was a little worried when she didn't crack a smile. Apparently, she was deliberately blinding herself to this obvious fact. Maybe she really was infatuated… Hmm, now that would be vastly amusing… and slightly disturbing.

"I'll send Miki around when you're better able to talk. Gai, you'll let her in?"

The traitor nodded vigorously.

"Good, I'll make sure Mikoto knows to too. She'll be pleased. Miki will be ecstatic. Why, she might even share your hospital room number with all of her friends."

"You wouldn't dare," Kakashi rasped, hiding his terror, but she ignored him and glanced at the clock.

"Well, Gai-san, I'll leave you to keep the invalid company." The smirk tugging at the corners of her lips suggested that this prospect wickedly amused her.

Any patience towards her that Kakashi may have still fostered was blown away when she ruffled his hair again before leaving his book on his lap. Kakashi had the feeling that he had been reduced to a child in her eyes and that was why she was willing to touch him so familiarly. It wasn't a pleasant thought.

"Well, play nicely, boys. Kakashi, focus of getting better or I'll make sure a toad drops by." She waved over her shoulder and left him with Gai, who looked ecstatic for some reason.

"Rival, you have been given the chance to experience the youthful activity of dating! By force, but still I rejoice in your success! Yet I shall beat you! I, Maito Gai, shall be dated by _two_ women!"

Any happy feelings Kakashi may have had left evaporated into irritation. He had hours with Gai ahead. Maybe he should have stayed comatose.

* * *

"Hiraishin isn't just about ink," Ero-Sennin began, rubbing one of the scars on his hands as he stared into the formless dark beyond the trees lit by their flickering fire. "It's a lot more than that. You could be a fuuinjutsu genius and still not be able to get Hiraishin. Hiraishin is a state of mind that not everybody can handle.

"More than that, it's dangerous. Screw up once or try things the wrong way and at best you'll lose your finger. It's complicated, dangerous, and difficult, just like everything Minato knew how to do. He liked challenges. He liked gambling with the odds. He was lucky because what he did never seemed to kill him until he got on the wrong side of a god."

Naruto rubbed his stomach worriedly, but Ero-Sennin shook his head with a shaky smile.

"No, not that one. Minato knew what he was doing when he went out to get him, or I think he did. No, he got mixed up in the one you can't escape."

"Shinigami," Naruto whispered, remembering that old book of Neechan's. On rainy days when he hadn't had homework or a _Hiroji_ book to read and she had been at work, he had slipped into her room and dug through that old chest in her closet to look at the images. He had liked Valhalla the best. Shinigami had been his least favourite page, though the green Osiris dude had been pretty creepy too.

"Yeah, that one. He always gets you in the end."

Only the crackling of the fire kept the silence from overwhelming them.

"We're gonna go slow. You had trouble with Rasengan. That jutsu is hard. It's A-rank. Hiraishin is S-rank, and I don't use it because I don't like it. I know it, but it's gonna be different for you than it is for me. I can only teach you the guidelines. You need to figure out how to make it work."

Naruto glanced past the fire, clenching his fingers in his lap. He tried to imagine how it would be to go through life without one of them, but he couldn't do it. He had seen lots of people missing part of themselves over the years, Hinata among them. Imagining himself as one of those people was hard though.

"The bastard would be happy if I lost my middle finger."

Ero-Sennin snorted. "Gaki, don't make light of this. Losing a finger is the _best thing_ that can happen if you screw up. The worst is that… Well, let's just hope that the worst doesn't happen to you."

"Hurry up, Ero-Sennin. You're not scaring me enough to make me back down." Naruto unclenched his fingers and let them lie loosely in his lap. He had to make sure that nobody ever died protecting him again the way Snake had. Sure, she had been an evil old heartless bitch, but she shouldn't have died to protect him.

"Alright then, brat. Tell me who you are."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto felt a little peeved at being made to answer what was obviously a stupid question, but Ero-Sennin's unsatisfied expression told him that maybe he had gotten the question the wrong way around.

"That tells me nothing, brat. You have to _know_ who you are, inside and out, from the end of your hair to your toenails. When you know yourself that well, talk to me again. If you forget any little thing, be prepared to lose it forever and never get it back." With that ominous statement lingering in the air, the old perv rolled into his bedroll and started snoring obviously.

Naruto rolled his eyes and began the hard work of untangling just what the perv meant. This sounded stuffy, which meant he was going to need all those lessons in meditation and calm that Neechan and Obachan had painstakingly impressed into him.

* * *

Naruto plodded along in Ero-Sennin's wake, letting his mind roam. To either side, rice paddies flourished as crews pulled weeds, occasionally glancing at the strangely dressed travellers. In front of Naruto, the toad contract bobbed with every one of the "hermit's" steps. It was a welcome distraction from the ache behind Naruto's eyes.

"Ero-Sennin," he called at last, "what makes people different from each other? I mean, why don't we all look the same? And there are different animals. Like, why are there goats, humans, and toads? What makes us all different?"

"That's a question for a biologist, not a Sannin, but I've heard it has something to do with our genes."

"Our jeans?"

"The things in the command centre of the cell."

"Oh, you mean the DNA stuff in the nucleus!"

"Yeah, that stuff makes us different. You get some of your mom and dad's genes and they mix together to make yours. All in the bloodline—that's how that Uchiha friend of your inherited his Sharingan."

"So I can specify myself in a seal by using my blood. That's why it works."

"What works?"

"Summoning. That's why you made me sign in blood."

"Yup."

"So using blood for Hiraishin should be enough."

"Not really. If it was that easy, don't you think somebody else would have figured it out?"

"But I just want to move my body."

"Gaki, leaving bits of your body behind is the best thing that can go wrong."

"Hiraishin isn't forbidden," Naruto said suddenly. "Taijuu Kage Bunshin is because it makes you go crazy. Hiraishin's S-ranked 'cause only my dad thought of it. Rasengan's not that hard once you break it down. Dad made simple stuff work together." Naruto almost didn't stop in time to avoid ploughing into Jiraiya.

"You're not like your dad though," Ero-Sennin hinted.

"I have to bring Kyuubi with me," Naruto realized.

"That's right. Forget him and you die."

* * *

"Hey, Riko," Anko said during the now traditional Saturday girls' night out, "Gai's been running around trying to get women to kiss him all week. Knowing him, it's got something to do with the rivalry between him and Kakashi. Do you know anything about it?"

"Anko, dear," said Mikoto, "maybe you should cut down on the alcohol. You sound a bit tipsy."

"How does one sound tipsy?" asked Kurenai, who was still nursing her first glass.

Nariko smirked, on her second glass, refusing to drink more than that. She still had to walk home by herself. "Anko, you know, this sounds like it's my fault. Actually, it's _our_ fault."

Anko got her meaning and grinned.

"You did something didn't you?" Yuugao accused her with a leer.

"You might say that, but it was perfectly innocent," she said with an evil look at Mikoto, who had started to smirk. "I don't know why Gai ran with it though."

"The two idiots are rivals," said Yuugao, twirling the gold band around her finger. "Rather, Gai considers himself the eternal rival of Kakashi-senpai. Senpai's not into it, but he can't dissuade Gai-san. They have all these stupid contests, and Gai-san keeps a running tally. Whenever it's Kakashi-senpai's turn to pick the contest, he usually picks something that requires the least effort from him. If Gai wants women to kiss him and you say that you sort of know what's going on, that must mean that you kissed Senpai!"

Mikoto slapped a hand over Yuugao's mouth to keep her from waking Ryuuka. Nariko sprayed her mouthful of liquor all over the table at the suggestion and began feigning gagging. Yuugao looked disgruntled by the implied insult to her senpai.

A moment later, Sasuke walked in looking distinctly mussed. His hair was worse than usual. "Please, please keep it down? I've got training first thing tomorrow with Shino and Kiba. They want to spar." Soothing noises were made by the five women, which seemed to appease him slightly. "Riko, what's Gekkou-san talking about?"

"Nothing much, Sasuke: one of my actions was blown out of proportion by Gai-san."

"Oh, well, he does that a lot. 'Night." He ambled out of the room while running a hand through his hair. The women waited until his door closed before three of them broke into giggles.

"Hey, Mikoto, your son's a regular heartbreaker looking like that! I'm surprised he hasn't been raped yet!" Anko cackled.

"The way Sasuke tells it," Nariko said slyly, "it's almost happened many times from the time he turned nine. He has a huge fan club. The boys used to have to arrange elaborate schemes to help Sasuke escape them after school so they wouldn't be able to stalk him. That's part of the reason he got so fast so quickly. Obsessed girls can be quite persistent."

The others laughed at the thought of Sasuke fleeing a mob of screaming girls.

"They must've done a good job because I never saw those fangirls," said Mikoto, taking a swig of her drink.

Nariko choked on hers, remembering various close calls she had been asked not to mention. Sasuke would kill her if she brought them up now, so she kept her mouth shut.

"That or the girls were expert stalkers when the time came," said Kurenai, glad that Hinata had never been a part of that group of girls.

"Sakura says that some still are on his tail." Nariko spun her glass by the stem and watched the light reflect through it.

"Hmm, yes and then there's Sakura," said Mikoto.

Nariko snorted, exasperated with her friend. "You do know that she used to be his biggest fangirl, rivalled only by Yamanaka Ino, right?"

"Yes, I had heard, but she's improved so much lately and she's the Hokage's apprentice…"

"Hinata is Shizune-san's apprentice, and Ino is also under a medical instructor. What of it?"

"Well, I was hoping that…"

"You and your matchmaking tendencies," scolded Nariko wearily, draining her glass. "Honestly, I don't know what to do with you. One moment you're a killing machine and the next you're whispering about pairing your son off. Leave the poor kid alone. He hardly needs help. Besides, watching him flounder is fun."

"Almost as fun as watching you fail miserably. Honestly, you're not getting any younger. You were the one that said you were ready to have children," Mikoto reminded her, flipping topics at the speed of light. "You don't have long left. If you wait too long, there will be problems."

"I know." This conversation was rapidly getting awkward. Why did they always do this? Probably because she was so determined to oppose them… "One question though: how did you jump from Gai being an idiot to children?" They ignored her lame attempt at redirection.

"You've got to have the most unromantic view on family that I've ever heard of," Yuugao complained. Nariko braced herself mentally; she knew what was coming. Yuugao had been sniping at her more and more since her marriage. "Why not marry some guy here?"

Nariko set to brutally ripping apart Yuugao's pathetically obvious hopes with cold pragmatism. "It's not realistic for my lifestyle and my continued standing in Matsuku."

"You're so practical it kills me," Anko grumbled.

"Well, I don't see you getting married any time soon, Anko!" This conversation was becoming more and more frequent of late.

Anko smirked, gloating at how she had managed to push her into anger. "Ha, that's because I intend to test the waters quite a bit more before settling down. It's rather fun."

Nariko grinned wickedly. "Maybe I'll follow your example once and let the seeds fall where they will." She gestured with her glass grandly before she broke down laughing. Okay, maybe, just maybe, the alcohol was affecting her.

They expressed incredulousness in various ways, from snorting to chuckling into their glasses, knowing she was joking, and moved on… sort of.

"So you didn't kiss Senpai?"

Nariko rolled her eyes and prayed Anko was feeling compassionate today. "No, I didn't," she said, enunciating every syllable so it would penetrate Yuugao's thick skull. "I should hope I'd have better taste than that. What part of he's not my type did you not pick up on? Gai apparently blew my suggestion about Miki-san out of proportion entirely."

"You're no fun at all! Haven't you got a romantic bone in your body?" whined Anko. "I wanted to hear some sappy recounting of a passionate kiss so that I'd have blackmail on Kakashi."

Nariko rolled her eyes and grimaced. "Leave me out of your deluded blackmail schemes please. I'll help you plan them, but hell if I actively participate. Anko, you staked a claim. Why aren't you defending it?"

Anko shrugged. "He's not going to let me stake a claim any time soon. There's no point in getting up in arms about it. Besides, the scheme you and Mikoto cooked up will be amusing to watch play out. How did he take your explanation?"

"Not well at all." Nariko chuckled. "I think if he had been capable, he would have either fried my ass for threatening him or left Konoha on a suicide mission."

Kurenai snorted. "He sounds like Asuma when I hinted that I wanted an opinion on some kimonos, the latter option more than the former."

"Fugaku used to do that," Mikoto reminisced fondly, a bittersweet smile twisting her lips. "It got so bad in the second year of our marriage that he ran away the moment I opened up the closet or started checking how much money I had in my purse. More often than not, he missed out on making requests when I went shopping."

"Yo, Kurenai, has he figured it out yet?" Yuugao asked.

The woman shook her head, and Nariko rolled her eyes at Asuma-san's continued obliviousness. "I nattered about my cousin's baby and her marriage, and he still didn't get it."

"Kurenai, I've got to tell you that mentioning kids to a guy you're in a relationship with makes him nervous." Nariko had only to think of Shiro's recent letters to know that. "Take him ring shopping instead."

Kurenai wasn't averse to a more permanent arrangement, so wiser heads shushed Nariko for making such a stupid suggestion. Speculation over whether Asuma would ever do more than trail after Kurenai like a lost puppy continued. Mikoto, being the evil mastermind of all matchmaking, began unveiling various plans to force the jounin to see that maybe getting some balls and _doing_ something would be a good idea. Nariko snickered into her drink as the subtlety involved in these schemes diminished rapidly. The last one basically had Kurenai jumping him and handing him a ring. And Nariko had thought ninja were supposed to be masters of subtlety.

* * *

Naruto trudged through a wheat field that was on its fallow year. The bracken that grew in it was spitting its late summer seeds. He caught a dandelion seed in his hand, studying it as he waited for Jiraiya to return.

By his reckoning, it was late July, meaning that it was about Sasuke's birthday. He made a point of never missing any of his friends' birthdays. He had even sent small presents to Ino and Hinata, both of whom he didn't know very well.

He blew the seed from his palm and ran tanned fingers through his hair. The desert sun was especially responsible for its nearly wheat-blonde shade. It was going to get even paler soon. The desert seemed to be the best place to force Jiraiya to actually teach him things. There were very few distractions in the desert for the pervert, and it was close enough to Gaara that they could meet fairly often. They were heading back through Fire Country towards Wind Country, but a toad would be able to take a note to Sasuke without a problem.

He pulled out a scroll and scribbled a message filled with reminders to work hard so that they could take the jounin test together as soon as he got home. He wrapped a wooden hawk figurine that he had bought at the village in Lightning Country in the message and called for a toad. It agreed to carry his message to "Sasuke-bastard" as quickly as possible. As soon as the toad was gone, he pulled his latest coded message from Gaara out.

_I have been unable to locate any others yet. I know that more records exist, but I am being denied access. With my candidacy in consideration, I thought it wise not to press them until they have made their ruling. If it is in my favour, which it should be considering the other candidates, then I will have unlimited access within months. If I am not chosen, I will renew my demands for access._

_Our Sister has contacted me recently with troubling news. I fear that we three will be seriously targeted soon and that we will be too late. Sister says that she may have a target for you though. She didn't tell me much about him, but it sounds promising. We may have found the fourth._

_Be careful when you return. 'The Assholes' caught wind of your presence a month after you left last time, and they were rather unhappy that you had not come to them for permission. I could not convince them of your need for secrecy. This time you need to be positive that you leave no signs of your stay. Perhaps you should exercise the same amount of caution that you used in Lightning. Yes, our nations are allied, but they hope to remain in power a while longer. To do that, they need to make a positive impression. They're hoping to find a scapegoat, an external enemy to unite us under them. Your home would be a stupid choice for this, but I have never credited them with an abundance of intelligence._

_You wanted to know how my student was doing. Since I advanced to jounin, she has tried her hand at the exam that was being held in your country again. She did very well and made it to the final round. However, she was not chosen to become a chuunin. I have no doubt that she will succeed in her second attempt in six months. Her failure has given her drive to do better._

_I know it is best if you do not tell me exactly where you are until you are within the borders, but please describe the places you have been in the past. Most of my missions have been within the country. If I am chosen, I will be unable to leave home save in special circumstances, like the exams. It would be good if you could take pictures too._

_Has the strange hermit taught you that jutsu you wanted to learn so much? You mentioned that it would give you speed that you lacked. I never saw that lacking, but you are reluctant to use that power. You said you needed to learn special seals to use the jutsu. I know that they are difficult, but have you managed to unravel mine? The woman that performed the sealing is still alive if you need explanation. The sooner you figure out how to create a better barrier, the better. He is pressing at me less of late, but it is still painful._

_I have some news of your home. Your sister sent me a message not a week ago telling me to tell you that your sensei is in the hospital, but that he is all right and is getting better. This man seems to have gotten into a fight and exhausted himself using a bloodline limit that does not actually run in his clan. She writes that he will be out of the hospital in a few weeks and that she hopes you are keeping your guardian from infecting you just yet. Her message was mostly written to me, so I did not include it in this letter. As usual, she sounds like she is under minor stress and worried about you. Oddly, her writings indicated some nervousness as well when she was writing about you. I recommend that you contact her as soon as possible; there may be news she wishes to give you that she cannot relay through me because of its personal nature._

_Regards Brother Pith from Brother Green_

Naruto laughed at the closing statement. They didn't refer to each other by name in correspondence in hopes that if it were intercepted, they wouldn't be immediately recognized. "Brother Pith" was a reference to an old memory. Gaara was "Brother Green" for his eyes, and Yugito was "Sister Blonde" because of her hair.

Yugito's message had yet to reach him—another reason he was waiting in this field. Her catlike messengers liked stalking him for days before giving him the message they carried if it wasn't urgent. He knew that one had been on his trail for a day and a half now. This messenger was a little too cautious, but now that he was standing alone, the two-tailed tabby was beginning to approach. He stood stalk still until he felt it winding around his ankles, purring madly. He stroked its dainty head twice before it spat out the scroll on his right foot and disappeared into the tall grass.

He read through the contents swiftly, a furious welling of excitement growing in his belly. Yugito had found the Yonbi. She didn't have the same access to records, but intimidation was her specialty along with sadism. Getting records had been a snap in the end.

When Jiraiya returned, staggering a bit, Naruto quickly set to convincing Ero-Sennin that a detour to the peninsula northwest of Rice Country was in order.

* * *

Nariko broke out of her calculations and glanced up when the shadow crossed her ledger. "What is it, Kotetsu?"

"I've had a thought," the chuunin admitted, looking a little uncertain. A dimpled girl that Nariko was pretty sure was from Intel hovered behind him, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "Saika-san had an idea, but I wanted to run it by you…"

She arched an eyebrow at him, having the feeling that she was going to be made into a messenger that Tsunade could beat up instead of him. Rolling her eyes, she gestured that they take whatever seats they could find. Oh yes, shoot the messenger was becoming very popular nowadays…

"What were you wondering about?" she asked, setting aside her papers and getting out some foolscap to doodle or take notes on as required.

"Well, you know how everybody's trying to find whatever leads they can on Akatsuki, right? Nobody really knows what they're up to because they deal with the underground so much and they won't talk. Well, Saika says that Jiraiya-sama sent in reports not long ago claiming that some bounties in Lightning Country were just claimed for dangerous targets. He followed up and found out that people matching Akatsuki's description were behind it."

Saika-san nodded, flushing slightly for being caught out gossiping. Nariko shrugged at the Intelligence chuunin. She was hardly going to sell the girl out for doing what she was also guilty of; heck, even Yuugao gossiped about ANBU rivalries and whatnot sometimes.

"Tsunade-sama passed the data along to us not long ago," the girl muttered, glancing at her partner in crime.

He smiled at her. "Matsuku-san won't rake you over the coals, Saika. She's good about that." When the kunoichi finally regained her normal skin tone, Kotetsu continued. "Anyway, I figured that there was something we could work with there. If Akatsuki's going around collecting all these bounties, they're bound to have somebody keeping track of funds and whatnot, right?"

Nariko blinked at him and cursed herself for a fool. "Yes, one would think. What did Intel's upper ranks think of this?"

Saika and Kotetsu both flushed this time.

"Ah, she's not really…"

"I couldn't…"

"Ah," Nariko mumbled, grinning slightly. "That's the way the wind blows, hmm?" They both rapidly approached crimson until Nariko shrugged. "All right, I suppose you want me to see that this reaches Godaime-sama's ears?"

"It is sort of a financial matter," whispered Saika-san.

Nariko shot her a bland look. "It's Intel's area of expertise, not Finance's," she corrected as Kotetsu hurriedly handed over a couple documents in Jiraiya-sama's writing as evidence. "In any case, I'm really glad you two figured this out," she insisted, staring them each in the eye until they nodded. "I thank you. If this helps my brother at all, I will forever be in your debt. I promise to see that the Hokage understands and acts upon what you've given me to the best of my ability."

"That's why we brought it to you. You'd care," Saika muttered before beating a hasty retreat.

Sighing, Nariko gathered up the relevant papers and stalked towards Tsunade's office.

When she found it empty, she cursed fluently under her breath and quizzed the ANBU guard until he told her where Tsunade was. She could tell that Tiger-san was laughing at her, but she was hardly in the mood to care. She had a lead on Akatsuki in her hands, something that just might keep her brother alive. Nothing else mattered. She found Tsunade in Kakashi's room, checking on his progress. She bowed politely to both of them and waited until Tsunade indicated she could come in.

"What needs signing?"

"Nothing just yet, Hokage-sama, but something interesting was just brought to my attention."

"Speak."

"Jiraiya-sama sent a report recently that someone cashed in on some illegal bounties." Nariko had to keep herself from bouncing with excitement the way Naruto would have. She could tell that Kakashi had noticed, but she ignored him. He was hardly important. Tsunade-sama could harry Akatsuki if Kotetsu was right.

"That's not new."

"No, it's not, but the manner of implementation and the calibre of the targets are. They're targets that only the strongest ninja could take on and they're all protected by their countries' reputations. It's all black market work. Akatsuki may be connected to it." She passed over Jiraiya-sama's report and watched the Godaime read it over. She almost smiled when her superior snorted.

"May be connected to it?" Tsunade drawled, shooting her a sharp look.

Shoot the messenger indeed. If she kept getting stuck with passing along every unsavoury bit of news to the Hokage, she might as well milk what little enjoyment she could out of it. Maybe, just maybe, Kakashi and Yuugao were starting to rub off on her. Stringing people along was fun. Stringing a short-tempered Hokage along was like playing with matches in a room full of natural gas though: suicidal. Backtracking was in order.

"I cannot presume to possess the same ability to put together information as a ninja," Nariko insisted, bowing her head to hide a smile. "To insist upon such an assumption would be unprofessional. Numbers and graphs are my bailiwick, not intelligence sent in by S-ranked ninja. I leave that to my betters."

"Like who?"

"Hagane Kotetsu." When Tsunade continued to look impatient, Nariko nodded to signal that the Hokage had won. "A young chuunin Intel agent who was introduced to me as Saika."

"You seem to get made into the messenger a lot, hmm?"

Nariko kept her expression pleasant and passed over another paper for the Hokage to peruse, ignoring Hatake's ill-concealed chuckles. He would get his soon enough. She made a mental note to drop by Miki-san's work area on her way back to her desk to pass along some interesting news. The thought of what would come of it restored her good humour.

"You think we can trace the movements of Akatsuki though their funds."

"You can trace anyone through their spending and through their source of income; you know this. We can't really trace them through their funds, but we can track the one that handles them."

"The accountant."

Nariko nodded. "Or the banker. Either one would be useful, as Kotetsu-san suggested."

Tsunade frowned as she considered. "If we can trace them through this, we should be able to eliminate members by predicting their targets in the area where they last collected their bounties."

Nariko shrugged, not understanding just how the woman would go about that, but trusting the Godaime to know what she was talking about. "Yes, Hokage-sama, if we get our information quickly enough and the pairs do not decide to move on to other targets far enough away."

"Yes, there's always that risk," Tsunade mused aloud as Kakashi shamelessly eavesdropped, "but being able to hunt these group members before they can strike would be useful. If we can keep on their trail closely enough, they will be wary and will be less likely to collect their nine targets. Chasing them into the ground will keep them occupied."

"Finding the accountant though…"

"Intel should be able to dig up some leads. Tell them to get on it while you pass this on to Shizune."

"Of course, Tsunade-sama." She was just about to walk out the door when she remembered her brother's letter. "Hokage-sama, I just got a letter from Naruto. He was able to make contact with another jinchuuriki."

"Really?"

"Yes, a woman by the name of Yugito. He says he's on his way to meet another one. He was wondering if we could track down any more for him. He knows that he's not cleared to know this sort of information yet, but his own sources are stumped. The latest jinchuuriki is going to be the last one he'll be able to go after for a while unless we dig something up for him."

"I'll consider your request. Do not act alone."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama," she said, hiding her grimace that the one she was aiding thought her incapable to restraining herself. She ruefully admitted that she had contemplated breaking the records out for Naruto if Tsunade denied her request. She bowed again and made herself scarce.

* * *

Jiraiya grimaced at the stretch of trees covering the jagged mountains before them. "Brat, how drunk was I when you convinced me this was a good plan?"

"You keeled over three minutes after you said yes. I had to position you on your side so you didn't suffocate on your barf like Takara-obaasan told me. It was pretty gross. How can you drink that stuff?"

"Brat, shut up. You talk way too much. It was a rhetorical question. How much farther?"

"Is that a rhetorical question too?" Jiraiya scowled at his student, and Naruto laughed. "I don't know. You're the one that knows where we're going. I don't even know what country we're in. Is there a ninja village here?"

"There was in Rice Country. Here, there isn't much of a shinobi presence. Lots of refugees come here though. It's out of the path between Earth and Fire, which tend to get into a lot of wars since Earth is always up for territorial expansion. What guy are we looking for again?"

"Yonbi. He's pretty old according to Yugito, and he lives in this fishing village really out of the way. We're going the right way, right?"

"Yes, brat. Hurry up and master those seals. We could get there so much faster if you had passed beyond self-definition through awareness and through seal."

"Hey! You can travel through toads. Why don't we go that way?"

"Toads don't do well that far north. It's too cold for them and that's a rocky peninsula. The forest up there isn't moist and temperate like it is in Konoha. There, it's all tough pine and obstinate bracken. That's one good thing about Hiraishin: you only need a seal somewhere and you can reform there. I don't use it because there's the high chakra requirement and the decomposition and nausea required for all space and time jutsu. Even summon animals get sick sometimes from the bending of space."

"You mean I might get sick if I use it?"

"Disoriented is a better word. It's a big liability in battle. Minato didn't have a problem with it, which is why he could use it so much. Maybe you'll be the same."

"You mean you've put me through all this mastering seals crap so that I _might_ be able to use Hiraishin?"

"Kid, sealing is a useful skill, especially for you and your plan to work with the other jinchuuriki. Your chakra control isn't the best either. It'll take you a long time to get the hang of it the way your female teammate has, but seals will make it easier for you. You're the one that wanted to patch up that sand kid's seal."

Naruto stayed quiet, thinking about the plea in Gaara's last letter. Brother Green wouldn't have mentioned his problems with Shukaku unless things were pretty bad. He had to help. "Hey, Ero-Sennin, how far do I have to go before I can help Gaara?"

"You're getting there, kid. You've just got to master those tertiary seal patterns and then you'll want to continue into quaternary if you want to mess with the seals on the jinchuuriki. That'll take you another year at least. The first seal ring patterns are pretty basic. The first two levels mostly use two ring seals. They're for things that don't involve living things, like weapons and gear and chakra. Third level covers intent and complex chakra containment, which you've almost mastered, but fourth level begins to delve into living chakra and using seals on souls. Your father was a seventh level master, which is why he could deal with death. You should be able to get to that level in eight years."

"Eight years?"

"Yeah, that is how long it will take if you continue to study at the pace you mastered the first two levels. Dealing with inanimate objects and pure energy isn't all that complicated, and screwing up stroke order or intent at this level won't kill something. At tertiary seal level, lines have got to be clear or else the intent wavers and the things are easy to break. Complexity increases eightfold when you hit quaternary. Life is complex, so sealing it is similarly difficult. If you study hard, you should be ready to deal with the Shinigami in ten years."

"Deal with Shinigami?"

"Yeah, there's a seal Minato came up with. It's why he died when he sealed Kyuubi in you. The death god takes the soul of the user of the seal as payment and devours it along with the victim of the seal. Minato figured that anyone using it would be doomed to do battle with their opponent forever in the Shinigami's stomach."

"So that's what my dad's doing? He's fighting fox-bastard every day?"

"I don't think so. Kyuubi is inside of you: his soul can't be in two places at once. Stop asking questions and start practicing those figures again. Ask me again once you master the fifth level seals. How's self-definition seal-wise coming along?"

"Huh?"

Jiraiya huffed impatiently. "How is 'knowing yourself' coming? You need to finish that before I can start teaching you the next step."

"Every time I've got it worked out on paper, I think of something else. It's getting too big, dattebayo! I'm gonna need a scroll bigger than the toad contract. I wish I had an example or something…"

Jiraiya shook his head. "When you use fuuinjutsu, you work blind a lot. You've got to be able to be creative without a guide. Using blood should simplify your design to something that only needs three feet of scroll."

"Putting the fox in though…"

"He's bound to you. You already have the tie you need."

Naruto thought this over, absently rubbing his stomach. That night, using a mirror, he carefully studied his seal.


	59. Chapter 59

Chapter 59: Bì Xiù

Mikoto set Ryuuka in Sasuke's arms and stared down at him sternly. "Take good care of your sister. Call Seiji, Riko, Yuugao, or Kurenai if something goes wrong. Anko's out on a mission. Don't leave the stove on. Don't forget to lock the doors. Keep Ryuuka's presence mostly concealed. If _he_ shows up, hide your sister before you go after him. Sister first, and then revenge." She narrowed her eyes when he scowled. "I mean it, Sasuke."

"Hai, Kaasan."

Nodding to herself, she bent down and smoothed Ryuuka's hair while pecking Sasuke on the forehead.

"It's only three weeks," he grumbled, but she paid him no heed. Three weeks was three weeks too many, but the Hokage had insisted that she take this job very vehemently for some reason.

"I'll try to make in back in one," she promised as she turned towards the gates. People familiar with her and with her task wished her luck as she hiked through the midday crowds, and she nodded back to them, mentally going through a checklist of things she needed. She had the oddest feeling she was forgetting something. Her question was answered when she got the gates.

"Ohayo, Uchiha-san," called one of the rookies, young Yamanaka Ino.

Mikoto nodded to her, a polite smile sitting on her lips.

"Thanks again for letting me come with you to learn. I am really honoured."

"See how much you thank me when we get to business. This is not just an observation mission for you. You'll be pulling your weight; don't worry. This will be no picnic."

Ino mulled over that statement as Mikoto adjusted the pins in her bun one last time, heaved her supplies back on her back, and gestured that the Yamanaka girl should fall into step behind her. She nodded to the chuunin as she passed, knowing they would mark her absence down. She smirked and pushed herself into the canopy. Ah, hunting was always such fun, be it short term or long term. This mission guaranteed to satisfy both.

* * *

On the way, she made a stop at a building she needed to check over before she took Sasuke to see it. He knew of its general location, but Seiji hadn't dared to show it to him. It was her job. She left Ino outside, warning her to stay out and keep watch as she pushed the weathered doors shut behind her. She walked cautiously down the dirty, stone steps into the antechamber and stared past the debris, past the damage from the sun, wind, and rain, and tried to bring clan stories alive. This was the old Uchiha stronghold from before Konoha's time.

She stared at the chair the eldest had sat in and noted the nine curled tails depicted on the wall behind it. The symbol of Uchiha power, the Kyuubi, backed the old leader's chair. It was appropriate given that he had been the only one strong enough to control that demon with the forbidden techniques. The stone seat was bathed in pools of summer light. She squinted up at the ceiling and noted the holes that time had created. She wondered how the old clan would have reacted to this neglect. At the very least, they would have slaughtered her as a blood traitor.

No woman had led the clan before her. She supposed it was because of the standards of the time and the clan's arrogant and decidedly agnate history. All of those old fops would only have more reason to deride her leadership if they had been alive to witness her rule. She was banking the entire future of the clan on a slender hope, one that Fugaku had been completely unwilling to consider for obvious reasons. Her entire plan for the Uchiha clan hinged on Naruto. When (not if, she wouldn't allow herself to lose faith in her own plan this late in the game) Naruto became Hokage, Sasuke would rise and so would the clan. It had to be Naruto. Uchiha blood would never be allowed to wear the hat. There was too much distrust.

She came from the political angle while the rest of the clan had been intent on using what they were good at: fighting. Open rebellion had been stupid, but her suggestion had seemed insane enough in comparison that Fugaku had asked her if she had been joking when she had tentatively brought it up only two months before he had left her behind forever. His disbelief had only reinforced her conviction. She supposed that getting to the point where she argued for her insane plan in front of Itachi was why he had spared her.

As she meandered across the hall, she couldn't take her eyes off that chair. Had Itachi come here after he had fled Konoha? Fugaku had shown him this place as a reward for making it into ANBU. Had he come here to figure out what he was going to do with himself when Konoha had cast him aside for doing as he had been ordered? She trailed her fingers over the dusty surface, ignoring the wet patches. Had he cried here too, knowing that everyone he had ever loved now hated him? Had he pleaded with the gods to smite him dead so he would be free of his horrible sin? No, Itachi had always been stronger than that. He might have cried, but he would have grounded himself in the reasons that had fuelled his decision to obey orders.

She knelt before the throne, pressing her forehead against its cold, letting the tears express her ache. How had it come to this? Why couldn't she hate her son as she claimed to? Why did horrible sympathy creep up and wring her dry?

"I will make them pay for what they did to us," she swore, her lips brushing against the eroded rock with every syllable. "Whether you want it or not, I will make them pay for destroying you."

Ignoring how much time had passed—Ino would have to get used to waiting if she wanted to work in Intelligence—Mikoto braved the dark corridors that led to the private chambers behind the anteroom. She passed the rows of coffins confined in one chamber, shivering as the wind whistled through the chinks between the lids and the box below. They were the bodies of the clan's old heroes: the generals, the successful suicide mission agents, the old leaders, and the simply charismatic, though she was sure that there were few enough of the last type. Uchiha were not charismatic usually. They had presence, but they generally had a standoffish temperament simply because of the burden of their genetic gift. The exceptions were few and far between, especially after the clan had been segregated from the village.

She was about to leave the coffins behind when she noted that the dust on the corner of one hidden in the shadows was thinner than the norm. She deviated to investigate it. Swiping away the dirt in the engraved characters identifying the corpse within gave her pause. Izuna? Why did she know that name?

Disregarding every story about how those who disturbed graves were punished, she lifted the lid of the coffin and inspected the interior. The skeleton was covered in flacking remains of flesh, as expected, but there was something strange about it. The eye sockets were empty. Horrible suspicion grew within her as clan history came to the fore. It was all she could do not to run away. This was Madara's younger brother. This one had lost his eyes to the ultimate form of the forbidden eye. She had just disturbed the one tomb that still had a person alive to visit it if Itachi hadn't been lying. If Madara ever came here…!

As she shoved the lid back on and attempted to spread dirt and dust back on the surface so it would appear untouched, her foot bumped into the dais it rested on. The end fell over. Blinking with surprise, she knelt down to see how to repair that as well only to discover the compartment the block had concealed. Her hand touched something cold and then something very familiar. Glad for the presence of thick smudges of dirt on her fingertips to distort her fingerprints, she pulled the items out cautiously and bit her lip. She recognized these.

She held Itachi's ANBU ninjatou in her hands, feeling its slender weight and remembering the delicate looking thirteen-year-old frame that had wielded it to such deadly effect. Such associations made her want to throw the evil thing away, but she couldn't bear to somehow.

She had been so proud and so scared for Itachi when he had finally made it into that awful organization and not just because of Fugaku's plan. She knew only too well what ANBU did to a person. She had not wanted that for her son. Fugaku had merely replied that if it weren't Itachi, it would have to be Sasuke. The thought of her innocent little boy, the one that had never known war and all its atrocities, in that dreaded environment had made her cave. In a twisted sense, it had made her proud when he had shown her the chakra blade. It had been something mother and son could share, and such ties between them were few since Fugaku had been the one to coach their firstborn for his role.

Next, she pulled out his ANBU uniform. It was still stained with blood after all of these years. She ran trembling fingers over the tightly woven fibres and wondered if he had been wearing this the first time he had met with Madara. She had to wonder if Itachi had caught up with him here. Maybe Itachi had guessed that the eldest would visit the resting place of the brother that had saved him from eternal darkness.

As she pulled the broken fragments of Itachi's ANBU mask out one by one, she wondered if he had purposefully chosen to hide his things under this particular tomb. Had Itachi decided even then to play the same role as Izuna? The thought made her sick. The chance that Itachi's eyes would stare out at her from Sasuke's face, or worse, Ryuuka's, nearly made her gag.

She would have to… She didn't know what she would do. If Sasuke killed Itachi, he would gain the technique only if he acknowledged that his brother was his closest friend or something similar. Mangekyou would eventually leave Sasuke blind unless he took Itachi's eyes. To have both sons suffer the same fate… no, she couldn't bear it.

Shoving the fragments of her son's mask into her pack, she pushed the armour and the ninjatou back into place before resetting the stone and disappearing back into the antechamber with only one backward glance to ease the feeling of being watched by hidden eyes.

* * *

Jiraiya looked up from Naruto's bloody handiwork and smirked across the restaurant table. "Alright, I'll buy this for now. You've got some redundancies and I'm sure you're missing a couple things, but this'll do for a first draft."

Naruto exhaled gustily with relief and grinned. Finally, he would get to move on to the next step!

"There're some things you need to think about before we move on." Jiraiya leaned back in his chair, pouring himself some more tea as Naruto scarfed down his lunch. "How do you move yourself when you walk?"

"Huh?"

Jiraiya raised an unamused eyebrow at him, so Naruto considered the question.

"I guess that it's like Neechan said about forces: I push backwards on the ground, and the ground pushes back. I move by pushing on the earth." Naruto basked in the pervert's incredulousness.

"That's right. Now, what frame are you moving in?"

Naruto didn't understand at first, but Neechan's old complicated lessons about flying birds and frames of reference tugged at him. Relative motion hadn't made a lot of sense, and Naruto bemoaned his lack of understanding now. What had she said? Something about how motion was all about whose perspective it was taking place from… The old bird example finally clicked. "I'm moving according to the earth. According to me, the earth's moving and I'm standing still."

Ero-Sennin looked suspicious. "That's right. I thought this would be the hardest part for you…"

"Neechan's weird."

"Ah. Well, you need to revise your thinking to use Hiraishin. You know how everybody says that they run? You need to say that the earth spun instead. When you go through a forest, the forest actually went around you. You are the centre of the universe. Gaki, shut your mouth. I don't need to see your molars."

"You're kidding!"

"No. You aren't moving around anymore. Everything moves around you."

This sounded like Sasuke's level of arrogance, but Naruto guessed that he didn't have much choice. "Okay."

"Not 'okay,' no, you need to really believe this."

"I am the centre of the universe then. Ramen bows before me and moves into my mouth."

"Good. Now, you need the space to bend for you."

"What?"

"What's the fastest way to get from point A to point B?"

Naruto knew this question. "A straight path."

"Nope. It's folding space so the two points touch."

Naruto blinked at the pervert. Maybe that tea had been laced with something. Naruto casually pushed his own cup away and sipped at his broth instead. "And how am I supposed to bend space?"

"With your seals. How do you think summoning works? It's the same, only you're summoning yourself to another location by bending space and time. Summoning weapons and summoning living things are two very different processes though. Weapons are unconscious, non-deforming objects. Static, unthinking objects are way easier to define and move. Animals have consciousness and can change without losing mass, which makes them harder to define accurately. Why do you think summoning toads takes so much more chakra than summoning your bedroll?"

Naruto hadn't thought about it like that before. Summoning any toad took the same amount of energy, if mass was accounted for. Summoning a tadpole though…

"Tadpoles don't have a complex consciousness yet," Ero-Sennin explained. "That makes them easier to define and move with seals according to the function of the summoning contract. Why do you think this scroll is so big? Most of it contains seals for defining the user's end of the transfer. There's way more ink involved than what I carry around though. The rest of the seal's functions are written out and hidden with the toads so they actually have control over the contract as well."

No wonder Tenten had such an easy time with her weapons while he had busted his ass for a month to get summoning right. This wasn't fair. He was going to have to ask Gamakichi what being summoned was like for the guy caught up in the transfer. If what Jiraiya had hinted at before was right, it was going to be one hell of a ride.

* * *

Mikoto swayed through the crowds, smiling pleasantly, as Ino lugged the rest of the laundry behind her. Thank the gods that summer help was quickly hired at most inns to deal with the tourists. As was standard policy, they both wore henge to blend in. Though they chatted about nothing, they missed none of the surrounding conversations. Anyone who thought that the noise of the crowds would spare him their attention was deluded. The quietest conversations took the most attention to overhear, but Mikoto knew that those conversations were the ones she needed.

"… And he just waltzes in and expects me to…"

"… Swear that there were more in the pantry!"

"Look what… found! He says it… to his dad!"

Sometimes, bits of conversation simply couldn't be made out, even by a master. A child's conversation was generally unimportant, but Mikoto had been a mother long enough to realize that children often stumbled into things that no sane adult would have. Such a mistake often cost those children dearly, but Mikoto had profited and so had Konoha. She didn't expect much progress out here though. No, the inn was where she hoped to hit pay dirt, so she lengthened her strides and forced Ino to nearly jog to keep up with her to get the laundry back to said inn.

"Who is more dangerous?" she asked Ino quietly as they hung laundry on the line with the other maids under the watchful eye of the overseer. "The open warrior ninja? The stealthy assassin? Or the ninja that manipulated your wife into killing you for him?"

Ino dropped her clothespin in surprise and scrambled for an answer while Mikoto pinned up a towel. "The assassin?"

"The answer is that all of them are dangerous, but the last is impossible to counter because you don't know he's after you until you're dead. He strikes from the shadows, twisting events and those you trust to his purpose."

"You're one of them, aren't you?"

Mikoto smiled bitterly. "I've started wars and ended revolutions. That's what a manipulator does. That's what top Intelligence agents do. We don't need to wield the knife; somebody else does it for us. Efficient and impossible to trace that way."

"So we're going to get someone else to kill the banker?"

"No, we need him alive. We can't capture him because Akatsuki will know they've been compromised and his information will be useless. No, we need him to sell out."

* * *

Naruto glared into his eyes and set his jaw. All right, he was Uzumaki Naruto, shadows, yet existent, many, yet one. His blood, his seal; his memories, his understanding; the fox, the link; all of these things attempted to fit in his head. He couldn't forget any of them or the jutsu would leave those things behind.

If focusing on nothing while meditating was hard, trying to keep everything at the front of his mind to perfectly form his intent was infinitely more so. Things like his toenails, Ribosome, the exact order of the elements in his seal, and other random bits of knowledge kept escaping him as he used his fellow clone to find the location of his destination tag (his _shiki_ note), which had an abbreviated seal on it that was directly linked to the first draft of his function seal so it could access the pattern that dictated his use of Hiraishin. He slowly remembered that he was the centre of the universe.

_Three. Two. One…_

* * *

"Holy fuck!" Naruto's clones had somehow phrased into each other grotesquely. They screamed before exploding into smoke, and Naruto reeled from the shock of finding his body not quite singular before he started retching from the reaction to having his spine grinding through its twin.

"Not so easy, is it?"

Naruto choked on the taste of barf and fumbled for his trusty water bottle as he showed Ero-Sennin the finger.

"Say it."

"No!"

"Gaki, just say it already!"

"Fine, my dad was a fucking genius, and he learned it all from you."

"No, it's 'I know that I never should have asked for this horrible technique _ad nauseum_; please forgive me.' Now, let's try that again. Swapping is actually working better than outright self-summoning for troubleshooting. Less risk for you. Remember, the clones have to phase through each other so that one terminates. They're giving you your mental marker of the exit point. When you take a clone's place, you are the one that survives. Do it again so we can find some of what's wrong with your draft."

They weren't going to have fun. Naruto knew tormenting themselves wasn't good for continued sanity… Naruto shook off the feeling of multitude and forced himself through the exercises he had made up to separate himself from the masses of clone consciousnesses. The wall wasn't stone anymore. It was weakening to clay, but Naruto didn't know how to fix it. He was living too much, dying too much, overlapping too much for any wall to contain anymore. If Ero-Sennin hadn't warned him about losing anything, Naruto would have been tempted to let some of his diverging consciousnesses fall behind during the jutsu.

When was the last time he had let the poison drain from him? The last time he remembered doing that was with Neechan a couple months before he had left Konoha… Could he trust the perv to understand this though? Wouldn't it be sissy to break down in front of the old dude? No, he couldn't do that.

Only complete denial of the situation was keeping sanity firm within him.

* * *

"You need to be able to find the fraying thread," Mikoto whispered as they scrubbed the dining hall floor while the other maids handled the various bedrooms. "Then you have to know the weave so you know where and which way to tug that thread." She paused, dunking her rag in the pail and wringing out the excess water as though she had been doing this for the past ten years and this was all she ever expected to do in life. "So, who's our thread?"

"The banker."

"Very good. He's the one we need to break to be able to reweave the pattern around him to our liking. A warning to you—know how hard to tug."

Why did Uchiha-san always phrase important things so cryptically? It got on Ino's nerves. "Huh?"

"Unravel the pattern enough and you'll set off who-knows-what: rebellion, revolution, a coup… Manipulators know to keep their changes small enough to be predictable, at least most of the time. We just need to shift his loyalties away from Akatsuki and towards himself. Greed is the key. Watch him tonight and you'll see that augmenting his greed will be a small reworking of his pattern. He'll spy for us."

Every time Uchiha-san mentioned her old career, Ino had a hard time suppressing all the questions she wanted to ask. Why had no one ever mentioned this career choice in the Academy? Why was Uchiha-san classified as a general jounin if she was a specialist? What had she been made to do in ANBU that made her so bitter? That very bitterness convinced Ino to keep quiet and squeeze dirty water into a pail like a good little maid as the innkeeper walked by to check on them.

That evening, Ino mingled with the crowds, listening for any hint of workable threads and keeping her mind open to any strong thoughts despite the headache and confusion that always created. The banker remained aloof and smug, but Uchiha-san didn't seem discouraged, so Ino kept her ears open as she poured and served and let pass several things she would have nailed guys at home for trying on her. She was meek here. This was her stage.

* * *

"So how are we going to get him to sell out?" Ino asked as they scrubbed the scum out of the rain barrel in the slow moving river just outside of town. "And who to?"

"Both of those are good questions. The thing about working in Intelligence is that you have access to tons of info, but usually never enough. However, we can make do if we work my angle right." Mikoto grabbed a handful of pebbles from the riverbed and plunked one on the grass.

"That's this town." Another pebble was placed a foot away. "That one is the ruins we stopped at. That way is north and ten centimetres is a day of ninja travel, unhurried." Another pebble went two days to the south, another a quarter day to the northeast, and the last to the southeast, half a day away. "These are the nearby villages important to us because they have Intelligence plants in them."

"Oh…" Ino was beginning to understand just what needed to happen.

"Because of the proximity to Rice's border, Intelligence maintains a heavy presence here. Updates from these towns are sent weekly to Konoha with the highest priority ratings just in case Oto makes a move."

"We want to get the banker to sell information to them."

"Yes, but as indirectly as we can without compromising efficiency. These agents have various covers that can't be blown by associating with the wrong crowd. Making him sell right to Konoha is too risky if he ever does get caught. No, we want him to sell out to somebody relatively harmless to Akatsuki—someone they won't worry about when they discover the leak."

"Who's that?"

"Ideally, a group of non-ninja bounty hunters/mercenaries, preferably ones with a reputation for taking down jounin since Akatsuki's bounties are mostly jounin level." Mikoto shrugged when Ino opened her mouth to protest. "They've got the right to make a living too. We kill civilians and ninja; they kill ninja and civilians. They just don't wear a forehead protector with a symbol of legality engraved on it. Don't fool yourself into thinking you're better than them just because you're a mercenary generally employed by Fire's government. Besides, they're useful when they target ninja from other hidden villages.

"There are several organizations that stalk this territory. Of them, Silver Grouse is probably the one we want. They have two upstanding members in this town—" she pointed to the village half a day away "—and a lesser presence in the other two. I've marked three junior members here that look eager enough for promotion.

"Now, to be honest, this is a crap assignment. The chance that the banker will know anything useful enough for tracing Akatsuki closer than two weeks after the fact is slim to none. However, Intelligence is desperate to give the Hokage something more than Jiraiya's often two-month-old rumours. They arranged this mission so that it was the Hokage's idea so they can maintain the illusion that they've got better plans."

Uchiha-san laughed at Ino's scepticism. "It's all about politics and funding up there. Intelligence knows everybody's business. I'm sure they found the perfect angle to get the Hokage the idea. Get used to it. Why they sent me though…" She frowned down at the pebbles. "Sending a specialist is overkill. Sending in an ANBU manipulator seventeen years out of practice though… This stinks of upper level intrigue. I don't like this. If they had sent you along right off the bat, it would have made sense, but you asked me at the last minute…"

Ino fidgeted uneasily, not liking where this speculation was going. It almost sounded like Uchiha-san was accusing the Hokage of getting her out of the village on purpose.

"We need to finish this fast." Ino almost thought Uchiha-san sounded afraid.

"Okay." Ino forced cheeriness into her voice to calm her mentor. "How?"

"First, I have to talk to the three plants to see if my idea really is the best way. They're more familiar with the local situation. You need to find out who those Silver Grouse members here want to curry favour with. It would be rather useless for us if they're trying to suck up to senpai in towns so far away that the info is outdated or out of reach when we intercept it. You'll have to hold here while I'm gone."

Ino nodded with confidence she didn't really feel. Neither of them could simply disappear for a couple days without notice, and Ino didn't have a good feeling about how Uchiha-san was going to see to this problem. Call it a premonition.

* * *

The moment the smoke cleared, Mikoto's Sharingan was clearly visible in the pale moonlight flooding their servants' quarters. The clone stood, transfixed. "Ino, I need you to keep the bunshin under genjutsu or your family technique, though genjutsu won't last long against it," Uchiha-san said, not breaking eye contact with the clone.

"Why…?"

Mikoto smiled wryly. "Sometimes, the threat from within in greater than from without. Trust me when I say that this clone isn't quite me. Don't let it gain full consciousness."

"What will happen?" Ino asked as the bunshin slumped into her mentor's muscled arms.

"It won't be pretty." Mikoto arranged the clone on the futon before slipping out the door.

Ino glanced down at the slumbering clone and shivered.

* * *

The first two trips went off without a hitch until it came time for Uchiha-san to pay a visit to the town two days away. Ino, as usual, was left with the unconscious clone, but it was unlikely that her mentor would be back by morning. She would have to figure out what to tell the innkeeper.

"She's sick," Mikoto's clone's body whispered, glancing worriedly at Ino's curled up body. "She's cold as ice."

The gruff innkeeper brusquely set a hand to Ino's forehead and came away actually looking worried. "Keep her in here. You have half duty in the kitchens today so you can take care of her."

Ino made the clone nod through the aggressive mess of the bunshin's mind. She had never touched a mind more apathetic. Nothing except twisting everything in range mattered to this strange mind that inhabited her mentor's clone. It didn't feel like Uchiha Mikoto at all, but Ino suffered it silently until Uchiha-san returned. When the woman discovered just what Ino had done, she looked uncomfortable.

"I never liked psychics," Uchiha-san said.

Ino gulped and swore that confidentiality had been trained into her since initiation in her family's techniques.

"Good, because Admin already knows I'm not sane. You telling them again wouldn't impress them."

Ino changed the subject. "What did they say?"

"The plan will work so long as you're sure that Grouse flunky you picked is loyal to the pair two days away."

"I'm positive. I touched his mind, and he was talking about them a bit…"

"So long as you touched his mind, I'm sure it's fine. Now we just need to implant the suggestion. Mental manipulation with you along will be much easier. We can start preconditioning the banker tonight. We need to slowly work off his arrogance and greed and implant the suggestion that maybe double-crossing his clients would be a good plan. Use his dissatisfaction, but keep it subtle. Too much change too quickly will alert him that something isn't right. Epiphanies about becoming a traitor don't work well. We have to keep the rate within logical limitations. I'll work through genjutsu while he's in public, and you'll infiltrate his dreams while he's asleep. Have you scouted out his lodgings?"

Ino nodded, miffed that Uchiha-san had even asked. "You had me do that the first day."

Uchiha-san smiled uneasily, as though she thought Ino was joking. "I did?"

"Yes."

"I don't remember…" The woman's lips tightened, and Ino almost thought she looked frightened again. "Have I given you any other orders like that?"

"Manipulating the other maids into giving us serving duties, getting the innkeeper to send us into the village more often so we can look around; things like that."

Now Ino was positive that Mikoto looked afraid.

"Do I give these orders in a big block, all at once?"

"Yes, usually."

"Shit. Okay, we need to finish this quickly. Tell me if I do something like that when I start acting undemanding again, alright?"

Confused and uneasy, Ino promised and watched Uchiha-san rake her fingers through her hair and inhale shakily. "The innkeeper wants us to clean up rooms twelve and seventeen today," Ino said, hoping that the dull work would help her mentor refocus.

"Then let's get to it."

* * *

Every day, swapping clones got easier. Every couple days, Ero-Sennin would go through Naruto's first draft with him and help him figure out which parts were making the transfers screw up. Within two days, Naruto's clones stopped losing their sense of balance and their right foot, which had been beyond disturbing. Fingernails started staying put. He stopped going bald in patches. Stretching Kyuubi's link stopped, which had been the most painful mistake of all. Even better, his seal began to reduce the amount of stuff Naruto had to keep in mind, which would have made it impossible to use Hiraishin in battle where such concentration was impossible. It was taking over handling the mechanics of the jutsu for him, something that ninjutsu accomplished partially through handseals.

More important than correcting these failures, Naruto began to learn how to recognize redundancies and holes in his designs. It was one thing to copy designs and modify them slightly. It was quite another to create a wholly new one. Naruto began discretely writing up a checklist of the mistakes that Jiraiya pointed out to him and the suggestions the hermit had to make the entire swap easier.

The best suggestion was the mental markers.

"Your clones tell you where your seal is because they stand right on top of it and you can track them through your clone mental network, right, gaki?"

Naruto nodded, hoping that the time to finally get rid of half of the clones in the equation had come. There were entirely too many memories now. Relying on Taijuu Kage Bunshin had gone from awesome to excruciating. Unless he found a way to fix this, Naruto was going to have to give up on his most useful jutsu.

"There's a way for you to get your shiki note to do this for you. Your mind just traces the shiki rather than the position of the shiki through the link with the clone."

Grinning with relief, Naruto pestered the perv into explaining the concept more thoroughly. By the end of the next day, training only required one clone sacrifice. Naruto slept a little easier.

* * *

Thoughts ran through her fingers as the sleeping mind at her mercy quailed beneath her heavy touch. She immediately pulled away, worried that the disturbance would pull her target out of his REM sequence. As the mind's patterns dipped into the proper frequency again, she began twisting threads of thought, exacerbating the deviations in the weave she was responsible for. The mind's thoughts swamped her, filled her with revulsion for the impingement of her own mental privacy, but this full rapport was the price of her ability to manipulate. She clamped down on her gag reflex and kept working on the web of the mind's tapestry.

Content at last, Ino glanced around the darkened bedchamber and pulled her hand away from her target's forehead. Slowly, knowing the guard just outside the room would hear if she slipped up, she stretched out her legs and let the tense muscles relax so the pins and needles stopped. Only then did she roll to her feet and creep towards escape.

Ino slipped out the window Mikoto was guarding and nodded to her mentor, grinning to convey her successful manipulation of the man's dreams for the third night running. Mikoto smiled her satisfaction, and the two of them slipped away.

* * *

There was something immensely satisfying about watching the banker and the Silver Grouse member exchange conspiratorial smiles across the restaurant. From the way Mikoto folded her hands complacently on the table, Ino knew she agreed.

"Tama-san will handle collecting the info, which should get to him quickly enough since he can tap into their phone lines. So long as nobody gets too big in this relationship, we should have a tap for about eight months. Celebrate for now. We're running home as soon as we can successfully finish breaking with the inn. Never leave any reason for your cover employers to be suspicious. The entire success of this manipulation depends upon Akatsuki being convinced that the leak is harmless. Don't let this twisting of lives go to your head."

"I know." But it was hard not to feel like a minor god after wrapping people around her fingers. Yamanaka codes kept her steady though. Twisting people's thoughts was an enormous ego boost, but her father had carefully instilled consequences in her before he had dared to start teaching her even the simplest telepathy.

Mikoto smiled at her, some strain that Ino had not been aware of before disappearing. "That's good. I think I almost believe you."

* * *

Coming home had never brought such relief. The moment the Hokage was satisfied that the debriefing had been thorough enough, Mikoto shot home, half-expecting to see ashes where her house had stood. Some horrible knot of tension loosened when Ryuuka jumped into her arms, howling with glee about how Momma was home.

Sasuke half smiled at her, but something in his face shattered her hope that her worries had been for nothing.

"What happened?"

"Some men dropped by. One was named Danzou. He talked about how powerful the Uchiha clan used to be while his friend prowled around. I tried to keep him in the public areas, but he went to the washroom. I don't know if he pried. They left after about an hour."

So, they suspected. She wasn't surprised somehow. "Don't worry, Sasuke—"

"Danzou talked about how I should join ANBU when I got good enough."

Now Mikoto frowned. What sort of hold did that asshole still have on the Hokage's forces that he would dare attempt to use Sasuke the way she suspected Itachi had let himself be used? "And what did you say?"

"I told him ANBU was only good for traitors that needed a mask to hide behind."

Mikoto stifled a laugh. Such bitterness, while tactless, must have irked Danzou, who held ANBU up as an example of shinobi pride. "More diplomacy lessons for you."

"Who was he?"

"He ran against the Sandaime for the position of Hokage. Needless to say, he didn't win. However, he is canny. No one has been able to discredit him enough to keep his fingers out of Konoha's administration. Don't trust him."

Sasuke nodded, and the matter dropped in the face of Ryuuka's stories about her adventures.


	60. Chapter 60

Chapter 60: Light's Devilry

"…Two-hundred-five… two-hundred-six…" Lee panted on the other side of the clearing. His enthusiasm was making Sasuke resentful. Even Sasuke's obsession-fuelled determination had faded out an hour ago when the afternoon sun had started to scorch. Everyone else had given up: some were sleeping, others were thinking, and Shikamaru was watching clouds as usual. Neji insisted he was meditating whenever Lee made a loud remark about passivity.

"Lee-san, it's wonderful that you are so determined to make jounin with Neji-san, but perhaps you should take a short break? It is important to focus the mind as much as the body," suggested Sakura from where she hung on a sturdy branch by her knees.

Sasuke blanked out Lee's loud reply, a gift he had developed early on dealing with Naruto. Sometimes it was simply better to ignore what Naruto (or Lee) was saying and just nod. Of course, this had led to some embarrassing moments, but not having to deal with inane chatter sometimes was a bonus.

Akamaru yawned, impressing his enormous size upon Sasuke, and the Uchiha had to agree with the obvious sentiment. This was sort of boring. It was kind of sad how they had come to see missions as an essential part of staying entertained.

"Has anyone gotten a message from Naruto lately?" asked Hinata.

"I got a pretty long one for my birthday. He was pretty vague, but he's usually like that," Sasuke said. "He sent one to Ryuuka too. She carried it around with her for two days, saying that it smelled weird to anyone that would listen."

"He sent me a letter as well," said Neji, proving that he was listening despite Sasuke's suspicions about sleep.

"I'm up next," grumbled Shikamaru, "but not for a month or so. Last year he sent me a weird rock from the borders of Rain; said that it fell from the sky."

"It's more likely that Jiraiya-sama threw it at him." Sakura snickered with some of the others. "Kaka-sensei is actually the next one up to receive a letter and a small gift. Knowing Naruto, it'll probably be a plant for Kakashi to take care of. The only one that gets regular letters from him is Riko-san and that's because she threatened to come after him if she didn't get at least one letter every month."

"Gaara hears from him a lot," pointed out Kiba. Sasuke frowned. That Naruto in regular contact with a former psycho was almost as suspicious as the light comments Danzou had made about his mother.

"How do you know?" asked Ino.

"I was talking to Kankurou, the guy's older brother, the last time he was here for the chuunin exams. He told me Naruto and Gaara yak a lot. They're working on some plot together. Gaara's been doing a lot of research for Naruto through reconnaissance records."

So, the idiot was hiding things… This needed investigating if only because Naruto had an alarming habit of delving into highly explosive situations and accidentally setting them off. Sasuke usually got dragged into helping the idiot salvage his messes.

"I wonder what Naruto is doing." Shino's monotonous tone made his words seem anything but what they indicated. That he had asked showed his interest though. Shino was stoic like that, annoyingly so.

"Well, there's one way to find out," said Ino. "We'll just have to get Riko-san to tell us! Sakura, you should ask. She'd never suspect you."

* * *

"You're going with a team or not at all."

Nariko met Tsunade's narrowed golden eyes as the Hokage rested her chin on her laced fingers, elbows propped on her desk. "So they can report back to you on what my clan head says?"

"Of course. But also, I'm told Uchiha Itachi used to mind Naruto and knows about you. The chances that he hasn't told Akatsuki are slim. You're not safe wandering out there by yourself anymore. Why do you think you have an ANBU tail, most days?"

"Because you don't trust me."

Tsunade-sama arched an eyebrow. "There's that too, but checking your mail seems to be more than enough there."

Nariko sighed. "I suppose I should be grateful you're letting me go at all. How much will the escort cost?"

"Nothing. You're going to Suna right after your meeting. If you're going to be in that neck of the woods, the least you can do is scout out the situation before I send my ambassador to fix that treaty. You can act as a secretary too, since I'm not interested in sending another person out with the ambassador."

"A working holiday." Nariko pursed her lips and shrugged. "Sounds like a plan."

Tsunade smirked. "Get packing then. Bring something nice. Suna's going to be picking a Kazekage while you're there, and you can't be a brown ghost at the talks, even if you are a secretary. Konoha's colour is red, but I'll let you include some black to pacify your need to be drab."

Nariko's lip curled. "Thank you ever so much, Hokage-sama."

"You're welcome. Scat."

* * *

Nariko gave Shikamaru, who would be in charge of taking care of her place while she was in Suna, a one-armed squeeze. "Thanks again for doing this!" she called as she rushed out the door, tossing him her keys.

Sakura waved at her as soon as she got to the gates, and Haku smiled, leading a horse that was laden with bags. Sasuke was eyeing the beast sourly.

"What's all this?" she asked, gesturing at the poor animal while she let it sniff her hand.

"Tsunade-shishou sent along supplies so the official delegate will be unburdened for speedy travel," Sakura said. "Why is your bag so big?"

"Clothes," Nariko complained heatedly. "Tsunade-sama insisted I had to look the part. How come it doesn't matter what you wear?"

"It does," Zabuza said. "We all had to bring a set of formal robes or bring money to buy them there. It seems that the appointment of a Kazekage after having Suna under the rule of a provisional council for so long is a big thing. Stop jabbering; we need to go. Scoot up on that horse in front of the packs. You won't like the pace we're going to set. The less time on the road, the better."

She spared him her polite agreement: he was a man that hated idle chitchat. Instead, she communicated with action, vaulting up and settling herself gingerly on the gelding's wide back. His assumption that she was prepared to stay astride for hours on end was laughable. However, she kept her derision to herself and followed the four ninja out the gates, resolving to nurse her aches from riding in private.

* * *

"Why are we going to this little town?" asked Sakura during their last night in River Country before striking into Wind. They had sold the horse only hours before and were settled around a fire near pond, the forests of River to their backs and the scrublands transitioning into desert to the fore. The fire gave warm light in the moonless, overcast night.

Nariko shrugged. "It's where my clan head wanted to meet with me. I cannot go to Earth because of my tie to your village, so Hokori Village was the best option."

"But don't you come from Southern Fire? What was your clan head doing in Earth?"

Nariko chuckled. "Ah, I see. Well, my clan has many branches, you see? The clan head is head of all of them and so they travel from branch to branch, spending two days with every clan member throughout the journeying. Earth was simply the country the clan head and the retinue were moving through when the meeting was being arranged. The meeting was long postponed because of the need to complete the progress through Earth and Bird and Rain."

Sakura arched a brow, but didn't question this further. Instead, she shifted topics. "I heard that Naruto is close to Gaara-san now. Will we see him in Suna if Gaara is made Kazekage?"

"Perhaps. I haven't heard anything definite. He's busy right now."

"With what?"

Nariko arched a brow now. "With things, Sakura. Why the sudden interest?"

Haku watched them, amused.

"No reason…"

"Really."

Sakura started picking at a loose thread on her leggings. "Well, it's just that I've heard that Naruto and Gaara were plotting something…"

"Something."

"Yes, something. No one is sure what. It's just, none of us really know Gaara-san, so we were curious."

"Hm." Nariko grimaced. "I see that Naruto hasn't told you then. I wonder why."

"Will you tell us, then?"

"No. If he hasn't, he probably has his reasons. It'll be his story to tell." Nariko stretched as she got to her feet. "We leave at dawn, Zabuza-san?"

The former Mist-nin nodded curtly, not looking up from running a whetstone over the edge of his blade. "You'll be carried, along with those damn papers."

Bowing her head, Nariko crawled into the tent she shared with Sakura, feeling ambivalent towards the proposed method of travel.

* * *

It proved uncomfortable, mostly because of the heat. Haku bore her weight while the packs were distributed among the other three ninja. Haku seemed to have the smoothest stride and failed to tire as the sun trekked along its arc, but Nariko hated this all the same. She felt like a sack of rice being borne along this barren landscape. To the south, sand was all there was. Here, sand gave way to parched, cracked soil playing host to only the toughest of plants. Wind-worn cliffs formed plateaus that had to be scaled and run along. The steppe grew greener as they drew nearer to the border with Bird.

Noon was a memory when Nariko was passed over to Sasuke. Sasuke's run wasn't as smooth, but he had more muscle than Haku, so she felt like less of a burden, but being lugged around by the boy she had helped raise was just that much more humiliating.

"Relax," said Sasuke as they scaled another hillock. "It's like carrying a board."

Nariko froze. Long ago, in another life, Shiro had said the same thing to a little girl perched on his back as he carried her through town. Smiling slightly, Nariko shook her head and loosened her muscles to ride out the rocking of Sasuke's chakra-extended strides instead of jolting with every impact. "Aye-aye, Spry Hawk."

He glanced back at her with a raised brow, but she didn't elaborate on the reason for her grin.

Hokori Town appeared out of the grasslands just as a sliver of moon was rising, though they found its long distance telephone lines first and its high voltage lines shortly after. They followed the former into the outskirts. Most of the buildings here seemed not to be buildings at all, but rather pavilions and tents erected by the tribes that moved in and out of town with the seasons and their herds of horses, cattle, camels, or llamas. Only buildings in the town centre were permanent, providing the roots of the town, which served as the location all traders came to try their luck with the tribes instead of hunting them down individually, a daunting task.

Sasuke set her down when Zabuza-san nodded to him.

"Where are we going from here?"

"A hotel," Nariko said, rubbing feeling back into her legs. "The retinue might not have arrived yet. I'll look for them at first light. Thank you for bearing me." She nodded to Haku and Sasuke.

"This way then." Zabuza marched them off to the nearest hotel and let Sakura and Nariko handle getting them rooms.

* * *

First light found Nariko awake, gazing out the window at the evidence sunrise painted upon the clouds she could see. Nerves had kept her from sleep. Months she had endured not knowing what the clan head wanted with her and why her father had sent her. Her letters full of questions had been ignored. She had even risked going to Otafuku Gai to phone home, but her father had brushed aside all questions, insisting that it wasn't his place to say. Her mother had been similarly unhelpful, though equally aggravated with Father for keeping her out of the know. This was unusual; it suggested that even Father didn't know exactly what was going to be discussed.

"Ready already?" Sasuke shut the door to the men's room to the common room behind him and inspected the view out the window around her since he still wasn't tall enough to peer over her shoulder.

"Yes. I've been waiting for someone to wake up."

"You could have woken one of us, you know," he scolded.

She laughed. "Ah, I suppose, but I felt it best to let you all sleep. I don't know how much energy you spent going at that pace yesterday, and I'd rather not bear the guilt of keeping you from rest. Besides, it's unlikely anyone in the retinue is even awake yet to greet me."

"You have to find them first."

"True. Will you come then? You don't have to stay; I'll be safe enough with them. They're an eccentric bunch, but they're family."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and shrugged. "I'm supposed to stay with you."

Nariko grimaced. "They're really eccentric, Sasuke…"

"So are you."

"I'm tame compared to them."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow as he shut the door behind them and followed her down the hotel hallway. "More eccentric than ninja?"

"In their own way…"

"Hm. We'll see."

It was easy enough to find the ground the retinue had claimed in the light of dawn. Brilliantly coloured silks decorated poles set in the four corners of the camp. The pavilions were large and made of heavy enough canvas coated in resin that they could withstand the snow, wind, and rain, yet still remain the brightest blue and yellow, decorated in all the branch symbols, from the hawk of the Yiri Clan branch to the stylized martin of the Matsuku. Three people she recognized were about.

"Tim, Ully, Van!"

The trio of familiar faces turned to face her from where they were gathered around the cooking fire, bickering about the best way to prepare the morning gruel.

"Matsuku?" Tim called, jogging over.

"Ah, yes, Cousin. I go by Nariko, if you recall," Nariko said, bowing.

"Ha! Reed Girl who worshiped Shiro the Egg?" The fifty-year-old Apprentice grinned at her and ruffled her hair. "So you're who we were waiting for. Ilario wasn't sure, but he couldn't find any proof. Grazia wanted to skin him, but ah, what would he taste of?" He nodded to Sasuke. "Your escort?"

"Uchiha Sasuke, ninja of Konoha. He's part of the group overseeing my journey and my brother's best friend. Will you feed him? I dragged him out here with me before letting him eat. I was so eager to find out what this was all about."

Tim laughed and clapped Nariko and Sasuke on the shoulder, much to Sasuke's consternation. "Sure, we'll feed him. Come, young man. We'll introduce you to the pita that's so popular in western Earth. They have this dip of sorts called humus that goes well with it…"

Free from her guard, Nariko headed toward the largest of the pavilions, which had the traditional red tassels over the entrance. Nariko bowed her way into the tent, so she didn't see the cannonball headed her way until the young girl had her flattened to the floor. "Password?" demanded the child, her eyes narrowed under a mop of curly black hair and above a nose that could have ploughed a field.

"Keep faith," Nariko wheezed. "And get off me, you brat!"

"Sienna! Off!" A wizened old man entered the "entrance" partition of the tent, his back slumped with wear and care. "Family is not to be bowled over." He helped Nariko to her feet before accepting her kisses to his cheeks.

"Grandfather, it is always a joy to see you."

He patted her hand grinned gummily at her. "You're Yasu's daughter."

"Yes."

He wandered over to a divan that was piled with books and dug out one with a red cover. He flipped through it until he hit a letter being used as a bookmark. "Ah, yes, here we are. I knew I had heard from him recently."

"I cannot believe he dared send you a letter, Ilario-ojiisama."

Old Ilario raised a thin eyebrow at her. "Because I'm so important?"

"Because the letter's chances of even catching up with you are slim, and then its chances further dwindle when faced with your propensity to use anything that comes to hand as a bookmark."

"I'll have you know I am the most organized secretary the clan has ever had!"

"Ilario! Shut it." The Old Whore herself stepped out from behind the curtains, dressed only in a Suna vest. She had not bothered to zip it up, so her cleavage was in full view, as was her pubic hair as she hadn't bothered with any sort of pants or underwear. No one, not even Nariko, was the least bit surprised.

"Sienna, get her a shawl," whispered Ilario. The girl scampered off.

The Old Whore downed a full glass of red wine before raising an eyebrow at Nariko. "Aren't you a little far from Fire?"

"I was told to meet Grazia here, Concetta, my only love."

The forty-three-year-old Concetta raised one of her well-plucked eyebrows, tossed her luxurious red-brown curls over her shoulder, and stalked forward to pull Nariko into hugs and kisses. "You poor dear, meeting with her means you'll have to wooork."

"I know, Concetta, fairest of courtesans. Will you spare me?"

"You always were something of a tease, Nariko the Reed. Can I have a proper kiss?"

Rolling her eyes, Nariko bent her head and let Concetta push her greedy tongue inside her mouth. Concetta had always been the best kisser and enjoyed sharing her talents with everyone, even distant cousins. Concetta pouted when they both pulled away for air. "You taste of sorrow and much frustration. When was the last time you had sex?"

Nariko pressed a hand to her forehead.

Her blue eyes wide with pity, Concetta pulled Nariko's head into her bosom. "Dearest, you must tell me!"

"Oh, Concetta, fairest of all women, how could I lie with anyone knowing that you existed, ripe for the plucking?"

Concetta bopped her head as Sienna passed the shawl to Ilario, who rolled his eyes and tied it around the Whore's waist when she ignored his attempts to pass it to her. "Nariko-chan, I mean it. How long?"

"Years. So many years."

"Fuck. Reed Girl, I'm getting you laid the moment you're out of the meeting."

"Cet, you always were the nicest of my travelling relatives. I loved you best of the Apprentices."

"Ha! You keep that up and I'll fuck you."

Nariko kissed Cet again lovingly. "You are the best of them, always looking out for the clan's sexual health. Grazia will kill you and me if you fuck any other woman than her, though."

"I wouldn't kill you," rumbled the lover in question, the sturdy Grazia, who, despite her diminutive size and thirty-two years, held the reins of the Matsuku clan in all its incarnations. "I would just make absolutely sure it would never happen again."

"With ropes and chains?" asked Cet, pressing her cheek to Nariko's.

"Exactly."

Concetta laughed and peeled off the vest and tossed it at Sienna before sauntering across the room to inspect the contents of a clothes chest.

Grazia shook her head and turned to Nariko. "Cousin."

Nariko bowed. "Mother."

"Bah, must you do that? It's bad enough they didn't give you a proper Litam name."

"You know that my clan branch felt it wisest to accept the culture we lived in."

"And I say that setting aside our own names and customs just because we get funny looks is beyond stupid, but there we are. I'm the head of this many-named mess of a clan though, so I'm right."

"Of course, Grazia-sama."

"Cet's right, you do need to get laid. Come on. Your father, may he live forever, told me that if I had work for you, I had better be the one to spell it out, since he has no interest in having your mother, may the stars shine upon her path, chastise him into an early grave. How the man managed to give me a phone call at the right place and time, I'll never know. And he got a letter to me. Your father is a fucking genius, Nariko."

Nariko followed Grazia into the bedroom beyond the hangings and into the office off that. They both settled on cushions with a table between them as Grazia pulled out a huge album full of info on every member of the clan that dwelled in Fire. She flipped to a bookmarked page and inspected the notes beside a picture of Nariko from just before she had left Kaijin.

"I wasn't head when we last met at the original house, was I?" Grazia mused.

"No, you were still one of the Nineteen Apprentices, not yet promoted. Rino-sama was still the head then. I was sixteen."

"Ah, that's right. It was just after the incident with Risako." Grazia flipped back a few pages and inspected the photo of Nariko's departed cousin.

"We were grateful that Rino-sama decided to take time out of his progress to assure himself of our wellbeing."

"Pfft, as if he wouldn't. He'd always been interested in going back and visiting his sisters. Kaijin was his home."

Nariko shook her head. "The clan head's home is with all branches of the clan, not the one he hails from."

"I'd call bullshit on you, but it does become true. The Boteri clan compound in Grass isn't as much my home as all the branches houses are now. I never get to stay at any of them long enough, but they're always so damn happy to see me."

"Because you are Head, Grazia-sama. Of course we love you. That you would give up home to travel to see all of us, all through every season, for every year of your life until you pass headship on to one of the Nineteen, is more than enough reason for us to love you without question." Nariko leaned across the table and kissed both of the Clan Head's cheeks.

"Even when I'm going to give you a bitch of an assignment?"

Nariko ran her thumbs over Grazia's cheeks. "Any assignment you give is never a bitch because I know you're seeing the whole picture, unlike me. You can see where we need to go in order to create the world we all are striving for."

"You make me wonder why you weren't adopted into the Nineteen."

"Mother would have had a hernia."

Grazia snorted. "Ah, yes." The stumpy woman shook her head, gathered Nariko's hands, and squeezed them, her grey eyes full of regret. "You are on your test."

Nariko narrowed her eyes. "I would be a bit surprised if I wasn't. I am getting older. If they wait much longer, I won't be alive to test."

"You've been on your test for years. Recently, you've been floundering, which is why we're breaking protocol and having me talk to you. Your test is important, more important than the usual tests we all get put through, unless you count Rahim's test."

"Rahim?"

Grazia nodded. "His was to organize the merchant coalition that successfully got the Wind Lord to cut funding to Suna. He's getting on in years now, settled down in southern Wind, running his trading empire while keeping a council seat warm in the Yiri clan compound. His test's success unfortunately led to Suna allying with Oto and attacking Konoha, but Rino-sama hadn't realized that Orochimaru would be such a factor. His ability to make odd wheels turn is unnerving.

"I saw Rahim the year that Konoha was attacked." Grazia continued. "He was feeling uneasy about his success, pointing out the devastation that had been wrought from it. I had to assure him that Rino-sama had thought it was for the best, that this was the way we would finally begin toppling the ninja institution."

"But it didn't work," Nariko whispered. "Suna is regaining ground."

"Yes. I've come to realize that if the shinobi world is to fall, all its pillars must collapse at once. Also, external force is not enough. Nariko, are you ready to hear what your test is? Or can you guess?"

"I thought it was to endure Konoha and escape intact, but from your words, it seems not."

Grazia leaned back and inspected the roof of the tent. "No, it's not. Nariko, how many schools are there in Konoha?"

"One: the Academy."

Grazia nodded. "I've asked questions, these last few years, since I heard that you were crazy enough to venture there. No hidden village has a school besides the one that trains their ninja. This means that every child in the village, no matter what their parents' preference, must go the Academy unless their parents send them beyond the village for schooling or teach them at home. Most parents cannot afford that."

"So you want me to destroy Konoha's Academy?" Nariko doubted it, but she had to ask.

"In the most basic sense, yes. Nariko, your test is much worse than you ever imagined, much harder. Nariko, to earn your place, you must establish the clan in Konoha. You must live there and endure until you die."

Nariko had to take a deep breath. "Until I die."

"Well, until a clan is established. I would not presume to force you to die anywhere other than where you wish. Konoha is a self-perpetuating cycle: ninja will have children, those children will go to the Academy, those children will graduate and become ninja. All who enter Konoha have little choice but to join the circle. Nariko, we must break this cycle. We must use our power to stand firm against society and show everyone that there is a choice, no matter how unpopular it will be.

"The crux of the cycle is the Academy; they get them so young. Another option must be created and made popular. Nariko, I will make the clan follow you, but I need you to show them the way, to make a foothold for us. I will see that every Hidden Village gains a clan compound, a clan component. The civilian presence must increase to put internal pressure on the villages."

Nariko scrubbed at her face with her hands, breathing as evenly as she could. "You're taking away my way home, you know. It's been with me so long, the understanding that I would survive Konoha and go home."

"It's hard, yes. I'm sorry. I told you your test would be a bitch."

"Yes, a bitch indeed."

Grazia shuffled around the table to embrace her. "There, there," she crooned. "Everything you need-money, resources, people-will be given to you. You will not be alone in Konoha anymore. The clan will be with you there in truth. Home will come to you. I will make it so."

"Yes, Okaasama."

* * *

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Timoteo (Tim), Ulisse (Ully), and Vanna (Van). All three of them were over the age of twenty-five and bore strange names. Tim claimed to be from Tea Country, Ully from Hot Spring, and Van from Bird. All of them insisted that they were Riko's relatives and that they had known her since she had been born.

"I saw her mother when she was round with child," said Tim as he refilled Sasuke's plate with cuts of lamb. "Takara was so cross all the time."

"I remember when she was eleven. I got sent to the Matsuku compound in Kaijin on an errand for Rino-sama, and she was in the garden with Itsuki-kun when I arrived. They kept me company until the elders decided what message to send back with me." Ulisse, the youngest of the trio at thirty-six, poured himself more red wine from the crystal decanter they had pulled out half an hour ago and set to filling with a Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon blend from southern Earth.

Riko-neesan hadn't been lying when she insisted these folks were odd.

"Fah! I remember when she was five. Shiro couldn't get her off his tail for even a minute. It was driving him crazy. Then he had to start climbing those trees, and she would try to follow him." Vanna, who had to be sixty if she was a day, sighed and put another green bead on the wire headpiece in the shape of a falcon she was creating as she nibbled on pita and humus. "Oh, here she comes!"

Sasuke glanced at the pavilion, and sure enough, Riko-oneesan was stumbling over to them, looking poleaxed.

"That bad, dearest?" asked Vanna, taking her hand when she got close enough.

Riko nodded and mechanically chewed and swallowed the pita Vanna-san pressed on her.

Timoteo rubbed her shoulders and sat her down on the bench beside Sasuke. "There, girl, eat some lamb. It'll put blood back in your face."

Nariko nibbled on the skewer he forced into her hands.

"You'll be going with Concetta tonight?"

Nariko glared at Ulisse.

"What? It's pretty obvious from the way she stalked out of the tent only ten minutes ago, bent on checking out the clubs that have popped up since we were last here."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, struggling to keep up with the conversation.

"Cet will take good care of you," said Tim, ruffling Riko's hair again. "She's the best."

Vanna sniffed and went back to her beads and wire. "She's getting too old to carry on as she does. It's a wonder she's not completely disease-ridden."

"I think that's more Grazia-sama's doing than Concetta's caution," drawled Riko, rising from her stupor at last. "There would be trouble in paradise if Cet got herpes or something even worse."

Ulisse scoffed. "Cet is far more careful than anyone gives her credit for. She does love Grazia. She wouldn't dare risk infecting her."

The argument carried on from there, only pausing when Riko nodded to Sasuke, indicating that they could escape, bombarded by promises to talk more on the morrow when she was feeling better. Sasuke didn't dare ask what that meant.

"I need to be here for today and tomorrow at least," Riko explained to the team when they returned to the hotel. "I know you need to guard me because of your mission, but I really think there isn't much here to be worried about."

"That's for us to decide," said Zabuza, folding his arms. "You will have a tail. Sakura, you're with her the next time she leaves."

Sakura nodded.

"I'll be going back early this evening," Riko said, "but I'm just going to sleep until then. I leave you all to your own devices."

Sasuke frowned as the door slid shut behind her. He hadn't seen Naruto's sister this subdued since the moron had gone away. He wasn't given much time to ponder over what he had missed, because Zabuza and Haku started quizzing him as Sakura listened intently.

* * *

"You look like she nailed you with a hammer," Cet said as she brushed kohl on Nariko's eyelids.

"It feels like it," Nariko admitted, keeping her eyes closed despite the tickle of the brush.

"Oh hush," grumbled Grazia as she untied the rags that were creating curls in Nariko's freshly dried hair. "It's not as bad as all that. Two hours of moping is more than enough. You're so skinny!" She swatted Nariko's back.

"I know!" said Cet, groping one of Nariko's breasts. "I mean, what have you been eating? Surely there should be more to you than this."

"Stop squeezing it so hard. You're going to push all the air out of it," Nariko said, letting a smile cross her lips. "It took me months to pump enough air into it to hide my real gender."

"Ha!" Cet poked Nariko's belly button. "I see nothing of a boy down there, dear reed." Nariko felt her begin to run another brush covered in red gloss over her lips. "Oh, but you let your holes close up!"

"I hardly had any reason to wear earrings," Nariko said, struggling to stay still.

"Grazia, get the needle."

"Aye-aye, ma'am." The clan head shuffled away as Cet continued to fuss over Nariko's lips. "Here we are. Shall I do them?"

"You've got the steadier hand, my love," Cet admitted. "Nariko, don't bite your lip, please. You'll ruin my work."

The worst part of having her ears re-pierced by her clan head was that Nariko didn't even know when the needle was coming. The apple was suddenly there and then the sharp pinch of the needle spearing through hit her. "Cet, you can't make her wear those. Her ears are going to be tender. Sienna-girl!" The shuffle of smaller feet announced the girl's presence. "Go get me that bottle of gin so we can sterilize her ears and whatever the Old Whore shoves through them."

"Ja, Dame Grazia." The girl ran off again.

Cet sighed. "She's doing it again."

"Doing what?" asked Nariko.

"Reverting to her native tongue. We've told her a thousand times that she has to speak the language of the country we're in, but no, whenever she thinks she can get away with it, she'll go back to German."

"Is she one of the Nineteen?"

"Yes," said Grazia. "We picked her up in Earth Country, near the western border. Her clan branch petitioned for her from the moment she was born. They're into omens, and they insisted the ones over her were good. She was quick and devoted, so I accepted her."

The patter of feet returned.

"Thanks, Sienna-girl. What do you think of your cousin's hair?"

"It's short?" said Sienna in passable Common Tongue.

"It used to be shorter, even shorter than my chin. It's taking a long time to grow back out after it got burned off in an explosion," Nariko said, watching Sienna's eyes widen in the mirror.

Cet giggled and swatted Nariko's shoulder before prodding her into getting up as Grazia pressed a rag soaked in gin to each ear.

Nariko hissed as Cet dug through her piles of costumes. "Do you even know what you're going to wear? You did say you were going with me."

Cet smirked at Nariko. "I don't need to wear anything at all."

"I think your plan to get me laid is going to fail miserably if you do that." Nariko had to laugh as Cet winked and wiggled her hips.

"Never fear, love. I'm the expert."

* * *

Sakura gaped at the two women she was trailing after through the night-time streets of Suna. One looked like a dancer straight out of Arabian Nights. The other was clearly only three steps in class above her, which meant there was just that much more fabric covering her skin. Nariko-san grinned back at her as Concetta-san flaunted her elaborate belly button piercing.

Royal blue scraps for Concetta-san and deep red robes that left her arms and shoulders bare for Nariko-san. Sakura had been decked out too when Concetta-san had realized that Sakura would have to come when Sakura had managed to leave the feasting of the other clan members behind and enter the main pavilion only to find Nariko-san already in makeup and in the midst of being dressed by Concetta-san, Sienna-chan, and the clan head who looked nothing like a clan head, Grazia-sama. The three women and the girl hadn't hesitated in getting Sakura in costume as well. She looked like a miko though.

"We don't want you being deflowered too young," Concetta-san had explained. "This shows that you're off-limits for tonight. Unless you want to be?"

Sakura had vehemently shaken her head, blushing deeply when Nariko-san had hidden a smirk.

"She's saving herself," Naruto's sister had explained, her kohl-rimmed eyes dark and sultry with amusement. It was like Nariko-san was a different person. Sakura had only seen her at home and at work. Never like this.

"Ah," Grazia-san had said knowingly. "Is it your brother?"

Sakura had sputtered angry denials while Nariko-san had laughed. "No, no, it's not Naruto."

It had ended at that, but Sakura still felt the burn of embarrassment every time she had a bit of free space in her head to think about it. Nariko-san dropped back to walk beside her. "Sakura, I don't know how to break this to you, but I'm hoping to disappear for a bit. I'd rather you didn't follow too closely."

Sakura frowned for a moment before understanding hit her. Her mouth worked, but no sound came out.

Nariko-san laughed and shut Sakura's mouth with two bejewelled fingers under her chin. "Ah, I suppose it's good that it was you and not Sasuke. I wonder how Haku would have taken it."

"N-Nariko-san!"

"Sakura, I'm a grown woman. I'm not your blushing maiden, trust me, though it has been a long time since I last played _this_ role, unfortunately. I'm a little out of practice." The simmering mask broke, and Sakura could see Nariko-san grimace just beneath the layer of kohl and rouge. "But…" The mask slid back into place, making Sakura doubt it even was a mask. "I'm not _that_ out of practice." The woman in red silk with delicate bare shoulders and arms smirked at her and coaxed Concetta-san away from a group of women admiring her dangling earrings and into the heat and noise of the club.

Sakura gulped and followed.

Two hours later, Sakura was thoroughly soaked in the deep boom of the beat and the haze of smoke and alcohol that permeated the corner of the room she had found was the best place to stand if she didn't want anyone trying to drag her out onto the dance floor to approach her. Nariko-san was gone, having dragged a man off the floor with a knowing grin and a hand in his about five minutes ago. Sakura had had to stare in awe as the man trailed after her towards a door and out of sight. She hadn't been able to move since. What should she do? Follow despite Nariko's request, as required of her as a guard? Stay away and respect Nariko's privacy and her virgin ears?

"You look lost, little one."

Sakura's hand dropped to her kunai pouch as she glared at the man. "I'm on duty."

"Aw, really? I thought your little dove left a few minutes ago and you let her fly the cage without protest. Are you sure you're working?"

"Back off, pedo," said a smoky voice that had Sakura spinning around to stare at Concetta-san, whose skimpy top had loosened enough to reveal far too much curvature for Sakura's comfort. "She's a little young for you. I'll take care of you, unless you're willing to go hunt something fresher that's legal."

"Ah, my lady, you are a little old for me." The man backed off with a smirk at Concetta-san's poisonous glare.

"Bastard." She turned to Sakura. "You should at least follow her so you know where she is. Good luck and don't be too embarrassed. It's just sex."

Taking a deep breath and failing to keep the blush off her cheeks, Sakura headed out to track Nariko-san down.

* * *

"Ah, reed-girl, you look so much better!" crowed Concetta, diving in for her kiss the next morning. When she pulled away, she nodded thoughtfully. "He wasn't a smoker."

"Nope." Nariko sighed happily. Haku was her guard today, currently being breakfasted by Tim outside, since Sakura needed sleep and currently wasn't able to look her in the eye. Sasuke had been rather unnerved by Sakura's adamant refusal to elaborate on events, but he had backed off when Sakura's temper had frayed at three in the morning when Nariko and Sakura had made it back to the hotel room.

"It was good?"

"It was nice. It's been a looooong time. Thanks for going with me. I'm not sure I would have been able to do it if you hadn't been there putting pressure on me. Also, thanks for getting that pedo off Sakura's back. She would have blown a fuse eventually and knocked the club down around your ears."

Cet laughed and waved it off. "I had to, love. I hate to let anyone lose their virginity before they're ready."

Nariko bent her head to kiss Cet's forehead. Cet was only so determined because she had.

Grazia stepped into the receiving room, dressed in jeans and a polo tee of all things, and smiled. "You do look better. Are you ready to discuss a plan of attack with me?"

Nariko nodded and let herself be dragged by Cet and Grazia back into their room, where they all sat on their bed and nibbled on pieces of bread dipped in melted cheese as they spoke.

"The first thing you need to do is find a site. We need a house to build the clan sanctuary in. The clan only stays as resilient as it is because each branch has a compound they can all gravitate towards for comfort. It's hard for the clan to retain its purpose if it is mired in society. The clan compound is the fortress." Grazia took a sip of wine from a tin goblet.

"There are many compounds in Konoha, but acquiring one…" Nariko's eyes snapped open. "There is one. Naruto's sensei recently inherited it from the last scion of another line. He was saying he would sell it. It's pretty big, out pretty far from Konoha's center, in the midst of some of the farms that are protected by Konoha's wall. The plot of land might be big enough to expand. If not, perhaps the clan could acquire one of the surrounding farms through marriage or money."

"Of course. So, you need the funds to acquire this compound. I'll see what I can round up. How should we send them to you?"

"I'll set up a separate account. It's not safe to have it sitting in my personal accounts. Tsunade-sama may yet require money from me."

"Tsunade-sama? The Hokage gets money from you?" Cet glared. "Reed Girl, what's going on?"

"Stupid bet Naruto made; I had to save him from it in order to bring Tsunade-sama back to Konoha. Don't worry about it."

Grazia raised an eyebrow, but continued. "So, purchase that compound if you can, or another, or buy land. If you can only get land, I'll send you what contractors our family has as well as funds to hire locals."

"I might need contractors from you anyway; the compound is not particularly pretty, though it is structurally sound. The previous owner locked herself into one room and let the rest of the house moulder away."

Cet looked up from her notes. "I'll let the other Nineteen know that we need to search out people right away then." She stood up and began shouting for Sienna and Ilario to round everyone else up the moment the drape closed behind her.

"Because our target is the Academy, I'll be digging up families I can to send to you," said Grazia. "And a teacher or two. If I can't find any within the clan, I'll send whoever I can find, with the offer of room and board."

Nariko nodded. "A gardener would be good as well. The grounds are in bad repair. It is expensive to hire ninja teams, though it would lead to good feeling."

"We want to establish the branch as smoothly as possible, with the fewest ruffled feathers. This is not about conquering; this is about integrating. We want the branch to be welcome in the community, if possible."

Nariko shook her head. "It won't be, at least right off the bat. The clan is not considered a huge threat there, but we are known to some of the upper echelon. We will be thwarted. The association with Naruto won't become as big an issue because public opinion is beginning to shift; he performed some highly visible work during the attack on Konoha, which resulted in his promotion to chuunin."

Grazia smiled. "This is why you are our stepping stone; you know the village and can read its currents. Will you move into the clan house, or will you keep your apartment?"

"I'll keep it until the repairs are done and people begin coming in. Naruto may want to retain it for himself, but I need the support of the clan." Nariko rubbed her cheek. "You have no idea what this means to me. I want children, you know. I've been putting it off because I couldn't abandon Naruto; I wanted to move home so my children would have the same upbringing as me, without the taint of Konoha. I would have sent them home without me if I absolutely couldn't leave."

"You'll have the clan come to you instead." Grazia squeezed her shoulder. "I know you've been worried about sliding. You have changed; I can see it in you-you're harder than you were. But at the same time, it was inevitable, being inundated as you were. With the support, you'll be fine.

"Now, I'll be sending you young men and women as well as some elders. I want to infiltrate Konoha on the most basic level-in the homes of ninja."

Nariko stared, aghast. "Grazia-sama, you want clan members to marry ninja?"

"Yes. It will improve clan standing as well as weaken the hold of the ninja profession over the family. Any child that choses the Academy must become Outcast, of course, cut from the core of the clan because the clan cannot be hypocritical, fighting against the ninja profession while allowing its own members to work in the field. At the same time, being part of the clan will encourage them to choose other professions. We must make it alright for them to be carpenters, plumbers, accountants, librarians, doctors, etc. full time. I've heard through your family from you that ninja do take other jobs to fill their time between missions. This is a start, a platform we can build on."

"But marry ninja! You would have clan members suffer the contradiction?"

Grazia waved away the protest. "Sacrifices that each clan member will choose to make. If they don't want to marry a ninja, that's fine. If they do though, I say good. Their spouse cannot be welcomed into the clan core, but their children will have that chance."

"So all this to steal their ninja children."

Grazia grinned. "Yes. This will be my experiment. If it works, we'll head into every village, no matter how slow the progress. We'll begin to put external pressure in addition to this. Rahim has shown us that this can be done. We'll begin working into the samurai clans, the mercenary villages, everywhere we have been waiting to target."

"So we will make all the world our family." Nariko laughed. "A good plan. Now I see why Rino-sama chose you of all the Nineteen when he decided to settle in that Lightning clan compound permanently."

Grazia smiled evilly. "Of course."

* * *

"Nariko-chan," called Ilario as Grazia hurried off to make phone calls, "will you humour an old man?"

"What is it you wish of me, Ojiisama?" she asked as she approached his messy piles of books.

"Will you play a game of checkers with Memory himself?" His gummy smile was crooked, but his grey eyes were solemn.

She knelt and helped him arrange the pieces on the board.

He went first.

"Why this game, Ojiisama?"

"Shougi? Chess? Ticktacktoe? Were you expecting those?"

The smile fell off Nariko's face. "No. I was suspecting Sudoku. You work more along the lines of constraint satisfaction, Ilario-sama. As a secretary, you work much as I do, fulfilling the wishes of your client to the best of your ability. We work within the constraints."

"A wise girl, though young yet." He moved another piece. "Tell me, Raimei-chan, where is the clan not?"

_A young girl running screaming through the house from her pursuing brother collided with her father, her mother behind him, and grinned up at them both until she detected their sorrow. The father knelt and said,_ "There is no clan in Water."

Ilario nodded. "But it was not always so. Not long ago, the Marino branch thrived in Water."

Nariko froze. "Then the civil war happened."

"Hmm, not quite. I have been secretary for many years. I have lived through Rino's reign and through his predecessor's. Grazia's idea is not new. We have always relied upon family, so it is no surprise that targeting family, much as you will now target the children, has been tried.

"Water is isolated, though it was less then than it is now. It was thought that Hidden Mist would be the perfect ground to begin bringing about the end of the ninja world. We would be able to try our plan out in peace, without worrying the other nations, the other villages.

"Clan members assiduously targeted the clans, for Mist's strength was then in its diverse specialized bloodlines. They married well into the clans as they chose, befriended members, began sowing doubt, planting other ideas, our ideas. Rumblings began, for not only did we target the ninja. The peasants were being oppressed, our family among them. If we could push for a better place for everyone, beginning in Water, the whole dream would come true at once.

"But there was a greater power to the Daimyo, to the Mizukage, than we had suspected.

"The civil war began, despite the pleas of the clan with the rebels. Fighting was bitter, but the clan fled from it, refusing to stain themselves, helping whoever needed help escaping, though there were few places to escape too. But the clan was not allowed to escape. Slowly, meticulously, clan members died in skirmishes, in accidents. Midway through the civil war, three quarters of the Marino branch was dead. The members realized that they were being specifically targeted and began to try to flee. But the borders had been closed almost from the start. It was hard for them to even get news to us. It was impossible for us to go to them, though fortunate, that. I have no doubt the clan head and the Nineteen would have been eradicated had we set foot on their shores.

"By the end of the civil war, every member of the Marino branch, no matter how young, was dead, as far as we knew. We've sent people to search, but our albums for Water are incomplete. There may be those that survive that do not know they belong to us as we belong to them.

"The lesson, Nariko-chan, is that history is repeating here. I have told Grazia-sama this story. She has combed through it, even commissioned ninja from Lightning, Rock, Wind, and Leaf to investigate so she will know what mistakes not to repeat. But there is only so much that can be avoided.

"Nariko, you are Branch Marino here. You must know what you are walking into, with your eyes wide open. There is no clan in Water. There must always be clan in Fire."


	61. Chapter 61

Chapter 61: Two Pentacles

Naruto sat on a precipice, watching the choppy sea scrape away at the rocks far below. He could barely tell it was summer up here: the clouds obscured the sun and the barren rocks and scrubby forest were anything but vibrant. The wind constantly carried loads of chalky soil and dead pine needles. And he had though the desert was dead…

The meeting was not going well. The Yonbi container, Shouta, was reluctant to have anything to do with anyone, especially Naruto, who was obviously an outsider in this miniscule village.

What Naruto had learned about Shouta had come from his neighbours after Shouta had chased him away with a pitchfork and an axe, shouting obscenities. Shouta had come from Hidden Rock a long time ago. Nobody knew why he had left his village or how he had gotten away with it, but they knew why he was here. Shouta was taking care of his dead brother's two children: a girl about three years old named Ai and her six-year-old brother, Aoi. Naruto had to wonder what the father and mother had been thinking when they named their poor kids. Whatever the parents had been before, they were no longer alive and Shouta was in charge of the children. He worked as a forester while Aoi desperately tried to supplement their diet by growing a garden while he watched over Ai.

Although Shouta had been a ninja, he seemed to be trying to escape from that now. That wouldn't save him though. If Yugito could find out about him without too much trouble, there was no doubt that Akatsuki would find him. Naruto had to figure out a way to get in Shouta's good graces. Jiraiya was being no help at all: the old pervert had found out that someone in the community distilled whiskey and had taken a liking to the taste and the burning sensation. He was currently mourning the lack of loose women and the fact that it was a little too cold to be bathing outdoors, so he couldn't peep.

Left without options, Naruto descended into his mind to have a long overdue talk with the fox. Kyuubi had been trying to enter his dreams lately, angry that he had been left to stew alone for over a year. Naruto grimaced at the basement look of his mind and tried to will it to be a bit brighter, but it continued to reflect his desolate mood.

Naruto could hear Kyuubi distantly, but he decided to wander a bit before he confronted the fox. Spiffy, he was taking a stroll around his mind. He was positive that he would have been labelled insane if anyone had cared to check. He travelled down many corridors, studying the leaking pipes and watching long forgotten memories in the water pooling around his feet. One corridor was occupied with memories of Ryuuka, which connected to a Mikoto corridor and then a Sasuke hallway. There was a section devoted entirely to memories of quiet afternoons in the thicket that was his room, which Naruto lingered in for a long while before turning resolutely to face the fox.

"**It took you long enough to come,"** grumbled Kyuubi from behind the bars of his cage. **"I don't see what is so interesting in here. You are in your own mind. Surely, you know what's in it. Or were you just trying to avoid coming before me?"**

"Fox, you think awfully highly of yourself. I'm here to pay a visit, not to bow down at your feet. I figured you'd gotten lonely by now."

"**Pshaw! I am Kyuubi no Kitsune. I have no need of a midget's company. You talk, but you have no teeth to match your boasts of indifference."**

"Sure I have teeth," said Naruto. "They're right here!" He bared his teeth, grimaced, and then grinned as widely as he could.

"**You are lucky there are bars between us. If you didn't have the sense that green apples have, I would eat you and have done with it."**

"But then you'd be lonely in my body. Besides, if I go, so do you. I've been studying my seal. It looks like our souls are bound together. If I go, I'll drag you along with me into the afterlife. I don't know if you'd be able to break free there because of your immortality, but I wouldn't count on it. Dad knew what he was doing when he came up this thing. He didn't do it on a whim."

"**Brat. He had little time to spare to come up with a solution."** Kyuubi almost seemed obscenely proud of just how hard he had pressed the village.

"I still want to know why you were in Konoha. The stories say that you just appeared out of nowhere."

"**Fool, have you never heard of summoning contracts?"**

Naruto nodded despite the fact that the question was mocking and he was not intended to answer. Pissing Kyuubi off was second nature, an instinctive reaction to bastards and all that. "Yeah, I have one with the toads. I can even summon the boss toad if I use your chakra," he kindly enlightened Kyuubi, who didn't appreciate Naruto's sense of humour.

Kyuubi peeled his hackles back from over his canines as Naruto snickered. **"Yes, I remember that one. He was there when I was sealed. Curse him for me the next time you call upon him. There is a contract for many species."**

"You're saying that some ninja set you on Konoha?"

"**I say nothing. You infer."**

"You're a stinker, dattebayo! You can't just say things like that and not explain!"

"**I am Kyuubi no Kitsune. I can do whatever I want. I do not answer to you."**

"If you don't tell me something good, I'll give myself a little push and let myself fall off this cliff."

The fox glared and then grinned. **"Threatening suicide won't work."**

"You're a bastard."

"**I won't even go into your parentage, unnatural pipsqueak. I will tell you this though: I want you to sign the contract with the foxes if you can get a hold of it. I will not have my vessel associating with toads. It is below me."**

"You just don't like them because one of them helped to get rid of your immortal body. If toads were good enough for my dad, they're good enough for me."

"**Not here, they aren't. Think about it if it doesn't cause your head to explode and kill us both: during the winter, your toads are almost useless. Even those that breathe fire would be slowed by the cold. Toads also prefer a fairly moist environment. Foxes need no such things. Besides, I am the head kitsune on this mortal plane of existence, thus I have power over all foxes. You would have no need of alliances with foxes as you need when you summon your toad boss. You still have yet to drink sake with him."**

"You know, I think you've got something up your sleeve, or you would if you had sleeves. I think I'm better off sticking with toads for the time being. Besides, I don't even know where your scroll is."

"**It moved recently.** **I could sense it moving farther away from me. It was carried by a wolf through a forest, but it was dropped when an even greater predator came after it. Those who held it before were not willing to part with it. Those that took it bought it with lives. This happened only a few weeks ago. Maybe your litter-sister will know."**

"Even if she does (which I doubt: why would she know what a wolf did with some stupid scroll?), that doesn't mean she'll tell me. She knows that she can't say just anything in her letters. If she starts blabbing, she'll be in danger. She's not stupid."

"**She's a vixen. Most vixens are not noted for being wise."**

Naruto did not dignify that lame jab with a reply.

"**Pshaw. You're hardly engaging company."**

"You destroyed all the intelligent company before you got your ass stuck inside of me. Now, I've noticed that you and Ero-Sennin are trying to fiddle with my seal. I know why you're doing it: you're pretty transparent. However, why is Ero-Sennin doing it?"

"**I do not spend my time in here pondering over the motives of a lame human that must pay vixens to lie with him."**

"Of course you do. You must be just as curious. He's fiddling with something that holds you in check. I'm sure you've been watching avidly to see if he makes a mistake."

Kyuubi raised his hackles, his burning eyes glaring at Naruto. **"You are insolent."**

"Kits are always insolent. They don't know any better."

"**I am sure you wouldn't know 'better' if it bit you on the nose. The lame one is fiddling with the seal, yes. He is working in a direction that will allow more of my power to seep through it."**

"Meaning that more of your influence will come through too."

The fox did not reply.

"Well, I'll have to see what I can do about that. While I know you're uncomfortable cooped up in here and I dislike you being in me almost as much as you hate being stuck here, the last thing I want is for you to dominate _my_ body. We'll have to find you another one."

"**The lame one knows that without my power you would be helpless. He seeks to give you more access to it so that you will be strong enough. Only by depending on my power do you have a chance."**

"Really? Well, that's not right. He's supposed to train me to be strong without you, not train me so that you'll be my crutch. You'll have more of a chance to take over if I become dependent on you, right?" Naruto gave an ugly laugh when the fox was too quick with his reply. "Yeah, I bet you're really happy about what Ero-Sennin is doing.

"Now, I came here for a reason. You know that I'm trying to gather all those like you and me together so we can become a pack, or a litter in your mind since you foxes are solitary creatures. We want to become family of a sort so that we can save each other from Akatsuki, which intends reduce you to a simple power source. If they succeed, you will be bodiless and I will be dead."

"**There's no guarantee that I won't be able to create a body for myself by sacrificing a tail or two once you are gone."**

"We don't know how they are going to seal you though. They could put a strong hold on you."

"**There aren't many devices that could hold me once my soul is separated from yours."** Kyuubi's utter lack of concern was rather annoying, especially given Snake's recent death and given how Naruto had been running for more than a year now.

"Count on the fact that if it works, they'll have it. I'm sure that someone has tried sealing you bijuu before."

"**Yes, in earliest days of the shinobi era there was an attempt. They were not successful in capturing us. Their device was never really tested. It was a bound statue of the king of hell with nine eyes. I had one of my subordinates investigate it while they were trying to take down Nekomata. That hell cat enjoyed ripping them to pieces."**

"You're almost as sadistic as Yugito. She's scary in her letters. You should see them. You two would get along really well, or you'd kill each other."

"**She would die. She cannot match me."**

"You're so cocky. Somebody is going to come along some day and beat your ass. Wait," drawled Naruto sarcastically, ignoring the fox's increasing rage, "it already happened. My dad did it. Maybe you're like this because you're compensating for something."

Kyuubi's paw slammed against the bars and his golden eyes narrowed to slits of molten fury. The water around Kyuubi's bulk began to froth and evaporate in response to the bijuu's rage. **"Shut up, yellow brat. The yellow midget had nothing on me. He was foolishly self-sacrificing, and his hopes are ashes in your hands."**

Naruto had had about enough of the fox's abuse of the Yondaime. He stood up and began to walk out of the chamber.

"**Where are you going?"**

"I'm leaving. You're no help. I'll come up with some way to convince Shouta on my own. You don't know anything about how to get into someone's good graces. I don't know why I thought you could help in the first place. Even Sasuke, who is a sarcastic bastard, would be more help than you."

Naruto sat quietly on the cliff again once he came awake. He really needed someone who was good at getting other people to talk and listen. One person who had tried to teach him that skill was his sister, which reminded him of her recent letter. He pulled it out again, still not quite sure what she was hinting at. It was weeks old already, but Naruto was still puzzling over some of her stranger phrases.

"_Dear Otouto,_

_I'm glad you have finally contacted me. I am also glad to hear that you have met the Sister. She sounds quite interesting. I am pleased she was able to get you in touch with four others. I hope your attempt to pacify them goes well._

_In regards to the grey man, I'll tell you this. He was off filing some bloody papers for boss in that wood cabinet with the jammed lock when he got hurt. He got sliced up; I think he's really bothered by it even though it's comparable to a paper cut. Other than that, he strained his eyes trying to read some fine print for a case against the one that tripped him up after he got the stupid papers. I was worried when he came into the hospital. He'd gotten pretty roughed up. The jester, the red-eyed hen, the zookeeper, and I are taking turns watching over him as he recovers._

_Anyway, there are rumours going around that our crabby friend will soon be sitting on a high-backed chair. I'm sure that he's told you all about it if he's mentioned it to me. He's invited me to come to the ceremony when they bring the new chair in for him early so that you and I can catch up if you show your face. Boss says that I can go (she owes me a holiday), but she wants me to represent the office in my capacity as a paperclip substitute. I'll get the deer to graze the lawn while I'm away. They're pretty smart about it._

_Boss also says that the loudmouth will be ordered to crabby man's chair ceremony. He's a loud talker, so Boss is hoping he'll say something interesting. Maybe he'll compliment the boss's house. It got painted recently. What a lot of work. I've still got brushes lying around the house. Boss says that some average painter will be bending himself into a paperclip while I'm away. I'll be sorry to miss it. It's sure to be funny. Boss may be disappointed and learn to appreciate my paperclip imitation and my own painting skills. Boss is sending some puppies and some wet shirts with me: one of them is really cold._

_In regards to me hooking you up with some girls, don't count on it too much unless you come to the party too. I may be able to get some to come along to that, but I doubt they'll journey all the way out to you with only the toads in the forest and their croaking for company. Boss is afraid that the pretty girls will get warts and then they'll be useless._

_I'm counting on you dying blonde streaks into your hair by the time we meet next. The loudmouth should be able to help you with that, right?_

_Anyway, I know that you're concerned about your lawn, so I'll tell you right now that everything is wonderful with it. I hope you find something on the road to mow like you used to mow the lawn._

_Best wishes and hoping to see you at the party even if you don't have blonde streaks,_

_The Ugly One"_

The oddness of her letter had him laughing again. It was just as strange as it had been the first time he had read it. His sister needed to spend less time on these things.

It was obvious to Naruto who the "four others" were: Yonbi.

The grey man was Kaka-sensei, but Naruto wasn't quite sure what Neechan meant in her description of his activities. It was obvious that Kakashi had gotten injured on his last mission, but Naruto wasn't sure if "filing papers… in the wooden cabinet" was to be taken almost literally or if it just referred to a mission. The description of Gai-sensei, Mikoto, and Yuugao made him laugh though.

The "chair raising" was Gaara's attempt to become Kazekage. From the sounds of it, Gaara had pretty much been confirmed. If that was true, he had to hurry here so that he could meet Gaara and Neechan in Suna.

"Painting" meant that she had just finished Konoha's taxes. Apparently, she still had lots of papers lying around the house. Some chuunin was going to take over for her while she was away.

The "puppies" were his teammates because Kaka-sensei had been Dog-san. It seemed that Sakura and Sasuke were going to be the ones taking his sister to Gaara's ceremony along with two "wet shirts." At first, this reference had confused him, but now he knew that "the cold one" was Haku and the other was Zabuza; they were former Mist-nin, so the wet reference made sense.

From the sounds of it, Tsunade-baachan had a mission for Jiraiya in Suna and she was going to let Neechan bring some papers there for Naruto to look over. He really hoped that Shikamaru took good care of his plants while Riko was away.

The thought of plants brought a smile to his face. He scrambled away from the cliff in the direction of the cottage, intent on offering some help to Aoi with his garden.

* * *

"Keep faith," whispered Grazia as she and Nariko embraced on the fourth day after their initial meeting. "I will be coming to inspect your progress when I finish with the clan members in Wind and River."

"I look forward to having something to show you."

"Don't worry if you don't. I know these things take time." Grazia kissed both of Nariko's cheeks before shoving her towards the Nineteen so she could inspect these ninja that were taking care of her cousin. She beckoned the four of them closer. The bandaged man had dangerous eyes that made Grazia shiver, but the other three were younger and not so frightening. That wasn't to say that being in their presence didn't make Grazia uneasy though; the pale boy with black hair and dark grey hair, Sasuke Tim had said he was called, regarded her coolly. He probably figured that he had been kept from listening in on her conversations with Nariko and the others on purpose, which was true enough.

It was unlikely that the Hokage hadn't sent these four to spy.

"It is good of you to protect my cousin," Grazia said instead, smiling at them, glad she had put on a robe they expected to see her in if only so that she would command their respect.

"Matsuku-sama, we hope the meeting went well," said the leader, Zabuza.

"It went very well. I was glad to see my cousin. We have been worried for her, living among an unfriendly populace for so long. We are glad to hear that she had finally made some friends and settled in better."

The Sasuke boy didn't look pleased. "Riko-san has been my mother's friend since I entered the Academy."

"Of course. I have heard about Uchiha Mikoto and how greatly she helped my cousin. But all the same, I am glad that my cousin's circle is widening, no doubt because of your mother's help."

The Uchiha boy nodded respectfully now.

"I hear that you will travel to Suna now. My retinue is headed south as well, but there are other towns we must visit along the way. It is a pity; we would be grateful for company through the lonely desert."

The ninja all nodded, but made no offers to wait. It was as Nariko had said then; the mission in Suna was not to be delayed. Nariko had finished saying goodbye to the other members of Grazia's retinue and was making her way over.

"How will you travel?" Grazia asked. "You have no horses, so I suppose on foot, as you did to come here?"

"Yes, we'll be carrying her and the packs again," said Zabuza, looking impatient now. His stance suggested that chitchat wasn't supposed to be part of his job description.

The Sakura girl took over, perhaps sensing this. "Yes, horses or other beasts of burden would only slow us down. It's a two-day journey from here to Suna. Carrying everything in rotations is the best way."

Grazia smiled. "Then I wish you luck. May I meet you on your home ground soon."

* * *

"What did she mean by that?" Zabuza asked Nariko as they loped over the dunes, the steppe's grasslands having disappeared into the distance during the morning.

"She's going to come visit me in Konoha. She's curious." Nariko was wilting under the sun. Sweat plastered her clothes and her hair to her skin, and poor Haku was taking the climate even worse. They took shelter in a gully for an hour to eat lunch and drink water before Nariko was shifted over to Sasuke's back, and they began again until nightfall. They stopped again and debated resting for the night. Zabuza insisted they press on and bore her weight again as they continued the run through the night at a pace that Nariko knew she couldn't match at her fastest sprint. When the sun started to rise, she was shifted over to Sakura for the homestretch. She felt guiltier than ever when Sakura showed signs of flagging energy. Sasuke dropped back to check on them every so often, his eyes full of worry as Sakura's pace dropped.

"Do you want to switch?" he asked gruffly when they were travelling at a pace that Nariko could have kept up with over a hundred-metre dash.

"No," said Sakura, her face determined. "Stamina has always been my biggest weakness. Naruto is a powerhouse, and you work so hard that your reserves are near his natural ones now. I've never been able to keep up. The only way for me to increase the size of my reserves is to keep working at it. This is good training. I think that's why Zabuza had me carry Riko-san last."

"Fine."

"I'm very glad that you wish to improve yourself, Sakura," Riko said, "but if you drop me, I won't be pleased. At this pace, I'd break my neck if I went flying."

Sakura laughed and kept going.

When Suna finally appeared on the horizon, there was a muted cheer from a couple throats. Nariko studied it intently from her jouncing perch. The cliffs started out as no more than a stain to the southwest, but as the minutes passed, they became more and more defined. Within two hours, she could make out the jagged steps that some demented hand had formed.

Beside her, Sasuke glared out across the sandy expanse, the skin covering his high cheekbones burnt from the sun and rubbed raw by the ceaseless wind. His pale, delicate skin was going to give him hell unless he found some balm. From the way Sakura glanced at him from time to time, Nariko had no doubt that the girl was considering the same thing. Maybe Gaara or his siblings would have some recommendations.

She hoped so because her own face wasn't much better off. She wasn't as pale as Sasuke though, so she had been spared a bit. Her inner thighs were almost chafed raw from the rub of her pants though. The human run was not the steadiest pace to sit. The fewer legs, the rockier the gait. Riding the horse had been much steadier, even at the trot.

Of all of the ninja, Haku's sprint had been the smoothest. Crouching over his shoulders hadn't been quite as trying an experience as attempting to balance out Sakura's rocky stride as the girl's energy flagged. Hearing her gasp for breath made Nariko feel as heavy as the horse. She had the strangest urge to diet if they were going to do the same thing on the way home.

"Almost there," Sasuke said almost reassuringly, and Sakura nodded jerkily before setting her chin. Nariko couldn't see her eyes, but she had the feeling that those flinty green irises were fixed on the chasm that had to be the entrance to Sunagakure. Nariko squeezed Sakura's shoulder gently, trying not to offset Sakura's loping balance too much as they covered the last ten kilometres in a surge of renewed vigour with their goal in sight.

"Slow down," Nariko insisted as they got within a kilometre. Sakura faltered slightly and staggered to a walk. "That's a girl," Nariko congratulated her as she patted her shoulder again. "Let me down. I'll jog the last bit with you. The last thing you need is your muscles seizing up just when we get to the gate."

Sakura's arms went limp enough that Nariko managed to disentangle herself and dropped to the ground in time to steady the weary kunoichi.

"You did an amazing job," Nariko insisted as she kept the girl upright with an arm around her shoulders, propping her up as much as reducing the amount of weight Sakura had to carry by lifting her slightly. "There is no way I could do what you just did. You ought to be extremely proud." Nariko hoped her words helped to reduce the sting of defeat when the others arrived at the gate a full five minutes before them. She figured that Sasuke's quiet nod had more of an effect though. Typical.

"We've already checked in with these two," Zabuza explained, gesturing to the two Suna ninja, who were dressed in the same drab colours that Nariko remembered seeing several Suna ambassadors wearing during official visits. They both wore headscarves to protect their heads from the wind, the draping cloth also shielding them from the harsh sun and glare.

"We were informed of your impending arrival by Gaara-san," explained the one in tope robes and a faded burgundy burnoose. "If you will just follow me…"

"They'll do no such thing," said a blank voice from the shadows of the corridor between the cliffs. Nariko froze. She well remembered that voice. It had been filled with vile amusement and sadism the last time she had heard it. Letters had been exchanged since then, but letters were nothing when faced with the real thing. Letters could be edited to contain milder sentiments; voices could do no such thing. Still, this voice had changed.

"Ah… Gaara-san, I-I was just about to—"

"To lead them to an audience with the council," Gaara stated.

The gate guards exchanged nervous glances before the almost guide stepped forward again to address the concealed Gaara. "The council wished to speak to them," he stammered, his voice dwindling rapidly as Gaara finally stepped out of the shadows to stare at them with those horribly dead eyes. Though just as teal and cold as Nariko remembered, there did seem to be a hidden spark in them now, a sign of life that hadn't been there before. Maybe Gaara had found a purpose. His infrequent letters had indicated as much, but it was so easy to lie with words and he had no reason to tell her the truth. He had only kept in contact with her out of courtesy and perhaps out of friendship with Naruto. He certainly observed her as dispassionately as ever before turning back to the Suna-nin.

"The council wishes for many things, including my demise."_ Hmm, Gaara was still painfully blunt. _It almost made her proud. "I make it my task to thwart some of those desires. Step aside."

The ninja hesitated, but another look at Gaara's face had them moving out of the way. Gaara beckoned to them without another word, leading them into the shadow of the cliffs. Still hovering at Sakura's side with Sasuke just behind them, Nariko trailed after the wary Haku and Zabuza.

"What was that about?" Sakura asked as the gate guards faded behind them.

Gaara shook his head. "It is not safe to speak here. Wait."

Now that didn't sound good at all. Nariko's stomach, which had been tossed about all day, curled into a tiny ball and seemed to fill with lead as they wandered through the mostly empty streets of monotone Suna. What a depressing place. The buildings looked to be made of clay mixed with native sand, and the wind was ceaseless even in the depression.

"Is this your house?" Sakura asked when they came to the door of a large building just as plain as the rest of the bulbous houses on the street. This one was unique only because it had some teal designs etched into concrete supports.

"Yes. My father was the Kazekage. Due to our position in Suna, my siblings and I were allowed to retain possession of his house. This is the Kazekage's manor, but if all goes well, it will remain in my possession. This is a good thing because otherwise I wouldn't be able to put all five of you up. You might have been assigned diplomatic quarters by the council, which means you would be at their beck and call. This way you'll be mostly outside their jurisdiction."

The moment they got inside, Gaara appraised them coolly. "There is trouble. I am glad your Kage sent ninja."

"More for their familiarity with you and Naruto than anything else."

"What sort of trouble?" Zabuza cut in, glaring Nariko into silence.

"The council is searching for enemies. Politics. It will make ones where there are only shadows if it cannot find real ones to unite Suna against."

"Konoha's treaty is weak," Sasuke said. Nariko stared at him. She had never actually heard him put all those lessons on governance that Mikoto ragged on about to use.

Gaara nodded. "Your diplomat comes to finalize some sections that have recently come under fire. Until the ink is dry, the time is right to strike."

Dammit all! It was just like Tsunade to send her for a holiday into the middle of a brewing political storm!

* * *

After a quick tour of the house, Nariko had a quick shower (water from the aquifer was precious and not to be wasted) and slipped on some clean clothes before dealing with the clothes Mikoto and Yuugao had helped her pick up before she had left.

"That's a pretty kimono," said a voice from the doorway.

Nariko whirled around and spotted the girl she had figured was Gaara's older sister from before the Chuunin Final Exam all those months ago.

"You're Matsuku Nariko, Naruto's sister. We were never introduced, but I've heard about you since. I'm Temari."

Nariko nodded, glad there was no menace in those words. "It is good to meet you, Temari-san. I'm glad you think the robe is pretty. Uchiha Mikoto has good taste."

"So you didn't pick it out?" asked the young woman as she moved into the room, a mocking edge to her words that classified as friendly teasing for Nariko.

"I don't normally wear traditional dress; I barely know how to put it on."

Temari-san laughed. "Really? Well, I can give you a hand if you need it. Kunoichi are all taught these things."

"I would be grateful for your help."

"Oh, don't be too grateful. Hair and makeup aren't my forte. I just know how to get the clothes on properly. I didn't have time for the other things." She plucked the kimono's black obi from the bed and folded it neatly before stashing it in the closet. Nariko could see the kunoichi training for blending into domestic situations clearly in the young woman's deft movements. "How was your journey?"

"Very fast. I've never traveled outside Fire before, and it only took us a little under two weeks despite staying four days in a town to the north so I could meet with relatives. It took me three to move from my southern village to Konoha."

"Hah, it only takes a good kunoichi about two days to go from Suna to Konoha if she goes full out and is prepared to collapse at the end. I keep forgetting that civilians are so much slower."

"We like to take our time and enjoy things when we can."

"You're just saying that."

"Sometimes it's true. I saw so many beautiful sights on my way here. There were a lot of picturesque waterfalls in River Country. Have you ever taken the time to simply look at them for a while?"

"Not really. The only time I get out of the village is when I have a mission."

"What about on the return journey?"

"Sometimes I stop and look."

Nariko smiled and shook the wrinkles out of a linen shift before hanging the green robe up.

"What's in this?" Temari asked.

Nariko took the offered lacquered wooden case and opened it carefully to reveal a selection of expensive and delicate hairpieces such as clasps and hair sticks.

"Those are beautiful."

"They are. Uchiha Mikoto has good taste."

Temari shook her head with wonder when Nariko passed her the box so she could finish hanging up her clothes. "Can I borrow one for my brother's ceremony?"

"If you wish. Is your brother's promotion assured?"

"I'd like to think so. He's worked so hard for this. If they disappoint him, I'm going to do something I'll regret later. He's so much more approachable now, and his student is advancing quickly. She's sure to pass next time she takes the chuunin exam."

"I heard about the finals. I didn't see Gaara in town though, but maybe he just wasn't up for visiting me."

"He couldn't go. He had to do some things around here to make sure that he would be considered for Kazekage. Kankurou went for him and supervised her teamwork with the two students she joined up with." They put the last of the clothes away, and Temari glanced up at her. "Is your brother going to show up? Gaara would be glad if he did."

"I hope so. I haven't seen him in almost two years. I want to see how much he has changed. Also, his old team will be here. His sensei is the only one that has yet to arrive."

Haku met them at the end of the hall and smiled at both of them.

"Temari-san, this is Haku. Haku, this is Temari-san, Gaara's sister." Nariko nearly laughed out loud when she spotted the entranced look on Temari's face that most women got upon meeting the beautiful Haku. At eighteen, he was more masculine looking, yet he still could have posed as a woman without any trouble. For some reason, this tended to make women infatuated with him instead of jealous. This visit was either going to be painful or very funny. Haku had yet to look back at any woman with any sort of interest. His devotion to Zabuza had expanded to include many friends, but Nariko wasn't sure if the teen even liked women.

"I am glad to meet you," said Temari with a genuine and interested smile.

"I am as well," replied Haku, with a sincere smile on his face. At least he was being polite. If he had been the manipulative sort, he could have made those women his slaves. "Nariko-san, I have been assigned the first watch as your guard. If you wish to leave the house, please come and get me."

"Of course," she said and watched him move away to scout out the rooms with Temari trailing after him. Grinning despite being abandoned, she followed her nose and found Gaara's brother in the kitchen, snacking on plums that were obviously imported. He tensed the moment she stood in the doorway and glanced up, relaxing once he saw who it was.

"You must be Nariko-san since you don't have pink hair and don't look like a Sakura. I'm Kankurou."

"I'm glad we've finally been introduced," she said as she bowed to him. "I've heard about you."

"Same here: Gaara's talked about you and your brother. Those letters really helped him open up, Naruto's especially. He gets more mail than I do now."

"If he is made Kazekage, then he will get even more. He won't have trouble. He's prompter at replying than my brother is. I'll have to lecture him the next time I see him. With those bad habits, he will never be made Hokage."

"I bet. Do you want something to eat? I heard you had a pretty rough journey in."

"I hardly did anything," she said as she plucked a couple plums from the bowl he indicated. "My escort had to carry me so we could make the trip quickly. I felt like a piece of luggage, but it was kind of fun. I haven't been carried like that in twenty years." He laughed with her and clapped when she managed to spit a plum pit into the garbage can across the room before matching her.


	62. Chapter 62

Chapter 62: Page of Coins

The man seated on the other side of the table in the rustic kitchen lowered his pipe. "So you're saying that you're willing to help me if these guys come and try to get me?"

"Yeah, that's what family does. We'd be grateful if you did the same for us in return." Naruto had to fight to keep from hopping out of his chair and shaking the overwhelming caution out of this stubborn old git.

Shouta gave him a long look, puffing on his pipe as Ai and Aoi devoured the fish that they had bought that morning at the market. "Well, you've been good to us despite the horrible welcome I gave you. I'm impressed that you kept trying even after I ran you off twice."

"I wasn't about to give up and leave you ignorant and in danger from Akatsuki and ravaging chickens. We're the same, so I can understand why you want to keep everyone away. I might have done that too if someone hadn't reached out to me."

"I know what you mean," the old dude muttered gruffly, blowing smoke as Ai and Aoi squabbled over the last of the sweet potatoes. "These kids are all the family I have left. I won't let anything get them." He took a long draw on his pipe and exhaled contemplatively. "You say you're from Leaf."

"Yeah."

"I've heard good things about that village since I left Rock. You guys are supposed to have good teaching methods. Maybe I'll send Aoi and Ai there so that they can learn to defend themselves."

"That would be good for them, but couldn't you do it yourself?"

"I could," Shouta said, closing his eyes as he worried his pipe. "You want me to leave these kids and come to the aid of whichever of the other three jinchuuriki may need it though. I need to know that they are safe somewhere. Leaf seems as good a place to send them as any. I won't go there, but they can go during the year, maybe. Other than that, I guess joining your little family wouldn't be so bad. I've missed the missions a bit."

"So you agree?" asked Naruto, nearly bouncing with excitement. It had taken weeks to get Shouta to this point with many failures.

"Sure, kid. If Akatsuki comes after one of you, I'll come and help you out. I'm no slouch when it comes to elemental jutsu. The problem is getting the message to me."

"We've all got ways of contacting each other. Gaara uses sand creatures, Yugito uses cat summons, and I use toads. They're all pretty fast: messages arrive within minutes of being sent, except Yugito's when it's not an emergency. What sort of method could you use?"

"I'll come up with something. We jinchuuriki are so ridiculously powerful that we must be able to get messages around quickly, unlike the hidden villages, which have to rely on shinobi messengers and birds. I'll need a bit of blood from all of you though." Naruto pulled out a message from Gaara and another from Yugito. They had all taken to sealing their messages with blood, so Naruto tore off a piece of each and slit his thumb open to smear some of his own blood on a clean scrap. "That should do it. How often did you say you wanted messages?"

"We contact each other at least once a month so that we all know that everyone is still around. Gaara and I stay in contact the most: he's the one that's searching for references to other jinchuuriki in Suna. I'm heading to a meeting with him soon. If you write to him, be sure to call him Brother Green. I'm Brother Pith and Yugito is Sister Blonde. What should we call you?"

Shouta seemed to hide paternal laughter at their codenames, but he played along. "How about Brother White? That'll do. No need to be more specific than that."

"That's good. Well, any more questions before I get the pervert on the road?"

* * *

Gaara waited in the foyer of his home, dressed in deep green formal robes.

"I've never seen you in something other than your shinobi gear," Nariko said, smiling at him.

"I have never seen you in something traditional either. It seems to suit both of us."

She hid a smirk, impressed by his attempt to chitchat. "Yes, how fortunate. Haku will be here soon."

Gaara nodded and began to shape the sand trailing after him.

"Where's your gourd?"

"I don't wear it when I'm not fighting or training. It is rather heavy and the sand follows me anyway here. I am never unarmed."

"How fortunate for you," Haku said. "This is not a good place for me. My ice would not be effective here: there's not enough water. Nariko-san, take these." He passed her a couple senbon, showed her how to slip them up her sleeves, and made her practice drawing them before letting them move out the door. Nariko suppressed a grimace when he told her to stab anyone that attacked her in the eye. Mikoto would have been perfectly fine with this use of the russet and black silk kimono, but Nariko was not so complacent.

"Are you expecting trouble?" asked Gaara as they walked down the street.

"I am being prepared. Nariko-san is an easy target. The Sandaime is powerful in his own right as a Hokage and has an ANBU guard. Nariko-san is unprotected in comparison, even with our presence. As a civilian, she is not expected to carry weapons. She cannot use the senbon like I can, but she could stab someone with them and hopefully do a bit of damage if necessary. When Zabuza catches up with us, I will worry less."

Haku wasn't lying: when the former nukenin and Sasuke showed up, Haku visibly relaxed and fell into the point position when Sasuke took rear-guard. When they got closer to the administration buildings, Sakura appeared, dressed in sea green. Her usual dagger hung across her lower back, and Nariko knew her fighting gloves were somewhere on her person.

In front of the administration building, the Sandaime's party waited. Gaara hung back now, watching as Zabuza and Nariko slipped to the Sandaime's side. They whispered what information they had gathered as the Sandaime waved his ANBU out of their guard positions. "This is certain? Not surprising considering the circumstances. Thank you, Momochi-san." He ceased to whisper. "It has been some time, hasn't it, Nariko-san? How was your journey up three weeks ago?"

"It went well. Everyone had to carry me across the desert. I felt so guilty for being slow."

"Don't worry yourself. That's why we sent those shinobi with you. Tsunade-hime knows her business."

She grimaced at how obvious her real agitation was to Sandaime-sama. Things hadn't changed at all. "I know. How are things back in Konoha?"

"Things are going fairly well. Kotetsu is quite overwhelmed. He will be glad when you get back."

"As will I. Suna is wonderful from what I've seen of it, but Konoha has grown on me."

"Yes, there is no place like home. Shall we go?"

She followed him, staying a step behind, towards the councillors assembled on the stairs. The ANBU guard stepped aside to allow the former Hokage to greet every council member, and Nariko followed him, bowing so much that her head began to spin and smiling so beatifically that her cheeks began to hurt.

"Sarutobi-sama, we are very glad that you could join us for the inauguration of the Godaime Kazekage."

"I am glad to be here. On behalf of Konoha, I look forward to the festivities and Suna's prosperity under your new Kage. It is wonderful that Sand will have a Kazekage, as is their right as one of the five strongest nations and villages."

Nariko paid careful attention to the endless, nearly identical pleasantries exchanged even as a headache started behind her eyes from the midday heat. She had a feeling that the hellish location had been chosen just to annoy the guests from Konoha. As such, she had to shrug off the aggravation and continue to appear poised and unaffected. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a familiar dog mask. She would have to be careful now that he was free to retaliate.

When they were at last allowed to move into the council chamber to discuss the details of their current treaty, Nariko almost cried with relief. She could tell that Haku was similarly grateful to be in the cavernous, blessedly cool meeting chamber. Nariko took a seat to Sarutobi-sama's left, and Sasuke passed her the papers she had left with him for safekeeping. She scanned her notes before quietly conferring with Sarutobi-sama about what subjects he was going to cover and arranged the notes accordingly, handing him the first set as Suna's representatives sat.

"Let this meeting now be in session," called the chair and he gestured to a scribe in the corner. "Everything said henceforth will be taken down."

* * *

"I am so glad that is over," Nariko said when they got back to Gaara's house with Sarutobi-sama, who had been offered rooms in the diplomatic suite on the south facing side of the house. She collapsed on the couch in the living room after dropping the copious piles of notes on a table, careful not to tear the delicate silk of her _furisode_. Koto would not be pleased if she wreaked these robes.

"As am I," said Gaara, standing in the doorway while Sakura and Sasuke settled themselves on other chairs, waiting for Kakashi to come out and greet them properly. "I was worried that they would try something."

"You weren't the only one," Nariko reminded him, pulling the senbon out of her sleeves and fiddling with one as she sat.

Haku slipped into the room and gathered up the rest. "There's nothing wrong with being cautious."

She passed the last needle over to him and rubbed her eyes. "I'm agreeing with you. After that attempt on the first day here, I can understand your reasons. Thanks again for your help."

Haku nodded, smiled, and excused himself to change into practical clothing. Sakura followed soon after, finding her kimono awkward. Sasuke left soon after, which made Nariko smirk. Gaara shot her a look before heading into the kitchen to grab himself some late lunch.

Nariko wasn't surprised when Kakashi popped into the room shortly after Gaara left. She stayed in her seat, resisting the urge to flee from whatever revenge he had in the offing for Miki-san. "You look better now. You frightened me when you were in the hospital for so long."

"It's the eye."

"I know."

"Tsunade has better taste than you," he commented dryly, gesturing at the borrowed kimono, which wasn't her usual shade of grey or brown.

"Shut up." A brittle smile made him smirk at the clear hit. "It was Mikoto and Yuugao, not Hokage-sama. Are you afraid to compliment me straight out?" she teased, the sarcasm so thick a knife would have gotten bogged down in it.

His reply was equally full of it. "Yes, especially after what Gai did."

"I heard about that. I feel so sorry for all those women…"

"It's entirely your fault, you know. If you hadn't—"

"How was I supposed to know he'd blow it out of proportion?"

"He's Gai."

"True." She grinned and gestured at the ANBU mask hanging at his hip. "I haven't seen that in a while."

He didn't bother answering; he merely pulled something out of his hip pouch and dropped it, forcing her to jerk in reaction to adrenaline rush and catch it before it hit the floor. When she saw what it was, her eyes widened and then narrowed as she tried to push it back into his hands, glancing around to make sure that no one had seen the incriminating thing in her possession. He tucked his hands in his pockets and eye-smiled viciously as she panicked.

"Are you insane?" she hissed, shoving it behind her back when footsteps approached the door.

* * *

Sasuke arched a dark eyebrow at her when she fidgeted guiltily. "Is he bothering you?" he asked her, jerking his head at his sensei.

Kakashi was consumed with quiet laughter at the struggle written all over her face. She could admit to it and show him the book, but she would appear suspicious since she had hidden the book behind her back.

She must have realized this because—grinning and clenching her jaw fit to crack her teeth—she shook her head. "No, not really," she insisted, trying to overwhelm Sasuke's disbelief with innocence that wasn't as genuine as usual.

Shooting them both one last suspicious glance, he shrugged and left looking rather leery.

Incensed, she rounded Kakashi. "What the heck!" she shook the book in front of his nose before she noticed that the cover wasn't orange. "Wait, this isn't… No, of course, you got the new one."

"Of course," he agreed sagely.

"Why the heck did you do that though? Sasuke or Sakura or Gaara—"

He shrugged innocently.

Growling, she dropped the book on the couch and stalked out of the room. "You really are better." Her parting shot bounced off him easily.

"Of course," he drawled back, spotting the opening. "I have more experience."

Now she snorted at him, shaking her head. "Still the greenie," she informed him despite how lame that joke was getting before disappearing down the hall.

Gaara melted out of the wall and arched a brow at the silent jounin before glancing curiously at the book on the couch. Kakashi snatched it up before the Suna jinchuuriki could investigate it further and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Naruto was so thirsty that he dunked his entire face into the river and didn't bother with his hands. Jiraiya watched him as he refilled his water skin, stifling a laugh at Naruto's antics. They had been running almost without pause for four days now and they were halfway through River Country. Something about this place gave Jiraiya a bad feeling, so once Naruto had slurped his fill, he urged him onwards.

"Ero-Sennin, why are you pushing us now? You let us walk to Shouta's."

"Brat, this is Konoha business. If I'm late, Tsunade will poke a spear through my innards. She's good at that. Besides, if we miss your sister, I'll never hear the end of it from her too. And after I piss her off, that sand brat Brother of yours will try and squeeze me to death for making you late for his ceremony. Then he'll ship me back to Konoha so that Tsunade can nearly kill me again."

Naruto grinned. "This is great. It's awesome that I'm so popular that if you make me late, you'll get in so much trouble."

"Brat. Hurry up and master that technique so that we don't have to do this again."

"You're the one that told me we couldn't do it because I shouldn't send a seal ahead with a toad. Besides, if you really were worried, we could go by toad. Then we wouldn't have had to run through Shouta's country, through northern Fire, through River now, and through Wind tomorrow."

"It's training, brat."

"I don't need stamina training."

"You always need training. Besides, all this channelling of chakra will help your control."

"I can't believe we're doing this so we can improve my control."

"That and I pissed some toads off recently."

Naruto fought the urge to scream and instead focused his energy on travelling even faster. He wanted to make it to Gaara's before six the next morning since Jiraiya had decreed that they wouldn't stop until they got there. Behind him, he heard the old pervert grumbling loudly, but Naruto simply pushed himself harder. He would make it.

They hit the border of River and Wind two hours before dark. Naruto picked up the pace, sprinting full out across the seemingly endless spread of sand. His calf muscles screamed after the first kilometre in the loose footing. He would make it. Those four words became his mantra, taking him past midnight when the whole desert was a field of stardust lit up by the light of the moon. They took him beyond his aching lungs and the sweat dripping into his eyes, and they sustained him as he passed through Suna's gates and submitted to a brief bout of questioning from the guards before he was allowed to start running again. He focused on those words as he passed under the scrutiny of the two Konoha ANBU on the roof of the Kazekage's residence and knocked on the door.

A minute later, Gaara stood before him, almost grinning at the state he was in. "Looks like you had a long run."

"Shut up and let me in. What time is it?"

"Four in the morning. You could have picked a more decent hour to show up."

"You don't sleep anyway. What do you care if I show up before your guests are awake?"

"You might have woken them up."

"Hell if I care," grumbled Naruto.

Jiraiya swatted him on the back of his head for his insolence, and Naruto stuck out his tongue. He was just about to call Ero-Sennin some mean names when a very familiar pain shot through his ear. He must have been really tired: her reflexes were no match for his anymore. He followed the arm up to Riko's disappointed face. He tried an innocent grin, but she wouldn't have any of it. She gestured that Gaara and Jiraiya should proceed inside. They didn't even try to gainsay her.

She led him by his ear out into the middle of the street so they wouldn't wake anyone up. "So," she whispered, "you don't care if you wake up some very tired people in a house before dawn just because you pushed yourself so you would get here early?"

Naruto didn't bother to reply. She would lecture him until he felt guilty, and he would never do it again. It was futile to try and convince her that he had realized his error until she had finished venting.

"So if this were a scroll retrieval mission, you would just walk into the room where it was being held after pushing yourself to make it at a certain time and to hell with whoever hears you breaking in? And what about respecting the sleep of guests? What if you were staying in a hotel and you made a racket? What if a guest was a very sadistic and powerful bastard?" Her words belied the mildness of her tone.

"Do you think you can be a good shinobi just by pushing yourself hard physically? You have to have the common sense to go with it, baka. All brawn and no brains make a rock, and a rock is not a good shinobi. A rock is an unthinking tool. You said you didn't want to be just a tool. Waking people up in the bloodless morning hours is not a good plan. Do I make myself clear?"

He nodded, feeling pretty stupid now. She did have a point. She released his ear and hugged him tightly, ignoring the snickers of the ANBU on the roof, and he hugged her back just as firmly. "I missed you, Neechan, even if I didn't miss you scolding me."

"I missed you too, Otouto. You stink. You must have pushed yourself really hard. Come on, I'll show you the room Gaara set aside for you. We'll talk after you've had a chance to sleep."

* * *

Naruto woke up slowly for the first time in a very long time. He only did that when he was safe at home, yet this place wasn't home. For one thing, there were no plants creating a thicket-like barrier around his bed. The fox in him gave him less trouble after he had designed that in his room: it simulated the sort of sleeping conditions that foxes considered safe and it made him feel safe as well. In any case, this place was not his thicket. The walls were the colour of sand and the air was heavy with heat and stale.

He thought back to last night and figured out why: he was at home with his family. He knew instinctively that people like Sasuke, Sakura, Kaka-sensei, Neechan, and Gaara were around. Even though the fox didn't really understand the concept of a pack, he did understand the litter, which was the strongest sort of bond foxes could feel for one another. The fox knew that his vessel was among his trusted littermates.

He smiled and sat up, eager to fill his complaining belly. He slipped on a robe that Gaara must have left for him and followed his nose to the kitchen where he found Kankurou nearly dozing over a bowl of rice.

"Yo!" Naruto bounced into the room and hooked the chair across the table from Kankurou, who started fully awake and shot him a sour grin.

"Your energy offends me."

"Too bad. You should have seen me at four in the morning. What time is it?"

"Two in the afternoon. You slept for ten hours. No wonder you're so kipper. You hungry?"

"Am I ever not? What have you got?"

"Eggs, rice, noodles, some fruit, and lots of things in the pantry that I haven't bothered with. Riko-san said that you had to eat at least one piece of fruit when you woke up. She claimed that you were probably living off ramen."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head as he bounced over to the pantry. His sister knew him far too well. He pulled out an instant ramen packet and put a pot of water on the stove to boil. He raided the fridge next, pulling out green onions and carrots to chop up and add to the soup in the absence of barbequed pork. An apple appeared next to him, hovering on a pillow of sand, as he wielded the knife on the freshly washed carrots. Naruto set down the knife and snagged it, turning around to grin at his brother in power. Gaara was leaning against the doorframe, a smirk just barely on his normally blank face. Sasuke must have been teaching him the finer points of mocking expressions.

"Your control of your sand is still pretty good," said Naruto, saluting his friend.

Gaara pushed off the frame and moved closer to assess Naruto. "You look much less tired than you did last night. Your sister yelled at you?"

"Nah, she doesn't yell unless somebody tries to kill me," said Naruto sheepishly. "She was pretty mad about how careless and callous I was being though. She wouldn't take the fact that I was tired as an excuse."

"I was surprised she got on your case right away."

"Pfft, you haven't seen anything yet. Ask me about what happened to Ero-Sennin after he pushed me off a cliff later."

"I'm not sure I want to," grunted Kankurou, washing his bowl and chopsticks before setting them in the drying rack. "Your ramen is going to overcook."

Naruto jumped into action, scraping the veggies he had prepared into the pot and adding some salt before stirring. He took a bite out of the apple Gaara had given him as he worked.

"Jiraiya is conferring with Sarutobi-sama. He has been up for an hour already," Gaara said as he took over his brother's abandoned chair.

"Ero-Sennin got up before me?" asked Naruto, astonished. Jiraiya was as lazy as he was most of the time. That was why they got along so well: neither of them would push for something unless they really wanted it. Three minutes later, he served himself a bowl and sat down across from Gaara. "Where's everybody else?"

"Your sister's party is around Suna checking out tourist spots. Your sister and Zabuza are at the library. She wanted to read up on the history of Suna."

"That sounds like her. I kind of feel sorry for Zabuza. She'll be there for hours just to hide away from Kaka-sensei. She can't stand him and be polite for very long. You can have some of my soup if you want."

Gaara shook his head, indicating that he knew about Naruto's ramen habits. "Did you convince Shouta?"

"Oh, that's right! I never did send you a message like I did for Yugito. Yeah, I convinced him. It took a long time, but I got through to him. I had to be all underhanded and get to him through his kids. It was okay though: Aoi's got an awesome garden now. I showed him how to use trellises to keep his beans upright, and we fenced the plot off so the local chickens and coons wouldn't dig up his carrots or ruin his peas. Shouta was cool after that. He should be sending us all a message within the next two weeks. He'll be calling himself Brother White."

"Unoriginal. We are all very obvious."

"Pfft. It's not like Akatsuki is expecting us to work together. The bijuu are famous because they fought so much. They never could get along."

"Nibi and Gobi did have an alliance in order to fight Kyuubi."

"Really? Fox-bastard never mentioned that."

"He won anyway."

"Oh, that's why. It wouldn't seem important to him since he won despite their alliance." Naruto slurped up about half his bowl before he spoke again. "I keep forgetting how powerful all of them are, especially Fox-bastard."

"It is harder for me to forget," said Gaara quietly. "I still cannot sleep at night because he eats away at my personality, my being, while I sleep."

Naruto's easy manner evaporated. "Let me see it."

Gaara pulled up his sleeve as far as it would go and revealed the odd-looking black mark that was constantly visible. Naruto traced the inner binding seal, which was only a simple curl, unlike his dual swirl, which allowed the fox's chakra to supplement his own. The eight bindings that surrounded his swirl, which allowed for the continual purification of the youki, were not present on Gaara. He only had three points, which made for a much weaker seal.

There were only three elements called, unlike his, which called four major elements twice. He examined the marks closely, which allowed for a constant flow from Shukaku to Gaara. Wind was called upon, as was lightning because it was sand's natural enemy, and fire was the last point because it could transmute sand into glass, making it fragile. No barrier was established between the host and the bijuu, no purification of the chakra occurred. Gaara had minimal control over Shukaku.

"Well?" asked Gaara, growing slightly nervous at Naruto's uncharacteristic silence.

"Well, I pretty much understand how it works. The problem is that I'm going to have to use an odd seal on the outer rim in order to make the necessary changes. If I try to mess with the seal itself, I could really do some serious damage. If the lady guided me through it though…"

"I could call for her after I become Kazekage."

"Yeah, but I still need a few months to come up with a solution. I've got a general idea of what to do: we need to add three elements and I need to fix a new intent into the cap and make sure that it integrates properly into your old seal. Jiraiya could probably do it, but he's been messing with my seal lately. I don't want him around yours. I'll try to come up with a design by summertime and have Ero-Sennin and maybe Old Man Sarutobi look it over before I let the old lady see what I've come up with. Will she mind that we're messing with her work?"

"I don't know. She and her brother are living in seclusion. They've withdrawn from the village into retirement together."

"Well, try and get her to come out so that when I'm finished we can have you patched up in a couple days. One thing about the patch: you might lose your automatic control of sand. It'll inhibit Shukaku's latent control over some of your tenketsu, so he won't be able to summon that sand to protect you automatically if he is the one doing it."

Gaara shrugged. "He won't tell me if it's his doing or if it is just because of his presence inside of me. The sand always moves faster when I consciously control it anyway. I just want to know what sleep is like for once and to be sure that I'm not going to disappear someday. Temari says that sleep will help get rid of my temper."

"Maybe. Sakura is a hell of a lot less violent when she hasn't been up half the night. I had the bruises to prove it. Anyway, you'll probably lose that haunted look when you do get some sleep." Naruto turned back to his ramen.

Gaara pulled his sleeve back down and rubbed his shoulder absently. "What do you mean when you say that Jiraiya-san has been fiddling with your seal?"

"I've noticed it changing and I can feel that his chakra is involved with the changes. Fox has been doing some things too, but the seal tries to keep that to a minimum. The damage that Ero-Sennin is doing isn't repairing itself though. It's as though he has some sort of key to the seal or something. His changes are permanent and I can't fix them because I haven't got the same key." Naruto refilled his bowl with the last of the ramen, quickly polished it off, and began washing up. "You said that Ero-Sennin is talking to Old Man?"

"Yes, he was twenty minutes ago."

"Where?"

Gaara got up and led him around to the visiting dignitary's suite. Naruto rapped on the door, and Rat-san admitted them. They were shown into the room where the old Hokage and his old student were talking, both of whom glanced up at the arrival of the two jinchuuriki.

"Ah, Naruto, it is good to see you," said Sarutobi, and Naruto grinned widely at him.

"Yeah, Old Man, you look as wrinkled and grey as ever."

The Sandaime scowled, but was far too used to the familiar abuse to take it seriously.

"As glad as I am to see your prune-like face, I'm actually here to yell at Ero-Sennin. See, the old pervert is messing with my seal and even Fox-bastard has noticed. He was nearly jumping for joy the last time I went and had a chat with him." Naruto turned to Jiraiya and started screaming as promised. "_What_ the _hell_ are you _doing_ to _my seal_? Do you want Fox-bastard to _escape_? Do you want Fox-bastard to _take over_?"

Jiraiya wiped some spittle off his face and opened his eyes. "I'm surprised you noticed."

"Of course I noticed! My seal is very interesting as far as I'm concerned. It happens to be the only thing keeping Kyuubi from rampaging around the world again and to be something that has made me a target. Of course I watch it very carefully. I'm terrified that it'll break someday. The last thing I need is for you to help that along!"

"You have no concept of what I'm doing."

"Duh! You haven't told me why you're screwing around with it. You thought I wouldn't notice because I act like a dunce!"

"It would have been better that way."

"For me not to realize that fox could take over my body if I lost it again? How would that have been better?"

Jiraiya didn't comment.

"If you won't tell me, I want you to stop. I'm not some puppet of yours. I'm not going to let you blindly going along with whatever plot you and my dad came up when you shoved Fox into my stomach until you tell me about it, and then I'll consider it. If you can, I want you to reverse what you've done."

"No."

Naruto's expression became increasingly ugly as rage reared its head. The whisker marks on his face became increasingly prominent and his eyes went from blue to red and slitted. His chakra aura roiled, drawing two ANBU from the roof. Gaara's sand wrapped around Naruto's left arm and squeezed slightly, gently warning Naruto about what he was doing. He forcibly calmed himself, concentrating hard to push Kyuubi's influence back.

Even the Sandaime looked worried by the obvious change in the power of the seal. "Jiraiya, maybe it would be a good idea to do what he asks. If he is losing control so easily, he could be a danger to those around him. I was told that his original control was fairly good."

"You don't understand," said Jiraiya. "I don't think I can reverse what I've done."

"That's not what _that_ was supposed to do," said Sarutobi, concerned.

"I know, but I never really understood how Minato worked it. I didn't mean for the changes to turn out quite as they have. I'll look into reversing them, but I don't want to try anything that might make it worse. Minato was a seventh level seal master, a mastermind with an unrivalled instinct when it came to crafting seals. He had a feel for them; he could do anything with them in ways he couldn't always explain, but always seemed to work. I can patch up his work, but I don't entirely understand it.

"Minato was a genius: he never could explain how the seal worked before he did it and after he did he was dead before I could get to him. But even his seal isn't perfect. It will fail someday."

Naruto froze, having never heard this before.

Jiraiya turned to him. "Listen, kid. I don't know when, but someday that seal will fail. Nothing I know can truly patch it. That fox knows what he's doing. He's got thousands of years on all of us. He knows how to get past the self-repairing part of the seal and shut it down. He's already touched it. I was trying to allow you more access to his chakra so that you would be better prepared to face Akatsuki. I don't really understand it, but I'm the best we've got."

Naruto stood stalk still for several minutes, not looking up from the floor, Gaara silently trying to lend him support from beside him. "I will not allow this to happen," said Naruto almost to himself, fettered rage and terror evident. "I will study and I will reverse that damage even if you fail. I will not allow my body to be used to destroy the lives of those around me. I will become an even better seal master than the Yondaime and I will fix my seal and Gaara's. This is my promise."

* * *

Nariko walked among the shelves, perusing the unfamiliar titles. This library was more aimed at inspiring awe than simply providing access to texts. It was a shrine to knowledge rather than just a place to find it. She liked that. Konoha's library had its charm, but it was quaint compared to this place. She would have said this was more of a cathedral if it hadn't been for the physics section in the far corner. Dust in the air was illuminated by the sun passing through the tall, narrow windows in the oddly spherical building. Heavy carpets collected this dust and muffled the noise that would have echoed about otherwise given how bare the walls were.

Zabuza had abandoned her in the entrance hall. Oh, he was around somewhere, but he had come with her here enough times to know that following her around would be boring in the extreme. He was not a great reader. He was wandering the archives in the northern rooms, glancing over ancient shinobi weapons and old tribal artefacts.

Suna, being one of the first permanent villages in this arid region, had gained the privilege of hosting the sole museum of Suna's tribal culture. Wind Country had never been densely settled; instead, its people had traveled in tribes, wandering the desert and following water and food as it migrated with the seasons. Oh, there were permanent villages to the south where there was sea access, but in the north and in the central regions, tribes dominated. It was hard to build any sort of structure when the sand was constantly being blown away from under it.

She wasn't just coming for the books.

Early in her weeks here, she had met the librarian, Jukodo Saburou. He had been friendly and open with her, and he had _looked_, as no one had looked in a long time, since she had left Kaijin. So she had taken to coming often to chat with him, peruse books, and (as of the Sandaime's arrival) avoid Kakashi. Zabuza most often accompanied her here; Nariko liked that best because he never teased her as Mikoto would if she discovered this.

Saburou suddenly broke off mid-sentence, his eyes widening slightly as he paled. Hope that had been unconsciously building up over the weeks shattered when the presence behind her spoke. "Riko, it would be good if you came back to the residence. Our brother could probably use a few words."

She could feel something dark and terrible swallowing her back up as Saburou's eyes, which had been so open and interested before, became opaque to her. She could see him retreating behind a wall and watched the connection they had been forming snap. She wanted to make him come back out from behind that barrier, but her hand was stained. She didn't want to dirty him. She had the feeling he would have recoiled from her touch.

She knew he was withdrawing just because of who had come to collect her. Saburou obviously regarded Gaara in a similar way to how Ryusaki-san viewed Naruto: with fear and contempt. She was infected by association despite how he had smiled at her for the past two weeks.

Closing her eyes, she clenched her fist by her side and struggled against the deep resentment that welled up within her. It wanted to be directed at Gaara, but this wasn't his fault. It wanted to rail against Naruto, but it wasn't his fault either. No, this was her fault and this was Saburou's. She was the one that had willingly gotten involved in this, and he was the one that resented Gaara. She would not blame the jinchuuriki.

"Ah, good day then, Matsuku-san," Saburou said stiltedly when moments before he had been using her given name. The obvious barrier rankled. She smiled as politely as she could and let the tall, brown-haired man walk away and out of her life as though he had never made any attempt to enter it. He left tense silence in his wake.

"Did I interrupt a civilian courting ritual?" Gaara asked almost hesitantly.

She laughed quietly, forcing down the desire to cry. There was no point in crying for what had never been real in the first place. "No, Gaara, you simply helped me see how foolish I was being." He looked sceptical and she let her smile fall into a pattern that wasn't painful to maintain. "It wouldn't have worked anyway."

"Why?"

"Because he proved himself closed-minded when he reacted so negatively to you. How could I even think about him when he can't even possess enough compassion to see how much progress you have made?"

Gaara nodded thoughtfully as they slipped through the library to collect Zabuza, only to find him waiting in the foyer. He trailed behind them as they walked down the main street, moving through the bustle of the Suna-nin as the afternoon heat began to wane. She carelessly explained about "civilian courting rituals" to Gaara as the crowd parted for them nervously. Gaara listened quietly, probably only because it gave him something other than the resentment and fear to focus on.

He left her at a crossroads. "Find Naruto. Talk to him."

She was in such a hurry that the absolute silence of the house didn't register. "Naruto?" she called softly as she knocked on his door. When he didn't answer, she frowned and slowly pushed it open. The room was empty.

This was new. Usually, he retreated if he was as low as Gaara had made it sound like…

The curtains fluttered in the breeze coming through the slightly open window. Familiar laughter and chatter rode on that wind. A curious sense of hollowness filled her as she walked over and looked out into the dusty yard behind the house. Sasuke and Sakura must have come back while Gaara had been looking for her. The familiarity and yet the strangeness of the scene before her made the emptiness inside her echo. Naruto and Sasuke were wrestling and evaluating the improvements in each other's taijutsu as Sakura laughed on top of the wall surrounding the dusty courtyard.

_Shiro, Itsu…_ Nariko closed her eyes against the melancholy of how things had fallen into the past far too quickly. For a split second, the three laughing below her were her and her brothers, who were so far away and had been for too many years.

Gaara was wrong, she acknowledged as she slipped through the house to stand in the servants' door to the yard, leaning against the doorframe with her arms folded across her chest. The hollowness spread when Naruto spotted her while he was ducking under Sasuke's kick and he spared her a grin she knew was mostly fake. He had to save face in front of her now, huh? She shouldn't have been surprised.

She returned the favour by stretching her lips into a smile and watching as Sakura joined the melee.

She had mastered herself by the time Sakura made the stubborn boys call a halt. Naruto complained, but the relief Nariko could see salved the ache of being obsolete a little. That he immediately jogged over to her with a fragile grin helped too. "Gaara told me something happened," she whispered as she mussed up his hair and grinned for Sakura and Sasuke's benefit.

"Can we go to your room?" he asked, and she complied, hooking an arm around his shoulders and drawing him along, talking loudly about how much he stank and needed a shower to keep them from following too closely.

He sat down beside her on her futon and burrowed into her side as he always had at home when he was troubled. She felt him take a deep breath of her scent before he relaxed slightly and wrapped his arms around her waist, something he only did when he was feeling lost. Worried, she slung her arms around him so that he would feel less alone and adrift.

"Something's very wrong," he whispered at last and began to spill the entire story while she stroked his feathery blonde hair that was so much lighter than she remembered. He was much bigger too, but his voice was still almost the same and so very scared. She listened without commenting, tears threatening to flow when she realized how powerless she was to fix this for him.

"I'm so sorry that I can't help you. I…" The lump in her throat caused by her failure was too big to speak around. Disgusted with herself, she ignored her stinging eyes. Naruto was going to be destroyed and all she could think about were her failings.

He tried a brave face, but she knew his despair. "It's okay, Neechan; I made a promise that I would fix this. I always keep my promises." Their roles reversed for a moment and Naruto let her cry on his shoulder for the first time. Neither of them was sure if they liked this change.

"You're growing up so fast. What am I going to do without some young life to take care of?" she asked, drying her face with her sleeve.

"I don't know. You mentioned that you wanted to make me an uncle once. How's that going?"

She forced a painless sounding laugh and evasively worked around the truth. "Not so well. I guess I'm too picky for all that I don't want to care about what happens to the father. Mikoto's been annoyed that I keep turning down her offers to arrange a date." She adjusted her hold on his slightly broader shoulders and brought up something that had been nagging at her for a couple weeks. "Why haven't you told your friends in Konoha about the jinchuuriki that you're contacting? Sakura was asking me about it."

Naruto hesitated. "I don't really know. I guess it's because they aren't really comfortable with the idea of the fox inside of me in the first place. I told them all and they accepted me, except for Hinata. She figured it out by herself; she told me before I left. The rest of them were nice about it, but they don't really accept it as a fact of my existence. They know about it and they understand, but they think of it as a sort of disease that will go away. They don't understand that I'm stuck with him until I die and that if he does go away, it would kill me. They think that it would be Akatsuki's fault if I died in their hands, not the fox's, and not the seal's. He is a part of me now. He's not going away. Even Sasuke and Sakura don't get that. Sometimes I wonder if you do."

"I want to think that someday he'll go away so that you won't have to worry about him anymore. It's wilful self-deception on my part. I'm too close to you to think otherwise. Gaara's predecessors died when Shukaku was extracted so that he could be sealed into someone else."

"Yeah. I don't think I'm going to do the same thing. This power is too much of a double-edged sword. I don't think I could bear to force someone else to deal with it. If I can, I'm taking the fox-bastard to hell with me. But I think Ero-Sennin thinks that my dad had a plan when he gave me the light half of the fox's power and took the darker aspect with him into the Shinigami."

"What will you do if that's true?"

"Well, I think I'll try to find out what it was. Dad doesn't strike me as someone who would seal something like Kyuubi in me unless he had really good reasons. If I agree with what his plan was, I'll try and finish it. If I don't, then Dad and his plans can stay in hell and I'll take the fox with me when I go meet him."

Nariko rolled her eyes at his unflattering description of his future actions.

"Moron, you're too damn righteous to go to hell," said Sasuke as he walked in with Sakura and Kakashi following him. Naruto embarrassedly scrambled out of Nariko's grip, reopening her wound, but she let him have his pride. Sasuke didn't look at all sorry that he hadn't knocked as he hunkered down at the end of the futon. The last two members of Team 7 sat in front of the futon, looking at Naruto.

"I take it that you were eavesdropping?" Nariko said archly, glancing at Naruto for confirmation. He wrinkled his nose and nodded. She glared at them all, but they were unrepentant.

"Naruto, what's this about the other jinchuuriki?" asked Sakura cautiously.

He smirked at her. "You're smart. Figure it out. You told me that you had access to Tsunade's files now."

"The only thing they had on jinchuuriki was about you and some recent updates about Gaara-kun…" Her eyes widened. "There are more?"

Naruto nodded. "I've found two others, both of them far away."

"But why are you searching them out?" she asked, confused.

"Because they're all in danger," said Sasuke. "They're targeted just like Naruto now and he's so much of a do-gooder that he's warning them after he tracks them down."

"Yeah," said the blonde, "but I also make a pact with them. We agree to come help each other if one of us gets attacked by Akatsuki. We exchange messages every few weeks now, keeping track of each other so we know how much danger we're all in. We're all the same, so we understand each other. It kind of makes us family despite how different we are and how we come from different countries. We share a bond that goes beyond those things."

"But why are you doing that?" asked Sakura. "You'll be in even greater danger if you go help out one of the others."

"The jinchuuriki need to stick together," said Naruto stubbornly, glaring at her. "I'm really lucky compared to most of them. I have people looking out for me; none of the others, except Gaara, has that. They're my family; I have to protect them just like I would protect any of you. Besides, I doubt two Akatsuki could take on four jinchuuriki working together."

"Have you tried fighting together?" asked Kakashi.

"Not yet. It's hard enough getting Ero-Sennin to let me make the initial contact. That reminds me; Riko-nee, did you bring that information you promised in your letter?"

Nariko pulled out a pair of black pants and held out her hand expectantly. The three chuunin didn't know what she was getting at, but Kakashi passed her a kunai. Working deftly, she used the kunai tip to rip the stitches around the pant leg hems, extracted rice paper notes, and passed them to Naruto as she pulled a needle case out of her pack to repair the seams. Naruto looked them over, Sasuke reading them over his shoulder.

"So the Sanbi is swimming around in the ocean and no one has noticed?" asked Sasuke incredulously.

"Somebody noticed because we have records on it," pointed out Nariko as she threaded her needle and deftly tied a knot so she could begin stitching in earnest. "Isonade doesn't seem to get violent unless someone provokes him. He's to be part of the reason the North Ocean is so unpredictable. According to what I read, he's not as dangerous as he could be if he were contained within a host that could focus his power. Unrestrained, he is rather ineffective."

"He's a turtle? I thought Sanbi was supposed to be a shark," said Naruto.

Nariko shrugged. "Myths are known to change. No one would think twice about a huge turtle. By making him into a shark, it gives the stories of his deeds far more credence. What do you think of that potter? Do you think it might be the Shichibi? The use of clay points to it and Kaku is said to be the best at hiding of the bijuu."

"It might be," said Naruto cautiously, reading over the information carefully. "It'll be really hard to get at him though. The potter lady is in Earth Country. If I get caught there, they'll hang me from a tree and start a war with Konoha. It was hard enough to slip into Lightning. People say I look a lot like my dad. He wiped out a lot of Iwa-nin, didn't he? I'm sure that he's made a lot of enemies there. If they find me, they'll roast me alive, especially if they figure out I'm his son."

"That's true," said Kakashi. "There are a lot of Iwa ninja after anyone connected to your father. Earth Country is the last place you should be going, even if you were in disguise."

"Don't worry about it," said Naruto. "Gaara and I will figure something out, and we'll talk with the other two. Maybe we can convince the lady just by using a letter."

Sasuke shot him a look that clearly stated that he was still a loser if he believed that.

Naruto shrugged. "Where is Gaara anyway?"

"He was summoned by the council along with the other candidates. The ceremony is tomorrow. It's about time they stopped hiding their choice from everyone. Besides, if it's not Gaara, he's going to have to pack up and move out with his siblings before the end of the week. The least they can do is give him some advance warning so that he can find new quarters if his luck has run out," said Sakura.

* * *

Everyone was waiting in the foyer when one of the ANBU spotted Gaara returning. Temari was clutching the phone, ready to order a celebratory dinner if the news was good or ready to order a commiseration dinner if it wasn't. Either way, there was going to be a big meal for supper.

Naruto bounced beside his teammates until he couldn't stand the tension anymore. He tore out the door and ran down the street with Sakura, Sasuke, and Kankurou on his tail. Naruto skidded to a halt in front of his friend, searching Gaara's blank face for any sign of the outcome. The eyes were just as sad as ever and the mouth was carefully straight… but it curved slightly, and Naruto whooped once Gaara's eyes smiled. He grabbed Gaara's arm and raised it as though the younger boy was a returning champion.

"We have a winner!" he yelled, competing with Kankurou's shouts of triumph. Kankurou nabbed Gaara from Naruto so he could swing the redhead around before sending him staggering across the street, shocking various passers-by. Gaara was welcomed back into his house with cheers.

As soon as Temari got off the phone, she tried to squeeze the air out of her littlest brother, whooping ecstatically. "I can't believe it! My fourteen-year-old brother beat out older ninja to become Kazekage!"

Sarutobi expressed best wishes for Gaara, shaking the youngest Kazekage's hand with a benign smile.

Nariko grinned, sitting down on the couch and ruffling Naruto's hair when he sat at her feet. He showed her his huge smile, but envy tinged the edges of it. She flicked his nose. "Don't turn green. I know that you are truly happy for him and that you are suppressing your jealousy. You're doing a good job, but I know you. Don't worry; your time will come. You aren't quite ready yet.

"Konoha isn't in quite the same position as Suna, and the council is trying to use the Kazekage title to put a leash on Gaara. They're hoping that they'll be able to control Shukaku through it. Gaara knows this. He has been researching ways to counter it. It will be an uphill battle to become a true Kazekage, but this is a good first step. He'll have his foot in the door tomorrow. They won't be able to shut him out now."

"It will be the same thing for me, won't it? I might become Hokage, but that doesn't mean people will really like me or respect me."

"Yes. Even Tsunade-sama isn't universally liked or accepted despite her lineage. People all want different things. There's no way to please all of them. Right now, there's one man in particular that she has to be careful of. He's a hardliner and against her softer policies. He takes every opportunity to oppose her and point out her mistakes. There will be a lot of people like that around Gaara. You can't help him here though. It will be even worse if you try and defend him. You've got to let him face it on his own."

"But they're going to be even nastier to him because they're afraid of him!"

She sighed and ruffled his hair, wishing she could tell him that he was wrong. Gaara wasn't in an enviable position.

"Akatsuki," Naruto whispered. "They won't even have to track Gaara down now. He's sitting in plain sight."

"This is true," said Gaara, standing before them. "I had actually thought of this, but there is no way for me to avoid it. Suna will not let me leave: I am too valuable to them and they fear that I will escape their control. I cannot hide; how could someone as prominent as I am anyway hide? At least as Kazekage, I will be able to make sure that Suna's villagers are protected when they come for me. Besides," he said, the smallest smile curving his lips, "I have my family to count on: my real family and the one Naruto and I are creating. I will trust in them and in myself."


	63. Chapter 63

Chapter 63: Three Swords

Gaara and Naruto sat around in Gaara's new office, brainstorming ways to get into contact with the potter in Earth Country. So far, they had covered the stupidest things they could think of, getting themselves in the mood as the sun finally started to shed light on Suna, of which Gaara had a wonderful view of through his window.

"I don't think sending your toads will work." Gaara sighed, fiddling with a pen before he leaned back in his desk chair, which dwarfed his fourteen-year-old frame. "Do you have any _good_ ideas?"

"Not really." Naruto raked a hand through his hair. "I like doing these introductory meetings myself. Not being able to kind of sucks. I like meeting people like us and showing them that I'll accept them even if no one else will. It's sort of like I'm getting rid of all the horrible things that people have done to me by doing this."

"Well, since you don't have an idea, I think I have one." Naruto turned away from the window and stared at Gaara as he started spinning his desk chair in circles. "We can't ask Shouta-san because he has his niece and nephew and he won't leave them to do something like this, but Yugito-san might be able to do it."

"Gaara, she's a Kumo ninja; she can't just go gallivanting off to Earth just because she feels like having a vacation. Her Kage keeps really close tabs on her when she's in the village and only leaves her alone when she's out on missions and she doesn't get many." Gaara gave him a look that suggested the answer to this problem was obvious, but Naruto remained oblivious. He wasn't at his best in the mornings.

"How did you and Jiraiya get a chance to meet with her?" asked Gaara.

"We asked her to take a mission for us… Oh, I see!" Naruto grinned and bounced around a bit. "So we're going to hire her for a mission?"

"Close. I'm going to commission her."

Naruto blinked, uncomprehending. "You're the Kazekage now. If you're gonna send someone, why not just send on of your own guys?"

"Covert operations: Wind and Earth may not share a border, but they've been squabbling over the right to absorb Bird Country for decades. Iwa and Suna are not on the best of terms because of this. Kumo, on the other hand, has yet to get into a serious conflict with either of us—"

"Just with Konoha."

Gaara silenced Naruto with the dead stare he had perfected. "Kumo can move far more freely in Earth than my own people can. As Kazekage, I can probably safely specify who I want to perform the commission."

Naruto nodded appreciatively. "You know, I didn't realize just how useful it would be to have you in the top seat. Nobody's gonna boss you around anymore, huh?"

Gaara smiled thinly. "Not like you. By the way, I heard Nariko-san scolding you last night. What did you do to annoy her?"

"I swore at Temari and Sakura when they were taking too long to get ready for your ceremony."

"But I've heard her swear."

"Yeah, but she's a hypocrite: she insists that she doesn't use the same kind of words. I forgot about how she reacts to it. Ero-Sennin doesn't care when I swear, so I've gotten into the habit of doing it whenever I feel like it. Neechan tried to lecture it out of me again. She was pretty mad about it. I can guilt trip her pretty good now. She'll want to make it up to me because I'm leaving."

"You are very manipulative," said Gaara as Naruto skipped out onto the balcony so he could make good on his words.

Naruto turned around suddenly and slapped a couple pieces of paper with a seal drawn on them into Gaara's hand. "Keep those safe and keep one on you always." He shot Gaara a significant look. "Yeah, I know, but if I get some training clothes out of it, I don't really mind. Besides, Neechan got her point across."

Gaara shook his head as Naruto leapt over the railing.

* * *

"So where are we going to go now?" asked Naruto after he had shouted his last round of insults at the bastard and showed him the finger now that Neechan couldn't run after him.

Jiraiya hefted his backpack higher up on his shoulders. "How about back to Shouta's place?"

"No. You got wasted there, and I didn't get a lot of training done. No. We're going somewhere that has a good library and maybe a higher-level seal master that I can study under since you want to write your books so much. I made a promise and I will keep it."

Jiraiya was silent for a long time, thinking about any possible places that would fulfill those requirements and would meet his own prerequisites. Naruto didn't question him when he took a heading that would take them into southern Fire Country; he simply followed.

* * *

Nariko thanked her guards absently, numb from walking for hours on end, numb from the horror that had begun to seep in now that she was back in familiar surroundings. They didn't notice, or if they did, they didn't particularly care now that their duty to her was over.

It was odd how the light was slowly being sucked out of the village, leaving it as grey-scale as she felt.

She hadn't realized at first. It had only sunken in on the way home after bluntly asking Sandaime-sama what Naruto's revelation really meant.

"_Kyuubi could never be contained by a mortal. He's capable of learning, so nothing will thwart him forever. Kyuubi must always be treated like a virus: we must continually change the key to Naruto's seal and hope for the best. At best, we can keep one step ahead of the fox. He'll catch up eventually, but our changes will gain Naruto months, years, maybe a decade or two of life. Jiraiya has been tweaking the seal over the years, but recent changes are too much. Kyuubi is catching up."_

_Red queen—running and running, but never getting anywhere…_

Her little brother was going to die; he always had been. That fox would break out and eat him alive. Nothing she knew could save him. She ripped her key out from under the mat and stepped into the home Naruto had made for her where she could finally break.

Fuck the Kyuubi. Fuck the Yondaime. Fuck the Sandaime for not telling her, for letting her believe that Naruto had a chance. Fuck herself for letting Naruto believe he could beat a minor god. She slammed her door and collapsed against it, shaking with futile rage. The horrible injustice of it all, the utter lack of karma's presence in her wonderful little brother's life, made her beat the door as she sobbed dryly.

What did Emi-obasan know? What did Father know? How could there be hope for any of them if _Naruto_ was finished before he had even begun? If there had been any belief left in her, she would have prayed for him to have years before the fox won, years in which to become a man, perhaps to become a father. The gods were dead to her though, their betrayal too much to bear.

It was full dark when the phone dragged her out the black pit. Mikoto ignored her protests about weariness and demanded she show up and tell them all about her holiday. She grabbed her keys and went. Arguing with Mikoto wasn't worth it no matter how shitty she felt. The drinks piled up and finally she did forget, if only partially.

"Riko," called Anko, waving her hand in front of her face, "are you there?"

Nariko blinked sluggishly and glanced at the tokubetsu jounin. "What is it?"

"You were all spaced out." Yuugao giggled, having already imbibed more than she should have.

Nariko absently pitted Hayate as she studied the ANBU captain. If she got violent… She hid a smirk behind her hand, not that Yuugao would have noticed. "Just thinking about all the work I've got to do."

"Riko," whined Anko, "don't talk about work here! It's Saturday. I don't even want to think about work. Tell us about your vacation. Were there any hot ninja in Suna?"

Kurenai smirked at the younger woman, and Nariko rolled her eyes, but smiled, that other pain far away now. "Yeah, there were a few. You wouldn't believe how hot it is there! The poor Sandaime got so sweaty…"

Retching noises broke out around the table.

"You're evil!" Anko gasped, pressing her palms into her eyes. "That was dirty!"

"I'm scarred!" wailed Yuugao, downing liberal amounts of sake to erase images.

"Riko, you bitch! How could you do that to us? Sarutobi-sama is over sixty!" Mikoto gestured at the cringing Kurenai. "Look what you've done to poor Kurenai! She'll never be able to look her father-in-law in the face now."

"He proposed!" Nariko quickly slapped a hand over her mouth at the horrible noise she had just made, making the other four women jeer.

"Yeah, Asuma finally worked up the courage." Anko pulled Kurenai's left hand out so Nariko could admire the ring.

"It was while you were away," said Kurenai. "It was really nice. He took me out for dinner…"

"Where?" asked Nariko.

"Some hole in the wall. We should all go there some time; it's got really great food. Anyway, we went back to his place—"

"You mean the Sarutobi compound," said Yuugao. "I hope Konohamaru-chan was asleep. I doubt he would have appreciated the noise."

Kurenai blushed and shrugged.

Nariko smirked. "I guess white wouldn't be an appropriate colour for your robes for the wedding then."

"That was mean!" Yuugao wept, the alcohol finally truly kicking in. She was a weepy drunk until she got past nine cups. "I wasn't either!"

"Ah, don't worry about it!" said Anko, swinging her cup of sake around and splashing Mikoto, who frowned. "Riko knows that most weddings are hardly as pure as they used to be, especially with shinobi involved. She was just teasing."

Nariko nodded and patted Yuugao's hand. "Anko's right, it's fine, and I'm sorry. I don't think any less of you. How could I? I'm the one that intends to have a child out of wedlock." She shot an apologetic glance at Kurenai. "So when is the wedding?"

"Asuma and I were talking about March or April."

"A spring wedding would be really nice," said Nariko. "Yuugao had an autumn one, so it'll be interesting to see how different they will be because of the season."

Yuugao stopped crying at the mention of her wedding and broke into a sappy smile. "I really loved my wedding! There were leaves falling all around and it was nice and crisp even though we worried that it would rain."

Nariko giggled into her hand as Mikoto started gushing over how beautiful it had been, the alcohol having just hit her. She was a talkative drunk while Anko just got clumsier and more enthusiastic. Nariko wondered if she looked as utterly disconnected as she felt. Nothing was real, mercifully.

"Who have you got planning it?" Nariko asked Kurenai over the inane babble.

"Asuma and I have talked about it and we were just going to have a small traditional ceremony with only close relatives and friends invited. I was going to plan most of it, but I was hoping you would all be willing to help me." She said the last bit loudly enough that it broke through the other conversation.

The other women quieted for a moment and exchanged glances. Usually the mothers of the couple would handle this, but Asuma's mother had been dead for many years and Kurenai's mother was not in the best of health.

"Of course we'll help you," said Mikoto, turning to hug Kurenai, and Yuugao clutched at Kurenai's hand and burst into tears again. "I'd love to help you plan the wedding and the reception! My wedding was in the spring too, you know."

"Yuugao, maybe you should stop with the sake," said Nariko, taking Koto's cup away before answering Kurenai. "I'd be happy to help as well. I can budget for you if you want and make sure things stay within your means."

"I was hoping you would be willing to do that," admitted Kurenai. "It'll be good to have money left after this is over."

Nariko smiled as she stole Anko's cup as well, downing it in a single gulp. This elaborate fantasy was so fuzzy and mercifully ended when she passed out on Koto's couch.

* * *

Tsunade glared at the insubordinate mummy jabbing his finger at the contract made binding by the geezer's signature. "It says right there. I don't care what concessions you got out of the Mizukage. The deal was that I would put up with your fucking probation and then be awarded similarly ranked missions to those I completed after coming off probation with appropriate personnel."

"I made them pardon you and your boy—!"

Zabuza smirked bitterly. "I don't give a shit about pardons. I'm not here for your goddamn altruism. I stuck it out with your seals and degradation. You're gonna come through on your end. The Mizukage dies. Kiri is thrown into chaos. Then I'm through with you."

"Do you honestly think I'm going to renege on a treaty _I_ hammered out?"

"This is the perfect opportunity," Danzou insisted gruffly, shoving Cat aside as he barged into her office with the Elders and the geezer on his tail. The look on the geezer's face told her this would be bad.

Zabuza, sensing weakness, dove in for the kill. "I demand the deployment of an Uchiha, preferably that brat's mother since he's not strong enough for this. Only an Uchiha could possibly—"

"What do the Uchiha have to do with anything? The Mizukage doesn't even have a bloodline limit," Tsunade probed.

Zabuza snorted derisively. "You think Ushira is the Mizukage? You can't seriously be that out of the loop!" Tsunade glared at him, but he wouldn't reveal everything. "The Mizukage has held the position in absentia for _decades_. All the others are stand-ins while he's off taking care of other things. Oh, Ushira believes he's in charge, but most jounin know better and only pay lip service."

"That was true before, but reports insist that shadow Mizukage has been dead for almost fifteen years," insisted the Sandaime.

"He's not dead. I won't believe it until I hack his corpse up and scatter it to the four winds. I want that Uchiha. I've tried to off him on my own. Do you really think I would beggar myself here and take on your trivial missions if I had any other options?"

"Uchiha Mikoto isn't on fully active duty," Tsunade protested. "Her daughter is not yet six."

"Uchiha-san could leave the girl with Sasuke. She's done it before. Tsunade, surely you see how this is the perfect solution: the threat of Kiri diminished and Uchiha-san a ready traitor to take the blame if anything goes amiss. She certainly has the skills to break Water Country in its current precarious state." Tsunade attempted to fry the warmonger with her gaze. She didn't doubt he had already put foundations of suspicion in place so Mikoto's fall would be uncontested. "As Hokage, you must honour the contract."

Tsunade stared at the innocuous agreement, torn.

* * *

Kakashi's coffee break in the jounin lounge was interrupted by Gai.

"Nariko-san has come to see you, Rival!" Gai then proceeded to waggle his eyebrows in a way that made Kakashi cringe and slip towards the door far more quickly than he would have otherwise.

Nariko had witnessed his ordeal, but somehow wasn't laughing. She looked empty—she hadn't taken the Sandaime's elaboration on Naruto's problem with Kyuubi well. "Hatake-san."

He blinked. It had been a while since she had called him that. Uncertain, he responded in kind. "Matsuku-san. What can I do for you?"

"I've come to ask about the Kakuho residence that came into your possession." For all the interest she was displaying, they might as well have been talking about the coffee she hated so much. "Have you decided what you will do with it?"

"Hmm, not yet. Why?"

"If a price can be agreed upon, I would be willing to purchase it."

Kakashi stared. She was what? Buying a house was a statement of willingness to remain in Konoha. He had never expected her to do it. "Really?"

"Yes."

"I thought that you had yet to recover financially from…"

"I have the funds," she said simply. "Let me know when you decide, if you please. Good day, Hatake-san."

He studied her as she walked away, wondering what the heck that had been about.

* * *

Mikoto squeezed Ryuuka one last time and shoved her into Riko's arms, fighting off the feeling that this would be the last time she would hold her daughter. No, she would come back. Momochi-san insisted that the one she suspected of being the Eldest wasn't actually in Water. Apparently, he had other work. Work like setting Kyuubi on Konoha, as she had suspected since Itachi had revealed his continued existence.

"Tell Sasuke that he's not to leave the stove on if he beats me home. Keep her safe for me—"

"Or you'll rip out my innards, I know. Don't worry. If she dies, I'll soon follow. There's no way I'm leaving myself to your mercy." Riko's laugh was wooden and patently fake. She met Mikoto's eyes. "If he really can control the fox, he has to die. Make him _suffer_."

Mikoto nodded, wondering if sharing her speculation with Riko given Naruto's situation had been wise. Someone had to know so Sasuke could be told if something happened to her though. "Don't worry, he'll suffer." She hid behind her bravado for Riko, who looked so desperate and haunted that Mikoto didn't want to know what she had heard. As she turned away, she whispered, "If he doesn't kill me first."

Her machinations and her plans faded into insignificance behind her. This was uncharted territory.

* * *

It was a perfectly ordinary day in Kaijin no Mura when Naruto knocked on the door after consulting the address he had copied from the phone book for the fifth time. Seconds passed like eons, so Naruto was just about to knock again, worried that the house's occupants hadn't heard him, when the door snapped open.

"Naruto-kun?" said Takara-0baasan, taken aback by his random appearance on her doorstep.

He grinned sheepishly at her. "Hi, Obaasan! Sorry about the lack of notice, but we kind of have to move around on the fly."

Takara blinked once and fell right back into her general mien. "Nariko-chan mentioned that. I heard that there are criminals trying to capture you. We've been very worried; Nariko sends us a message by ninja courier whenever she gets a message from you, so we've gotten to know the messengers very well. I'm sure they're making a small fortune off the money she spends commissioning them. Is that Jiraiya-sama? Is he with you?"

Naruto recalled belatedly that it had been Obaasan and Yasu-ojiichan who had punished Jiraiya for pushing him into that chasm before the final Chuunin Exam. "Ah, yeah, that's Ero-Sennin. He's my teacher and protector for now. Officially, I'm away from Konoha on a training mission. That's actually why we're here. There's supposed to be a seal master in this village, and I was hoping to study under him for a couple months to get a different perspective. When I realized that this was your town, I figured I should drop by and say hi before we get a hotel room."

"Hotel?" asked Takara dangerously. "You are going to stay in a hotel when the entire Matsuku clan has been waiting years for a chance to host you and get to know you? No, that will not do. You and your guardian will be staying with us. No excuses!"

Naruto snapped his mouth shut on his protests.

"Come in and bring your keeper. You can talk to Yasu about the seal masker." She watched like a hawk while Naruto bounded over to Ero-Sennin.

"Eh, Grandmother says we're staying with her."

Jiraiya sent him an amused and condescending look.

"You try saying no to her then!"

Ero-Sennin snorted and walked over to bow to Takara-obaasan, not even trying since it meant he would have more money to spend on research.

Takara left Jiraiya in the spacious guestroom before smiling at Naruto. "You are family, so I'll give you Nariko-chan's old room. It's mostly empty, but she left a few of her old things in there. You don't mind, do you?"

Naruto shook his head. With any luck, the place would still have Neechan's scent all around, which would reassure the fox in him. Takara slid the door open and preceded him in, heading for the closet to pull out the futon. Naruto followed, his eyes glued to the walls, which were covered in paintings and sketches in various stages of completion. They were all like the ones in the living room and Neechan's bedroom at home—the same strangely mathematical curves, the same use of odd colours. All of them were signed M. Nasake. There was a table in the corner covered in paintbrushes, pencils, and stacks of paper.

He walked around the room, examining the paintings, which were all of wildlife found in the area and scenes that were probably visible from special spots around the village and yet oddly devoid of the life that the pictures at home had. Most of these paintings had no spark and bored him. "I didn't know Riko-nee was a painter."

"She didn't like to talk about it much," said Takara, gazing at all the works sadly. "She kept it secret. Her paintings were so special to her, and she knew that they weren't always good. She used to paint all the time, but when she finally got a job when she turned sixteen, she stopped. She did one last painting just after Risako…" Grandmother sighed and shook her head.

Naruto decided not to ask about that just yet.

"Nariko-chan knew her style wasn't popular, not like her cousin's. Risako's paintings were full of life, full of spark. Nariko didn't usually achieve that; she is too much of a perfectionist, a mathematician. Form pleased her critical eye more than feeling." Obaasan shook her head and summoned a smile. "She only took the ones she painted for Itsuki-kun with her to Konoha. The rest she left here. That's how we know she will come back to us someday. Yasu knows more about the stories behind the finished ones than I do. He studies in here sometimes, just so he can be around his daughter."

"I think she left them here for you," said Naruto.

"Maybe. We did teach her to be kind like that." She took one last look around. "The bathroom is just down the hall." She gave him one last smile before leaving him to get changed for supper.

* * *

Once he was dressed in clean clothes and washed up, Naruto explored the house. He found out that it was actually a small family dwelling within a larger complex, all belonging to Riko-nee's extensive clan. They were the largest clan in the village as far as Naruto could tell: their compound had about twenty individual family dwellings and a huge building on the northern part of the compound that was probably a place for clan meetings, festivals, and feasting. This all surrounded a huge central garden, which was both functional and ceremonial. Huge trees cast large shadows and shed gold and red leaves all over the lawn and the vegetable garden on the northernmost side.

Naruto pulled on his sandals and went out to explore the acres of green space. He spotted one of the paintings' scenes: a rock had obviously been where she had been sitting when she painted the stream that ran through the garden and fed the koi pond before it tumbled down a little waterfall flanked by maple trees and flowed out of the compound. Near one of the family dwellings, he could see that a number of greenhouses had been set up and guessed that Nariko's Aunt Haruka lived there, the one that liked gardening so much.

He was not alone in the garden, but the smaller children were paying him no mind. They were strung across the little hills and paths, playing with their foster relatives. The age difference between each member of the groups showed that: there was a separation of at least five years from what he could tell. Some of the older children had noticed his intrusion and were eyeing him warily, standing guard over their younger charges like terriers. The strange thing was that they didn't really seem to feel all that threatened. The reason why quickly became apparent.

"Hey you!" called an adult, who came running off the porches of the dwelling several houses east of Takara's. "Who are you?" When the man got close enough, he stopped running and stared.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck and laughed uneasily. He was obviously a stranger: none of the kids playing was blonde like him. "Umm, well I'm—"

"I know you!" said the man, shocked. "You're Nariko-chan's adopted brother: the Uzumaki boy!"

"Yeah," said Naruto, grinning now that he didn't seem to be in trouble. Children were gathering around, whispers that sounded like "Nariko?", "The one who left?", and "She moved away and got a new brother…." "I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"You might have heard about me," said the man, extending his hand. "I was Nariko-chan's foster brother. I'm her cousin, Shiro. Our fathers are brothers."

Naruto looked over the tall man and could see where his name had come from. He was confused though: hadn't Neechan gone on about how Shiro was supposed to be pretty? "Yeah, she told me about you," said Naruto with a grin, shaking the proffered hand. "She said that you were the reason she got so good at math."

Shiro's brown eyes smiled just like Riko's did when she was pleased and proud. "We've heard lots about you. She always talks about you in her letters. Aunt Takara has an entire crate full of letters and pictures of you."

"Yeah, Riko-nee told me about that."

"How is she?"

"She was fine the last time I saw her," said Naruto. "She's strong enough to twist my ear still."

Shiro grinned and clapped him on the shoulder, showing no reservations about touching a known bijuu vessel.

"She was in Suna to watch my friend Gaara's ascension to Kazekage."

"She went to Wind Country?" asked a little black-haired girl with big brown eyes that had to be part of the Matsuku line.

"Yes, Tsubaki-chan, didn't we tell you children about that at the last family dinner?" said Shiro.

The little girl blushed and ducked her head. "I was playing with the crayons, Shiro-niichan."

"Now you will pay attention next time, right, Tsubaki-chan?"

She nodded vehemently and scuttled behind her foster brother, a brown-haired boy about six years older.

Shiro sat down on the grass and leaves and gestured that everyone else do the same. "Well, Naruto-kun, tell us about how you came to be here."

Naruto sat down and waited until all the children had settled as well. "Well, I'm on a training mission with this old geezer. Right now I'm studying to become a seal master like my dad."

"You mean like Uncle Yasu?" asked Shiro.

Naruto shook his head. "My dad was a seventh level seal master according to his sensei."

"Oh," said Shiro, "well, Yasu-ojisan is working to be a seal master too. He has the most texts on it in the village since the clan funds his aspirations. The resident historian is teaching him. You've come to the right place exactly if you were hoping to study under Daichi-sama."

"This is awesome!" said Naruto, nearly bouncing around in his glee. He would get to study alongside Yasu-ojiichan! The children watching the exchange giggled at him and some of the little boys imitated him before falling sideways in a heap to draw laughter from their wards.

Shiro chuckled and shook his head, tapping the closest boy on the shoulder. "I'm glad that your visit here will be profitable for you too. We've been waiting a long time to meet you here. It is strange for us of the Matsuku clan to have relatives that we have not met."

"Yeah, Neechan told me about that. I was kind of excited when I figured out that I would be able to meet you all. Neechan's tried to tell me about most of you, but there are so many; I can't remember all the names."

"Don't worry too much about it," said Tsubaki's guardian confidently. "Even we can't remember everyone's names yet. Nobody gets mad about it though. It's a lot of people. I'm twelve and I still don't remember some of my distant aunts' names."

Shiro rolled his eyes and nodded in agreement. "Even I don't know the all names of my mother's family. I do know all my Matsuku relatives though. Everyone will introduce himself or herself to you several times. They've gotten in the habit of doing that with anyone staying with the family."

A much older woman appeared on the deck that Shiro had sprinted over from and called out for him. "That's my kaasan," he said, smirking softly before turning back to Naruto. "I've got to go in for a bit to help out, but I'll talk to you later with Itsuki-kun. We'll give you plenty of blackmail on Nariko-chan." Naruto shared an evil grin with Shiro before the latter turned to face the children gathered around. "Hey, why don't you all give _Tomoe_ _Naoki_-niichan a tour of the gardens? I'm sure he'd like that."

Some of the children made excuses and ran off to play again, but Tsubaki, her guardian, and several others pulled Naruto to his feet and chattered excitedly at him, waving goodbye to Shiro.

By the time Takara-obaasan called him in to eat dinner with Yasu-ojiichan and Ero-Sennin, he was exhausted. The kids had run him all over the gardens and had each pointed out their favourite spots in the six-acre area. He knew every path now.

"Naruto-kun," said Yasu, who was already kneeling by the table, "it is wonderful to see you. I hope you are well."

"Yeah, Ojiichan. It's good to see you too. I was pretty excited when I figured out that we were coming here."

"Takara says that you are staying in Nariko's old room. Did you like her paintings?"

"They're cool."

"She will be very glad to hear you say so, I think," Yasu said. "Nariko says that you are succeeding with your self-imposed mission that is connected to the other bijuu. What is it?"

"Oh, that. I'm trying to find all the others so that we can work together."

"That sounds like quite a challenge considering the many battles that were fought among the bijuu in the past. Have you had any luck other than meeting Gaara-san?"

"Yeah, I've found three others. Two are jinchuuriki like Gaara and me, but one is free and roaming around. He doesn't seem to be doing a lot of damage yet though."

Yasu nodded and didn't ask any other questions, understanding the danger. Jiraiya chose this moment to walk into the room. "Welcome, Jiraiya-sama," said Yasu peaceably, bowing to the Sannin, who bowed back.

"I am grateful that you have taken us into your home, Matsuku-san."

"It is no trouble," said Yasu. "While you and Naruto are wandering together, you are both very welcome in our house. Many of Nariko's relatives have been eagerly awaiting the chance to meet the brother she has adopted into our clan. What I am curious about is why you have brought him here."

Ero-Sennin settled himself at the table. "I've heard about Daichi-sama, the historian that lives here. His papers are still very praised all around Fire Country and in Konoha, especially those delving into the nature of fuuinjutsu. Naruto here is hoping to advance to a level where he can work with his own seal safely, and Daichi sounds like he'd have a unique perspective on bijuu and sealing. I am only a fifth level master."

"That is no mean feat, Jiraiya-sama. I myself have only recently finished examining the fourth level under Daichi-sama's tutelage and I have been studying with him since just after Nariko-chan was born. What level have you reached, Naruto?"

"I've just passed into the third. I'm learning to use my father's jutsu for speed and it relies on a fourth-level seal. I can draw it now and use it."

"That is quite impressive. To be able to draw and use a seal above your level is quite risky. That you can do it successfully speaks well of your potential."

"Yasu, that's enough scholarly talk. We are eating supper now," said Takara sharply as she carried platters to the table, and Naruto jumped up to help her bring in the last of the plates. "Thank you, Naruto. This is a time for eating, not scholarly discussion. You do enough of that during the day. We shall talk about something that all of us can understand now."

"Of course, Takara," said Yasu before discretely winking at Naruto, who smirked around a mouthful of rice. "Naruto, we can discuss this tomorrow. I'll vouch for you to Daichi-sama when he next visits us." His wife gave him a warning look, and he subsided.

"Naruto," she asked carefully, "is there something about Nariko that we should know? I mean, is she… involved with someone?"

"You mean like does she have a boyfriend?" asked Naruto innocently, and Takara nodded. "I don't know; I've been away for almost two years now. She's never mentioned it in her letters. She's been really busy helping Tsunade-baachan and doing taxes and helping Kaka-sensei get better."

"Hatake Kakashi?" asked Yasu. Jiraiya hid a grin behind his bowl of rice. The look of sleepy contentment had fallen off Yasu's face at the mention of Nariko helping her brother's sensei. "What would he need help with?"

"He's been having a really rough time, dattebayo. He was better when I saw him in Suna, but I could tell he's been sick lately. Riko-nee said he was having problems coping with some of the missions he was sent on. He had the abilities, but she said it brought up bad memories for him. She said that Fuu-sensei was helping him after things got bad. She wouldn't tell me how bad though. She's good about keeping secrets for people."

Takara and Yasu exchanged suspicious glances, and Jiraiya had to work very hard to keep from snorting with laughter at the situation that Naruto had just created. He had a feeling that Kakashi would be out for his student's blood later, if his sister didn't get there first

"Naruto, I saw that you met Shiro-kun in the gardens."

"Yeah, he seems like a pretty cool guy, but Neechan was wrong about him. I thought he was supposed to be prettier than Haku and Sakura put together."

Finally, Jiraiya snorted, unable to stay quieter any longer. Takara spared him only a semi-stern glance before turning to Naruto. "What do you mean, dear?"

"He means that Raimei-chan made him think that Shiro-kun is prettier than most girls, sister dearest." The tall man barged into the dining room without pause and planted a mocking kiss on his sister's wrinkly temple. "Yo, Naruto, you've gotten a lot bigger since I last saw you. How have you been?"

"Hey, Hotaka-ojisan. I've been pretty good. What do you mean about Shiro though?"

"It's a lame family joke that Shiro inherited from his father for keeping his hair so long; it's supposed to keep him humble," the tree tall man said, ruffling Naruto's hair, and stealing his forehead protector. "So you finally got one of these. I saw a lot of them while in Konoha. At least I know what they mean now. That's awesome, but it looks like the cloth is pretty worn out."

"Yeah," admitted Naruto, "I've been training and travelling so much and it's not holding up too well. It's pretty old already."

"Do you want me to fix it for you? I could be done by the time you finish supper. I'm a tailor, so this kind of thing is a snap."

"Hotaka, we're eating," growled Takara while Yasu hid a smile.

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry; I'll be out of your hair in a minute. I'm just passing through before I mooch apricots off of Haruka. I was under the mistaken impression that you would be happy to see me after my two-day absence. How foolish of me. What are little brothers compared to dinner protocol? What colour fabric do you want, Naruto?"

"Black or blue would be great."

"I've got a lot of sturdy fabrics in those colours. I'll have it back to you before you go to bed." Just as he was about to leave, Naruto jumped up.

"Hey, can you make the ties a lot longer?"

"How much longer?" asked Hotaka teasingly, but he nodded when Naruto indicated the total length he wanted with his hands. "I can do that. No problem. Enjoy your dinner, everyone." He slipped out of the house as quietly as he had come, stooping to avoid hitting his head on the lintel on the way out.


	64. Chapter 64

Chapter 64: Sun

Naruto lay on Neechan's old futon, studying the paintings and sketches on her walls in early morning light. Grandpa had promised to tell him about some of them after breakfast. He had heard Grandmother get up hours ago, but he hadn't heard a peep from Grandpa or Ero-Sennin yet. The latter was probably still sleeping in preparation for a late night of research, but maybe Grandpa was already awake and he was just really quiet.

Banking on this prospect, Naruto bounced into the kitchen. Grandmother Takara was reading the morning paper, but there was some porridge in the pot for him and cinnamon and milk on the table to add to it.

"I remember how you like your porridge," she said with a smirk when he made a fuss about it.

"Where's Grandpa?"

"Out on the balcony, talking with Okano."

Naruto gobbled down the contents of his bowl and skittered onto the deck. Sure enough, there was Grandpa Yasu sitting on the steps while a woman built around the principle of a good rope—taut, sturdy, yet slender enough to be useful—sat on the grass at his feet, dressed in heavy green and brown denim.

"Ah, Naruto! Good morning. This is Okano-chan, Nariko's cousin."

The woman grinned. She had yellowish teeth. "Nice to meet you."

"I've heard of you. You were Itsuki's ward, I think. Neechan said you were…" Naruto cocked his head. "Level-headed?"

Okano laughed. "Yup, that's me. The fountain of common sense right here. I get the feeling you're here to steal Uncle Yasu, so I'll get going. I've got a lot of ground to cover today. I'll see you soon, Naruto."

"Bye!"

"Safe journey, Okano! Watch out for bears!" Yasu called after her. "So, I see that she is right, as usual. I'm supposed to tell stories, aren't I?"

Naruto grinned.

"Alright, then, help me up, boy!"

Naruto grabbed Yasu-ojiichan's free hand as the other snuffed his pipe. Grandpa was so frail, even more so than Neechan. But the old man smiled and let himself be dragged into Neechan's room after retrieving a book from the library. They sat on the futon and looked around the room.

"Which one did you want to hear about first?"

Naruto grimaced and squinted as he tried to pick. "How about that one? The one with the horse in it."

"Ah, the stallion," said Grandpa as he flipped through the pages of his book. "See here?" He pointed to the paragraph in the notebook. "I wrote down everything she told me, but the other children helped too. This one was from when she was thirteen. You see how the lines are thicker? Her control wasn't good enough then to produce the fine lines you see later on."

"Thirteen!" He couldn't believe that his sister had painted this when she was younger than he was. The horse was trotting through barrel-high grass, his delicate looking head held high, his ears pricked, and his tail flagged. The light gleamed off his coat and the mountains rose blue and grey beyond the limit of the plain. Storm clouds gathered on the horizon, hinting at heavy rainfall.

"Hm, well, it's not as if this was the only draft, but this was the first of her successfully completed pieces. There were thousands of drafts before this one that she threw into the fire. See, art was not natural for her like it was for Risako-chan, so of course there was rivalry there for Nariko. She would work so hard to get close. She could see the picture she wanted to produce in her mind, but she could hardly ever get it out. We used to have butterfly burnings in the fall where she would let all of her cousins fold butterflies out of her unsuccessful pieces and they would all toss them into the bonfire."

So, Neechan did understand him and Sasuke. No wonder she always laughed at them.

"When she was twelve, the local daimyo came through our village to remind us of his existence and to impress his importance upon us. Nariko fell in love that day."

Naruto really hoped that was just a turn of phrase that Ojiichan was using to tell the story better. If it wasn't, Sakura and Neechan had way more in common than he was comfortable with.

"With who?"

Grandpa deadpanned. "His horse."

Naruto laughed, relieved.

"It was a beautiful beast, imported from the desert horse breeders in the far reaches of Wind Country, far beyond Suna. They called the breed Arabian. She let Shiro name the piece, so it was unfortunately dubbed 'The Lover.' She wasn't too happy about that, but Shiro-kun wouldn't repent."

Naruto snorted. Poor Neechan!

"Itsuki, Shiro, and Nariko went together every day we painstakingly feasted the daimyo and feasted his horse instead, distracting the poor guards with all sorts of nasty pranks to drive them to distraction. They would drive chickens, geese, or pigs into the pen for the guards to chase off, steal their helmets or their spears, all sorts of horrible things. Then they would run into the pen in their bare feet and try to catch the stallion, which was of course not impressed until they brought out carrots and apples."

Naruto did some quick mental math. "Wasn't Shiro eighteen then? He's, what, six years older than Neechan."

Grandpa smirked. "Shiro has only recently begun to act his age." He switched back to his storytelling voice. "Then their love affair ended."

Naruto raised a brow.

"The daimyo was sufficiently pleased with our efforts to flatter him, so he packed up his entourage, mounted his beautiful Arabian, and rode away, leaving the poor trio heartbroken. Nariko dealt with her grief by sketching under Risako's direction, working on shape, then shading, then colour, and finally smaller details. Months and months of work because more than a year's, and finally this painting passed her rigorous criteria: it got a smile and a nod from Risako, which Nariko judged to be sincerer praise than the gushing reviews her cousin gave all the other attempts that became ashes."

"Neechan was weird like that then?" Naruto had always suspected Neechan had been a brat as a kid. He was glad he had finally found proof; this explained why she knew how pranks worked.

Yasu nodded. "She'd take praise from Shiro and Itsuki, but Risako's words were like written challenges. Twelve years between them didn't matter—Risako was Nariko's goal."

Naruto was just about to ask what had happened to Risako, when Grandpa Yasu opened his mouth.

"What other painting would you like to hear about?"

Frowning at the interruption, Naruto glanced around again and settled on the one dull painting in the room. He pointed.

"That one?" Yasu asked, nonplussed. "Well, let's see. That was the one painting she never told me much about, the last one she ever did. It was the first one she did without thousands of pages of practice, which is why it is so abstract. I think she was sixteen or so. She said it was an old memory." He flipped through the pages of his book, at last finding the correct entry halfway through. "This is one is called _Dreaming_."

"Who are the four shadows?" asked Naruto, studying the only pricks of light in the mist.

"She said that they were four faeries she saw when she was about ten. They were flying through the mists while she returning from the forests with Shiro. There was a bright flame; he was the tallest. He looked like a radiant king to her, a true leader of the faeries. Next, there was the gentlewoman. She's the one with brown hair visible at the front of her cloak. The gentlewoman was short, but there was an air of knowledge and kindness from her. The dark one was a faerie knight according to her. He was trying to win the gentlewoman's favour, his orange eyes full of courage and true wisdom. Do you see the last one?"

Naruto squinted and could barely pick out a shadow following the other three cloaked figures.

"She says that he was the Shadow Man. He cared for no one and nothing other than his goal. She used to wake up late at night screaming that he was coming to kill her. She said his eyes are full of ice and that he and the knight would fight someday. It is strange, but this is the only piece that was purely fantasy as far as I can tell. There are no faerie legends in Fire Country."

* * *

Somewhere in Earth Country, Yugito was also moving through the mists with great speed, following the map that Naruto and Gaara had provided her with. Brother White had sent her an extensive list of intelligence about her chosen route, warning her about probable patrols and pointing out good spots to camp at. So far, it had been very useful. She had managed to avoid several teams of Iwa ninja and had found shelter when the weather had become unpredictable. Only two days ago there had been a horrific thunderstorm that had scoured the hills and the cliffs, making it all the more apparent why this land was filled with oddly shaped earthen structures.

According to their map, she was only hours away from the tiny village where the mysterious potter lived. How Konoha had information on this person, Yugito didn't know. What she had been sent had been brief and gave no indication about why the woman was thought to be a jinchuuriki or why Konoha had tracked her down and noted her for observation.

She also wondered how Naruto had come by what was obviously ANBU-level information. Such observation could only have been done by the elite forces with Iwa-nin all over the place and very firmly opposed to Konoha. What was Naruto to Konoha? It irked her that he seemed to have so much support high up in Konoha's government. However, it also made her grudgingly thankful her that he was willing to extend this bubble of protection to her when he barely knew her. To repay him, she would succeed in convincing this badger woman to join with them. She would not accept failure.

* * *

Nariko leaned back in her desk chair as Ryuuka played with the hawk and fox statues on the living room carpet. Before her were the bank statements for the clan accounts (more than one because the sum surpassed the limits on savings accounts).

Even she had never realized that the clan was this powerful.

There was more money in these accounts than she had seen passing in an out of Konoha's.

A letter had come to her by Suna courier only yesterday.

"_Work hard, Nariko-love!_" Concetta had written. "_But not too hard! Find time to play too!_"

Grazia-sama had been less playful.

"_The initial funds should be set up for you shortly after this letter reaches you. Rahim oversaw it. There's more coming, but he says that should be enough to start with. We've called up contractors from several countries. They're going to report to you upon their arrival. Some are bringing their families, so they'll be the first clan members to settle. Treat them well, Reed. They're nervous._

"_More will come when you send me word that the clan house is ready. If we run out of room in the home, they'll have to rent whatever they can get. It'll be for the best; I don't want this new branch to be isolationist. Nothing will alienate the village faster._

"_I've instructed them all that you're de facto leader, but don't worry too much. I'll be there in time to settle on a clan council before things get too weird. I don't want you distracted from your job too much. I know how important work is for you._

"_However, feast each of them as they arrive. I figure you know this protocol, but it doesn't hurt to remind you. Branching out is frightening, so we must make the group tightknit._"

Nariko tossed aside the letter and rubbed her eyes. How was she supposed to do this when she was being eaten alive with grief from the inside out?

"Bachan?"

"Hmm?"

Ryuuka scrambled up on her lap as though this was natural. Nariko loved the girl for it. "When is Kaasan coming home?"

"Ah, Ryuuka-love, your mother is working very hard on a mission right now. She's going all the way to Water Country!" Nariko picked the girl up and carried her to her room, setting her down in front of the bookcase as she pulled out a book of maps and flipped to a good page. "See, here we are in Konoha." She pointed her finger to the dot on the map, and Ryuuka mimicked her. "Your mother has to go all the way across the sea to here." She traced her finger over to Kiri.

"And then what?"

"Then she must do her mission."

"And then she can come back?"

Nariko tapped Ryuuka on the nose and grinned. "Exactly." _If she's still alive._

A knock on the door reached them.

Ryuuka scrambled to her feet, racing down the hall. "Oniitama!"

Frowning, Nariko followed her. Sasuke wasn't due back for another two weeks. The girl was tall enough to reach the doorknob, but not the lock. Nariko rested her hand on it, but didn't turn the deadbolt just yet. "Who's there?"

"You don't recognize my knock by now?"

Nariko breathed easier. "You weren't shaking this time, so of course not." She opened the door to his unimpressed expression.

"I suppose I should be grateful that you're in a good enough mood to mock me," said Kakashi as Ryuuka pouted for a moment before shrugging off her disappointment and flinging herself at Kakashi's legs.

Nariko's lips twitched as Kakashi grimaced at Ryuuka's shrieks of "Kaka-san!"

"How can you stand it?" he whispered.

"I like kids. I advise you never to have any if you can't take even limited exposure to her," she whispered back. Louder, she said, "What brings you here?"

"Your offer on Snake's old place."

Nodding, she pried Ryuuka off Kakashi's leg and propped the girl up on her hip before closing the door behind Kakashi.

"Is Seiji-san watching over you during the day?" Kakashi asked the girl.

She grinned and nodded. "Seiji-ojiisan took me to the park while Bachan was at work. But he's not feeling well and the food he makes is yucky. That's why I get to stay with Bachan when Kaasan's away."

"Ryuuka, I need to talk about something boring with Kakashi-san, so can you please go play quietly in the guestroom?"

"Can I watch a movie?" she asked, clinging to Nariko's shoulder.

"If you keep the volume down. You know how the downstairs lady is."

Ryuuka grinned. "Bam bam bam with the broom!" She mimed whacking upwards.

Nariko smirked. "Exactly." She set the girl down, who clung to Kakashi's leg for one last moment before running off down the hall with the fox and hawk statues, though she reappeared momentarily to snitch the rabbit one. Nariko turned back to Kakashi. "Do you want coffee?"

He shook his head. "No, it's okay."

"Alright then." She gestured that he seat himself as she settled on the couch, resting her folded hands on the living room table.

"Nariko, what are you going to do with the house if I sell it to you?"

She lifted an eyebrow. "It's not really any of your business, you know, as the seller."

"Let's pass this off as naivety about the seller's rules of propriety then. What do you want with the house?" He eye-smiled, but there was something almost menacing about it.

"I'm acting as an agent for the clan in Konoha. A group of families will be taking possession of the house."

"Matsuku."

"Mm, in a sense. There will be some Boteri, some Yiri, and so on. I haven't received the full list yet."

He eyed her for a long moment. "So this isn't for you."

She shook her head. "Not long term."

"And if I don't sell, you'll find someone else."

She nodded.

"And if I warn the Hokage and she doesn't let them sell, what then?"

She had known this was coming. "Then I do my best to make your life hell while someone with more political sway than I have makes the wheels turn."

"You should have saved that favour I owed you," he said, smirking. "You could have called it in now."

"It was well-spent," she replied, unruffled.

"Is that so?"

"You have yet to figure it out, I see."

He sighed. "What's your clan going to do?"

"Live here."

"That can't be it."

"They will live here and take up civilian positions in the community. We have no desire to become undesirables in Konoha. We simply want to integrate and live."

He regarded her for a long moment with a narrowed grey eye. "So this is the start of the push?"

She shrugged. "Not so much. The push began a long time ago, long before Konoha was established."

"Hm. And will similar clan houses be set up in other villages?"

"That is the way of the clan. We are always expanding into new places."

"Your expanding here means we can watch your clan more closely."

Nariko smirked. "You go right ahead. We're insidiously honest; I'm sure you'll find plenty of dirt on us. After all, burying it deep down like Konoha does has worked _so_ well."

"You're also providing Konoha with plenty of hostages."

She nodded. "We've seen this all before. It's a common occupational hazard for clan members."

"But do the families that are coming here realize that?"

"I'm hardly going to keep them in the dark, and I'm certain Grazia-sama has at least apprised them of the dangers. But you try telling the ninja that were raised playing with those Matsuku children to hold a kunai to their throats. I won't bet on the outcome." She leaned forward and steepled her fingers. "So, Hatake-san, what is your decision now that you've interrogated me?"

He leaned back in his armchair, still appraising her with that single grey eye.

* * *

Naruto followed Shiro into his studio, almost sneezing at the sawdust. The spacious room smelled heavily like sap, freshly cut wood, varnish, and other things like that. There was a huge workbench in the middle and stacks and stacks of different types of wood all around the walls, some of it balancing on pegs sticking out of the walls, but most of it in piles or stuck in cubbyholes in the shelves. Some of the pieces were huge and rough, while others were small and partially shaped. The windows on the south wall let the morning sun in, its golden beams illuminating just how much dust there was in the air. Partially finished furniture was scattered wherever the wood and the tools weren't.

"Irezumi-kun is out today in the village with his uncle and his grandmother, so I'm in need of an assistant," explained Shiro while he pulled on a leather apron with lots of pockets in it full of pencils, a tape measure, various screwdrivers, a small level, and a mallet. "Do you want to try your hand at it? I just need somebody to hold the other end of some of the pieces steady while I check how level everything is and to help me lift things and hold them steady while the glue dries. Riko-chan did this a lot before she moved away until she started working at the firm. Even after that, she would come in and help me varnish the finished pieces in the evenings."

Shiro bit off his sentence, glancing at Naruto worriedly before grinning sheepishly. "Ah, you've already seen her paintings, haven't you?"

Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, she liked helping varnish because it was like painting. It was after she stopped. We'd bring Irezumi-kun in here and let him play around with the odds and ends after Okano-chan was assigned to look after him so that his uncle and his grandmother could have some peace every once in a while."

"What happened to his parents?" asked Naruto, curious.

Shiro glanced at him out of the corners of his eyes. "Riko didn't tell you?"

Naruto shook his head, puzzled.

"Ah, no, she wouldn't have. It's been, what, fourteen years now? Yes, that's right, fourteen years…" Shiro shook his head. "Irezumi is the same age as you, just about. He's the son of my guardian cousin, Risako. Both of his parents are dead to him as far as the clan is concerned." The way Shiro said that indicated that the details weren't something that Shiro was comfortable talking about. "I was twenty-two when it happened—Riko was only sixteen—but it still aches. It was horrible for all of us…" Shiro stared out the window blankly for a couple seconds, a horribly forlorn expression on his face.

"It hurts to lose family like that. To lose a guardian cousin though… someone that's been with you from the very beginning, someone that always believed in you, someone that always invested in you… It's like losing your mother and your sister all in one," he whispered. Shiro suddenly shrugged off the memories that were haunting him and smiled genuinely at Naruto, the past falling away in the face of the present. "Are you up for helping me?"

"Sure," agreed Naruto, glad to have the chance actually to do something instead of studying for a change. He wondered why Riko-nee hadn't said much about this and hesitantly asked Shiro.

"Maa, you were too young. She wouldn't have wanted to burden you with old history that doesn't really matter anymore. We're all past it now. There's no point in bringing it up again. Irezumi-kun doesn't mind; he doesn't remember his parents for the most part. He was too young. The clan saw that he was raised properly. I wanted to take him, but he's from a different line: he's a descendant of my great-grandfather's younger brother. He went to Risa, Keiji, and Yosa instead. They've done a good job, and he's my apprentice now. There's no point in fretting over it."

Shiro pulled an elastic band onto his wrist, severely braided his long hair, and tied it up and out of the way. "It's dangerous if I leave it down," he explained when Naruto almost snickered at him. "If it got snagged on the lathe, I'd lose a chunk of my scalp and then Junko would leave me."

Naruto laughed at the last part of the explanation with him, helped him heft an oak set of drawers upright, and helped carry a couple thick slabs of oak over to the workbench before Shiro left him with a can of greenish-gold stain and a brush.

"Just smear that in a thin coat over the dresser while I prep the front pieces of the drawers. The family that ordered them wanted some pretty intricate carvings in the faces, so I'm going to have to be careful."

Naruto hung around until late afternoon, watching Shiro carefully carve the delicate pictures of the sun, moon, and stars into the drawers with various strange looking tools that scraped away at the wood's surface as he used sandpaper on the side panels of the drawers. When the eight pieces were smooth to his touch, he hopped up on the workbench and simply watched Shiro carve. It was kind of strange how all of Neechan's cousins were into art of some sort. Itsuki was supposed to be a musician and a poet, Shiro was a sculptor of a sort, Kiku (Shiro's older sister) was a weaver like Takara-obaasan, and Okano-chan was into dancing as far as he knew. It suddenly made sense to him why Riko-nee had painted, though he still didn't understand why she had taken up math.

"Tell me about Konoha," said Shiro after he blew the little, curly pieces of wood out of his way so he could admire his work and keep going. "What's it like being a ninja? It's so different from what we do here. None of us except my aneki gets to leave very often and that's only in the spring when she goes with Riko's Uncle Hotaka to sell their wares in the northern villages."

"I'll tell you if you carve me a dog statue."

Shiro arched a platinum eyebrow.

"See, Neechan's statues sort of represent a lot of my friends, but I don't have one for my sensei. He's a dog kind of guy."

"Alright, a statue it is. I never liked dogs, though, you know? What kind of dog am I supposed to be making here?"

Naruto frowned as he thought it over. "I guess Kaka-sensei's like a greyhound the most. He's pretty fast."

Shiro made a face and stuck out his tongue. "Ha! Riko and I always agreed that those were the ugliest dogs on the planet. All skin and bones! She told me once that if she was ever going to get a dog just to piss me off, it'd be a chocolate lab."

Naruto stuck out his tongue in return. "No wonder Neechan doesn't like him then."

Shiro snorted. "Kid, you have no idea. I've still got some of the letters she sent me just after you graduated. She hated the air he breathed for what he was doing to you. She seemed to get over it for a while and then the letters just after Uncle Yasu and Aunt Takara arrived in Konoha! Whoa!" He shook his head. "I think she blew a gasket over the Chuunin Exam. She almost had me getting on a horse and riding up there to help her beat him to a pulp."

Naruto arched an eyebrow, internally glum about the reminder about the huge fight Neechan had had with him.

"Ah, sorry, kid. I only hear about the exciting stuff. That's why you're gonna tell me your side of the story, hm?"

Naruto launched into his narrative with reckless enthusiasm.

* * *

Naruto shuffled uncomfortably towards the meeting hall, clad in a semiformal robe for the occasion. There was an assembly for the Matsuku clan where the clan council would decide the guardian relatives of some children that were ready to become wards, would hear the petitions of those old enough to select a profession, and would welcome him formally into the clan. It was the last order of business that worried him the most. He wasn't the only one moving along the paths in the gloom. Bright lanterns swayed among the trees, held aloft by a member of each smaller family unit.

He and Jiraiya were walking together. Yasu and Takara were members of the clan council, so they had had to report to the hall earlier than most to organize the setup.

"You look nervous, kid," said Ero-Sennin.

"Yeah," was all that Naruto could get past the dryness of his throat.

The pounding of feet behind him alerted both ninja that someone was running to catch up with them. Both teacher and student tensed and shifted hands towards kunai hidden on their persons until Hotaka appeared around the bend in the path.

"I thought I had missed you." He panted as he slowed beside them, grinning. "I was late getting across town to the compound."

"You don't live on the grounds?" asked Naruto.

"No, I'm not a Matsuku. My family name is Yuruginai. My sister married into the clan, which makes me family to them, but I choose not to live among them. They have a wonderful compound, but it's across the village from my shop. I live above that instead. I'm welcome to these assemblies though, since I am an extension of the clan in a way. I come for the food and the company."

"What is this gathering like?" asked Jiraiya, following his ninja instinct to gather information before going into battle.

"Oh, it's really laidback. It's more a social event than anything. All of the families bring enough of one dish to feed eight people, so there's no shortage of food. Everyone mingles and sits wherever they want for an hour before the meeting is called to order. During the mingling, anyone who has business with the council will have approached them and informed them that they want a chance to have their petition read. It's after dinner that this is done. It usually doesn't take long because these meetings are held every month, so business is addressed fairly regularly. Any children that have turned fifteen are called up to announce an area they would like to work in and the council will see to it that they are apprenticed to someone that can teach them, for example. Once that is over with, people can leave, but most stay to finish off any food and to talk until about midnight."

He saw the continued presence of anxiety on Naruto's face and clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't worry; the council knows that you already have a profession and that you're not turning fifteen until next month. They'll just announce your presence within the compound formally since most everybody already knows, and they'll welcome you. That's it. You won't have to do or say anything other than nod and smile."

"Everyone knows he's here?" asked Jiraiya, understandably worried. If Naruto was being traced…

"Yeah, most people know. They don't talk about it outside the clan though. They know that he's being hunted by criminals. The Matsuku clan isn't stupid. They know that spreading something like this around would get a whole bunch of them killed. The village doesn't know. They just know that some boy relative has been welcomed into the compound. This happens enough that they won't think anything of it: the Matsuku are really pro procreation, so new members are added to the clan all the time. They think his name is Naoki or something like that. The kids have all been warned to hold their tongues: the guardian relatives will see to it that word doesn't leak out through the unwary mouths of their charges."

Hotaka was right. Naruto fully enjoyed the assembly. The kids around his age were all fulltime guardian relatives, but they were more than willing to talk to him and ask him questions about what it was like to be a ninja. He chattered good-naturedly with them; they reminded him of his friends in Konoha, only a lot more careful of everyone's feelings. Then Shiro and another man snagged him from the group and took him around the tables to grab some dinner, not speaking until he had filled his plate. They led him to a tatami mat where they all sat down.

"This is Itsuki, Nariko's foster cousin," explained Shiro, and Itsuki smiled at Naruto and extended his hand.

"I'm glad to meet you," he said, his mop of curly brown hair making him look like those faerie things that Yasu had shown him books about after learning about Nariko's _Dreaming_ painting. Itsuki brushed his bangs out of his eyes. "I've heard a lot about the one that took my place as Nariko's object to care for." There was no envy in his voice, only pleasant teasing. The bond that Itsuki and Nariko shared seemed to be something that the former wasn't worried about being broken or brushed aside. Naruto was grateful; he had been worried that Itsuki might resent him for taking his place as Riko's "little brother."

"Me too! I've heard lots of stories about you and Shiro. Neechan used to tell me about all the weird things you did together before she moved to Konoha."

"She's told us about all the strange things you've done too," said Itsuki, shoving a piece of sushi into his mouth and speaking around the roll.

Shiro rolled his eyes and swatted the younger man across the back of his head. "Forgive the pig here." Shiro grimaced until he noticed that Naruto was about to do the same thing. He rolled his eyes and tossed his white hair over his shoulder, making himself look even more like a prissy girl than ever.

Itsuki laughed when Naruto mumbled that under his breath. "Yeah, Whitey here gets that a lot. He's really popular with the girls now that he's stopped shaving his head. Maybe Riko told you about what we had to do with him when he started chasing after girls looking like an egghead…"

Shiro put Itsuki in a headlock and shoved a hand over his mouth to shut him up, but Naruto was already laughing.

"Yeah, she told me about that! She used to bring it up to scare Kakashi-sensei, dattebayo! He's a pervert too, but not quite as big a pervert as Ero-Sennin over there."

Itsuki was released and both of them glanced over at Naruto's teacher before turning back to Naruto for further information.

"He's a self-proclaimed super-pervert. He writes really boring books that Kaka-sensei likes to read. They're marked forbidden to children."

The two men traded glances and started laughing.

"Ah, so he's the one that writes the Icha Icha series!" Itsuki chortled. "Shiro here used to be a really big fan too until he married Junko. She convinced him stop reading them."

Shiro scowled and punched Itsuki in the shoulder. "Shut up, you. I'm a dozen years older than you."

"Eleven years and a couple months are not a dozen. You're too easy to tease!" Itsuki winked at Naruto. "You're the one planning on visiting Riko-nee in November so that she can meet the soon to be mother of your children. You don't need her approval, you know."

"You're coming too if I remember correctly," Shiro grumbled. "You're the one that wants to celebrate his twenty-fifth birthday with her and congratulate her in person on reaching thirty."

"You guys are going to Konoha?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah, in late October. Doofus here has his birthday on November 14. We've already cleared it with Riko-chan. She sounded pretty excited. Didn't she tell you in her last letter?"

"I haven't sent one to her yet. She'll mention it then. She doesn't know I'm here. It's so that if Akatsuki gets her, she won't have any information for them."

A frail looking old woman banged her cane on the floor and the council stomped their feet behind her. When all was quiet, she spoke in a reedy voice. "This assembly is now called to order. There are four items to bring to the attention of the clan this evening. First, the council has decided to foster Kiku, daughter of Mayu and Goro, under Arata, son of Nori and Kyo."

This was greeted with general applause and one black-haired boy was congratulated by his peers and patted on the head by his female guardian relative.

"Do they always foster girls under boys or boys under girls?" asked Naruto.

"No," said Shiro, "not always. That might cause problems. It's up to the parents of the child about to be fostered. If they agree to that, the council picks very carefully. There have been problems in the past when the clan wasn't vigilant enough. The job of a guardian is very difficult. We must become a teacher even while we ourselves are still learning the lessons. We become totally responsible for another life before we are ten years old. To fail in that duty is a terrible stain. Those that do are not dealt with leniently in most cases."

Naruto pondered whether this was a bad or a good thing while another child was announced to be old enough to be assigned a guardian at the next assembly and a girl requested help in learning to become a seamstress. Across the room, he could see Okano rolling her eyes at the girl's choice and commenting to a younger boy at her side.

"Our final item is the formal welcome of an adopted member of our clan," said the frail woman. "Uzumaki Naruto, please stand up."

With Itsuki's encouragement, he did as he was asked, rubbing the back of his head under the weight of the curious stares.

"Nariko, daughter of Yasu and Takara, adopted this boy almost ten years ago as her brother. Here we finally formally welcome him into our clan. He is a ninja of Konoha, which protects Fire Country in times of danger. We hope that the entire clan will give him any aid he requires in times of need, as he would do for any citizen of our nation.

"As most of you know, he is threatened by a criminal group. This is the reason he is not in the shinobi village and why he was finally able to come to us. Every effort should be made to protect him while he stays with us. If any word of his presence reaches the ears of those who hunt him, his life may be forfeit. Do not fail in your duty to the clan, to family."


	65. Chapter 65

Chapter 65: Creator of the Knight of Wands

Grandpa Yasu was as good as his word, and Daichi-sama—the local historian who had been left with one arm in an accident ages ago—agreed to take Naruto on as a temporary student. So Naruto found himself spending most days in Grandpa's library, struggling not to be distracted by what was going on in the gardens while painstakingly studying.

"That's right," said Daichi-sama, watching Naruto complete the seal pattern he had set him. "Now, keep your hand steady while you draw those fringe markers. They are quite complex." Satisfied that Naruto was working correctly, Daichi moved across the room, lecturing as he paced. "Seals are the physical representation of intent. They control chakra linked to that intent even when the original creator of the seal and generator of the chakra has gone away. They are physical representations of a seal master's will. Tell me some uses of seals."

"Well," said Naruto, setting down his brush and blowing on the ink so it would dry faster, "seals can be used to restrain powerful beings, like bijuu."

"Yes, another?"

"I have a friend in Konoha, Tenten, who stores all of her weapons using scrolls full of seals."

"Yes, that is an example of a space/time seal. Her weapons are sent into that 'other place/time', and they only return when she activates the seal with her blood or whatever she may have specified. The former means that her blood is the key for activating her seals. Could someone else's blood work?"

"Maybe, if she forgot to specify in her seal."

"Very good, now give me another example."

"Um, Old Man Hokage used to have scrolls in his office with seals on them. They were wax, imprinted with his nifty ring of office."

"Those are locking seals. They are also based upon the blood of a person. They will only open for a person of that bloodline."

Naruto knew about these, but hadn't known the ring one was the same thing as what he had given Gaara to lock his messages. "So Old Man Hokage's grandson could open them?"

"Yes, if your Hokage had not restricted the access only to himself, then this grandson could certainly open them. He has probably done so to protect his family should anyone actively try to force their way into the locked scrolls. Give me another example."

"Um, well Ero-Sennin has this scroll that is the summon contract between him and the toads."

"It is not a seal in and of itself, but it does complement a seal. Can you think of which one?"

"Well, whenever I summon a toad, I have to bite my thumb. When I use the jutsu, a seal forms beneath my hand and then the summon creature comes.'

"Very good. That seal that appears is actually fuelled by the summon contract. If you had not signed it, the toad would not have come because the seal would not have formed. You sign that scroll in blood, no?"

Naruto nodded.

"That is why you must offer blood every time you use that jutsu. The seal that forms accepts your offering when it matches one of the entries on the contract. If this is true, what is the contract?"

"It's a fringe seal; it alters the action of the actual seal, changing the parameters of its use," said Naruto slowly, his brain digging up the recollection of that lesson from Jiraiya.

"Excellent. Any others?"

"Well, there are all these barrier seals that ninja use to keep people out of places. There was a whole bunch that we covered in class at the Academy so that we would recognize when someone uses them."

"Yes, those are similar to the locking seal that Sarutobi uses, simply differing in form. There is one more you should know as a ninja. You are probably carrying five around right now."

At first Naruto thought that Daichi was talking about his shiki notes for Hiraishin, but he only had four of those and no other ninja carried them. Finally, the answer occurred to him. "You mean my exploding tags?"

"Yes. Those are very specific seals. They contain only trace amounts of chakra in them, which only serve in detonating when the chakra of the ninja using them activates them. They are a very basic seal. You should be able to write your own specialized exploding notes by now, ones that will only explode for you or on contact with certain materials. The possibilities are limitless. Now, let's go over the basic rules of sealing away things. Start with inanimate."

* * *

"So, little Jiraiya, why did you decide to bring him here?" Daichi asked as he poured himself another cup of tea.

They were sitting on Daichi's back porch, looking out at the forest that ringed Kaijin. Jiraiya grimaced at the reminder of how this man had been part of the Sandaime's generation. "He's a fan of your books, you know."

Daichi-sensei snorted softly. "Of course he is. What child can resist the _Adventures of Hiroji_? My books are far more popular than your own. Even adults will read them."

"Hey," groused Jiraiya with a pout, "little kids read mine!"

"For shame, little Jiraiya," Daichi said with a severe look on his face, "that's hardly something to brag about. That some poor little child is being exposed to your escapist erotica is a sin. Those poor children will be severely disillusioned in the future. Besides, how can you be sure of that?" When Jiraiya merely smirked smugly, Daichi-sensei looked a little afraid. "You did not expose's Naruto-kun to it, did you? You wouldn't have… no, of course you would. For shame! Nariko-san has already lost one brother to your books and now you have taken another. Worse still, you poisoned one of my fans."

"How did a former councillor to the Hokage and a jounin sensei become a children's author out here in Kaijin no Mura?" Jiraiya asked with mocking curiosity.

"How did a Sannin member in line to become Hokage become a wandering porn writer?" Daichi shot right back, cutting himself off to take a long swig of tea. His snowy eyebrows looked like particularly fuzzy caterpillars over the rim of his cup, which was strangely appropriate considering that his face looked like a wrinkled old leaf.

Jiraiya didn't bother answering since Daichi knew perfectly well.

"Ah, well, I suppose it started when I lost my wife and my right arm," he began. This story sounded as though it would be painful. Jiraiya settled into his research pose, propping his chin on his fist, and prepared to listen. Perhaps some inspiration for his next book could be found in this man's tale. Besides, it did interest him to know how this old ninja had found himself stationed as an undercover Intel agent in a small southern town of no particular consequence.

"What is left for a one-armed ninjutsu specialist?" Daichi asked rhetorically. "My students were chuunin, jounin, or dead, so they no longer needed a sensei. I could not fight if I could not form handseals. With my wife dead, there was no family life to retreat to in order to find solace and purpose. I will never be out of the Sandaime's debt for what he did then. Offering me a position as a councillor, specifically one in charge of advising him about the education of young ninja, was something that I can never repay. Learning to write with my left hand took time, but such an option was preferable to wasting away into nothing. Watching those children pass through the Academy and into the genin ranks was pure joy at first. Who could appreciate their wholeness and enthusiasm better than I?

"But, like all good things, this joy was fleeting. Wars came and went, and I advised for negotiations and peace talks every single time, which put me in opposition to Danzou. At the time, I thought nothing of it, but I should have. Danzou was still sore about losing to Sarutobi for the Hokage position even seven years after the fact, and I doubt he has changed much. ANBU didn't do him much good, but it never does anyone any good. By the way, how is my last living student doing? Is Beniha-chan well? She has forgotten who I am, so I never hear from her anymore."

Jiraiya almost gulped. So Daichi hadn't heard. "She died earlier this year."

"Oh," Daichi managed after a few moments of painful, horrible silence. Jiraiya felt terrible, knowing that every one of Daichi's students had been regarded as the children he had never been able to have. "How?"

"She was assigned to trail two Akatsuki members," Jiraiya explained slowly, hoping that this man was cleared to know the details. "Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame got too close to Naruto for her to simply remain on surveillance detail. She got warning to me of their proximity, and I got the kid out while she delayed and distracted them."

"Do you know if it was quick?" Daichi asked very softly, his head bowed and his drooping flesh making him seem fit to sob.

"It was very quick," Jiraiya told him without any intention of getting into the details. "She would have felt little to no pain."

"Oh," the haggard old man whispered at last. "Thank goodness for that mercy."

Jiraiya summoned patience he didn't often like to use and waited for the old ninja to get past his grief. The story had had the makings of a very good tale, but even ninja needed time to get past the shock of a death.

When the poor old sensei seemed completely stuck in a rut, Jiraiya searched his brain for anything to break the man out of it. A random tidbit of knowledge Naruto had exclaimed over in one of his letters somehow wriggled out of the pile in his head and spilled out of his mouth. "Apparently, she made Hatake Kakashi her heir."

That woke the old man up. "Hatake Kakashi? The Hatake Kakashi who made genin at five, chuunin at six, and jounin at thirteen?"

"Yeah, him."

The most startling thing happened: Daichi-sensei, who had been steeped in quiet grief, startled laughing fit to split his gut open. To say that Jiraiya was nonplussed was a perfectly accurate assessment. "Of course she would pick him! Beniha was ever a fan of charity and deep beauty."

Jiraiya blinked. This "Beniha" and the Snake he had known must have been completely different people because Snake had never expressed adoration for anything other than juicy irony, conspiracy theories, and cynicism. To say that being in her presence had been an unhappy thing for him would have been an understatement. Snake had not been a people person. "Charity" hadn't been in Snake's vocabulary. Hell, she hadn't even heard of forgiveness.

"I opposed allowing the poster boy of the war with Iwa to graduate early. I opposed his early entrance into the Academy despite Sakumo's promises of his readiness. 'No child under seven should be fighting in a war,' I told him. I was overruled.

"You might remember that the war with Iwa was a long and steady drain for both sides. It wasn't a war of force and swift action. No, it was a war of endurance. Did you never wonder why so few kunoichi dared to be on the battlefields? The motto of the war with Iwa was to beget as many children as possible, to breed up the next battalion of ninja so that even after the losses of the skirmishes with Suna years beforehand, there was hope that even as ninja fell that the next generation would grow up fast enough to pick up the slack. War killed every child. War instead made men of toddlers.

"This isn't a new principle," Daichi continued sadly. "War always brings out desperation in all involved. Troops fight desperately, snatch sleep desperately, and fuck desperately every chance they get to expel some of the knowledge that this might be the last time. First, it takes the men in the prime of life—the young, the strong, the virulent. Next, as those best fitted for war fall into its hungry maw, those sucked up come from the ranks of the teens and those slightly older than the first ranks. As time goes on, only the very old and the very young remain to fill in the gaps. My advisory position, which was generally not extremely important, suddenly became more so as it became more and more necessary to rush shinobi through the Academy to the genin ranks where they could begin fighting. I swallowed my disgust and went along with it until they put Kakashi's case before me." Daichi-sensei shook his head.

"Did you ever see that child before he became the student of your student? He was such a tiny child, almost fragile looking with that mop of grey hair and those grey eyes. He was throwing kunai when I met him after throwing aside his file in disgust. They weren't the kid kunai, little Jiraiya; they were live steel. Even though he didn't know who I was, the five-year-old turned to look at me with this almost impassive glare. That mask shook me though. The Hatake only wear that mask while they serve as active ninja, while they serve as killers. That child wore the mask, and it fit. It didn't make him look silly. He was ready. That was when I knew I couldn't bear to do that job anymore. I couldn't bear to be part of that horrible war anymore.

"Sarutobi took my resignation without question since I had been a stick in the mud about the whole 'fill up the ranks from the bottom up' thing. Danzou pulled a few strings, intent on getting me out of the way, and I found myself assigned to Intel, which stationed me here to watch out for trouble and to attempt to ease anti-ninja sentiment that still boils here after all these decades. These people, Jiraiya, they don't forget. They refuse to. Even this clan doesn't forget, but they have forgiven us to an extent."

"Why are you teaching fuuinjutsu if you're undercover?"

Daichi laughed. "Seals aren't just used by ninja. Priests use them, scholars know them, and common folk can recognize them. They aren't usually useful in combat, so nobody thinks anything of it. Fuuinjutsu is passive enough that teaching it to a known pacifist causes few ripples. My story is tight enough that no one asks questions. Speaking of stories, how is your newest one coming along?"

"Fairly well," Jiraiya admitted. "I've been making the kid read over my rough drafts as we travel. He thinks it's boring, so I must be on the right track."

Daichi snorted. "Just because he is a fan of my books and not your own, you think that his boredom indicates you have a masterpiece on your hands? For shame! Such an assessment makes me wonder if you have forgotten why you write in the first place. Doesn't it help you forget, the way it helps your readers forget? Writing always helps me escape the reality of what I am and what I must do for periods of time. Does it help you block out the memories too?"

Jiraiya didn't have a good answer to that question. Instead, he decided to finish answering the one that had prompted this entire conversation. "I brought him to you because you're the highest ranking seal master outside of Konoha after me, and he can't go there."

"I'm not going to teach him of Death, if that's what you're hoping for. Dealing with the gods isn't a good idea under any circumstances, as Minato-kun and Kushina-chan found out. You can design things as carefully as you want, but they made up the rules. You can't beat them. I should never have delved into that area…"

"You can't deal with a lesser god unless you can bargain with the real thing," Jiraiya insisted. "Kyuubi would have never been contained as he was without divine influence."

"Then how did the Senju clan head do it? Shodaime held most of the lesser bijuu according to records. How did he keep them in thrall? Why could he alone do this? Why was this gift denied his father, his mother, his brother, and his children, who were affected by the presence of the Kyuubi in their mother as Naruto is?" Daichi shook his head mournfully. "I have no answers. So be it. I still will not pass along the knowledge. If he uses it unwisely, what is to stop the Kyuubi from being released? It was Nidaime-sama who encouraged the shamanistic element of fuuinjutsu to fall away in the face of more practical applications. Who am I to gainsay him?"

* * *

Mikoto reviewed a scroll of notes she had taken as she sat on a bench under the tarp covering the passenger area of the ferry from the mainland's peninsula to Ideki Island, the first of the four islands that lay between the peninsula and Water. It was raining, and the tarp hadn't been hung properly, so water pooled in the center and dripped onto the center bench steadily, marking the seconds of passage as the motor chugged away in the background.

She wasn't wearing anything most people would have associated with a ninja—she had traded good sandals and a robe with a fisherman's wife in the ferry's port village for this homespun, threadbare long tunic and leggings and some sandals that had seen better days. The woman, pleased with the rich red of the robe, had included a straw hat for the rain. Mikoto was grateful. It made her elderly woman henge more complete.

Mikoto was not allowed to be a Konoha ninja for this mission, so precautions had had to be taken. Days had been wasted laying a back trail for the harmless old woman she was posing as so that if anyone traced her clothing back, they would find nothing suspicious. She had even taken care to stain and weather her notes so they would not look out of place in her hands or in her pack if anyone managed to separate them from her.

The content had been carefully sealed with the pattern ANBU used, though she had gotten a seal master in Konoha to create a bit of a twist so that the design wouldn't immediately be traced to Konoha. Anyone that didn't have her finger oils would see a crude map and some notes on the old woman's travels. Mikoto saw something infinitely more useful.

_Ushira:_

_47. Has been the Mizukage since Yagura's disappearance. Notable: he called off the search for the Fourth within in two months, insisting that pursuing Yagura was a bad idea. His reign was unsteady initially because of the reputation Kiri built under the Yondaime. Current status: on the side of the Water Lord, has taken over most military action to do with the rebellion in terms of eradication and suppression. His current income from non-domestic missions is zero due to the cordon maintained on Water's shores. All his funding comes directly from the Water Lord and the local lords that are siding with the Water Lord._

_Water Lord:_

_72. Currently maintaining a zero-tolerance policy towards unrest—immediate execution. Fielding a personal army of some ten thousand men, which is backed by the smaller armies of the lords loyal to him._

_Han:_

_37. Water Lord's current heir. Married with two children already. Relationship with father is good enough that using that as a starting point is unlikely…_

Mikoto sighed and skimmed over the political figures. None of them had jumped out at her yet as good initial targets. No, her thread was someone a little lower down the chain.

_Denryuu:_

_28. Current general in chief of the Water Lord's collective forces. Ninja of Kiri. Former ninja of Kumo—marked as a missing-nin in Kumo bingo books with a bounty of 47,000,000 ryou. Intel reports that he is being actively hunted, though the bounty is for him alive, not dead. Dead, he is worth only 16,000,000 ryou. Raises questions. Reported as being very charismatic. Fled Kumo after an incident with the Lightning Lord's cousin's niece. Former member of Lightning's aristocracy—has been disowned since the incident._

Yes, this man was her thread. Now she just had to find a way to him and figure out how to reweave his pattern.

* * *

Two evenings later, Naruto was lounging around in the greenhouses with Haruka, whom he did get along very well with. He had just finished helping her transfer some plants from the gardens into pots so that they would survive the winter when a cat hopped up onto his shoulder. Haruka blinked at it before glancing at Naruto.

"It's ninja business," he told her, as if that explained everything. It did: she quickly smiled at him and left him alone to deal with it. Naruto stroked the cat until it dropped a message scroll into his waiting hand. "You're a very good girl," he told the cat, who purred appreciatively before dispersing into a puff of smoke, startling Haruka. "Sorry about that, Obasan," he said to the one he regarded as an aunt. Itsuki's mom was pretty cool and was as good at gardening as he was, maybe even better. "Summoned creatures do that when they've fulfilled their purpose so that they can return to their homes."

"Don't worry about it, dear," she said, wiping her face with a rag. "I'll finish up here. Go on in and read that. It's probably important if it wasn't brought in by a regular messenger."

He shot her a grin of thanks before dashing off to Yasu's house and scurrying into his room. As expected, the coded message was from Yugito.

"_Brother Pith,_

_I hope that this finds you well. The homework that I was given is nearly complete. It seems like your source of information was very canny: the potter definitely has seven pets, though she keeps them well hidden in her studio. It took a long time to get her to admit to having them and an even longer while before she would agree to let me touch one. She's relaxed around me now: I think she understands how we could keep care of them for her if she ever had to go on vacation. She's not sure she trusts us with them yet, but I think she will decide in our favour by tomorrow._

_Brother Green has told me that you have found a temporary safe haven to do some research at. I am glad for you. Perhaps someday I too will find such a place. The miscreants that bother my study have not followed me here though. They were quite interested in my studies in my own country though, but I've become better at hiding my sources._

_I shall send you news of the potter's answer on the morrow._

_Sister Blonde_"

Naruto studied the message twice more before he was sure of its meaning. Yugito had successfully found the potter and had gotten her to admit that she was a jinchuuriki. That must have taken at least a week if this woman was as wary as Yugito. It seemed that Yugito's journey to Earth Country had gone well, but Akatsuki seemed to have tailed her while she was travelling through her own land. That wasn't a good sign. If Akatsuki was finally moving, that meant he had to get out of here quickly. It would only take Itachi a few days to track him down if he didn't know where he was already.

"Hey Ero-Sennin," he said a few moments later, standing at the door of the guestroom where Jiraiya was working on his latest novel. "Can we train today?"

"Go away, gaki; I'm in the middle of a very important part."

Naruto wrinkled his nose: that meant that he was writing a sex scene. Jiraiya would be very grumpy if he dragged him away from that, but it meant that the pervert wouldn't go easy on him, which was what Naruto wanted at the moment. He had to know if he would be able to defend himself and others against those that were coming after him. An hour later, he managed to whine Ero-Sennin into a spar in the forest about seven kilometres out of town. This way any damage that was done wouldn't alert the villagers.

Naruto could tell from the very start that Jiraiya had figured out that he had had some bad news. Ero-Sennin got worried whenever Naruto got quiet and serious, something that rarely happened. That was Naruto's current state, so his sensei was pushing him to his very limits in all respects. Ero-Sennin could be downright nasty when he wanted to be and seemed to know exactly how to push Naruto's buttons.

Today was no exception and Naruto felt his control over his anger slipping only twenty minutes in as he practiced using Hiraishin to flash from shiki to shiki, which he had attached to several of his kunai and shuriken. Every chance he got, Ero-Sennin poked at his abilities, his friends, his family, and his dream. It was after he made a particularly harsh crack about how he would never be able to protect his friends that Naruto felt his control snap and everything went dark…

* * *

"…o this to him! He's just a boy!" someone was ranting above him, their voice shrill and sending lances of pain into his weary brain.

"Takara-san, calm yourself," said a tranquil voice. "I doubt that this was what they intended. The bijuu within is not entirely innocent either. We are just lucky that Hotaka noticed them leaving. He might have died if we hadn't arrived in time."

"If you and the healer had not acted, Daichi-sama, things might have turned out much worse," said a voice Naruto couldn't place. "I thought only ninja could use seals."

"Chakra is not limited to ninja. All living beings possess physical and spiritual energy. Chakra that is used in seals is just a converted form of this energy. Ninja simply use chakra most often. My seals would be ineffective if I too could not use chakra to give them intent and the power to achieve it."

"He's stirring," said Hotaka from right near his ear. "We should tell him about what happened."

"But it would terrify him!" cried Takara, the owner of the shrill voice. "He would never—"

"Your brother is right," said Yasu, "we must tell him. Daichi-sama cannot help him attempt to fix this unless Naruto knows and is willing. I will tell him. Everyone else must leave."

After a few moments, several pairs of feet propelled their bodies out the door, which closed after the last of them with a snap.

At last, Naruto had the strength to flick his eyes open. "Ojiichan? What happened?"

"Naruto, be calm. We are not sure how much your body has recovered yet. I will tell you once you promise not to move around no matter what I reveal."

"Fine," mumbled Naruto, doubting he could have done so even if he had not promised. His skin was ultra-sensitive and screamed at his brain with every motion. He wasn't actually all that hurt, just pretty tired.

"Naruto, have you ever lost control of the Kyuubi's chakra before?"

"Once or twice, but nothing serious happened. I got it back under control before I did any major damage."

"Well, this time you were unable to. We found you in the forest a few hours ago after a red glow appeared and the earth shook several times. Hotaka had spotted you leaving to train with Jiraiya, and he figured out that something bad must have happened since the volcanoes around here were not in the direction the glow had come from. Several members of the Matsuku clan rushed to the site with a healer and Daichi-sama in case something terrible had happened. We arrived in time to see the tail end of your battle with Jiraiya-sama. You were not yourself anymore. In fact, most of the clan did not even realize you were human. From your lack of memory, it seems that Kyuubi had taken control.

"Daichi-sama explained what was happening to me before you woke. He says that you were cloaked in Kyuubi's chakra, which bubbled and flowed like lava. There were four tails on your body, which no longer looked human. In fact, you looked like a miniature demon. From the blood trails, we were able to determine that the chakra had burned away your very skin and healed it at the same time. You no longer had any rational thought of your own: Kyuubi seemed to be in charge, and he was acting on instinct. He managed to blast a hole in Jiraiya-sama's chest. We are very lucky that Jiraiya-sama was able to force Kyuubi to retreat back inside of you with Daichi-sama's help."

Naruto sat in shock for several moments, unable to believe that he had snapped so badly. He couldn't believe that he had injured Ero-Sennin so badly either. Tears of shame began to leak from his eyes and a gentle hand landed on his forehead, nearly making him wince as his entire brain echoed with the nerve impulses of brand new flesh that was still too raw. "I'm sorry," he managed to choke out.

"There now, we know that you never meant for this to happen. That is part of the reason you are among us. You sought help in repairing your seal. Don't worry; we of the clan still understand. We will not abandon you because you made a mistake. With power such as yours, your mistakes will only be that much bigger. Some of the clan are frightened, yes, but even they understand. The fact that you took your battle so far away from the compound eased their fears. They will not turn you away."

"I have to leave though. Akatsuki will hear about this."

"Maybe, but volcanic activity is common in this area and the shaking was only detected by the children by the pond. I have spread it around that the Matsuku clan is to reduce all knowledge of what caused this. Most are hinting that perhaps another volcano is forming. Don't worry, this will not spread too far just yet. It is not uncommon for such volcanoes to form at random this far south. The earth here is not entirely stable."

"I still have to leave soon. They're not going to buy that. Besides, I've stayed here too long. We've got to get moving."

"You won't be able to until the healer finishes with Jiraiya-sama. His chest was blasted and burnt. That will take at least three months to heal."

"We can't afford to stay that long though," grumbled Naruto. "I need to break my promise. I feel fine. I need to send a report to Baachan."

Yasu sighed and nodded his permission, and Naruto sat up easily.

He pulled some chakra out of his reserves and flashed through the seals needed to summon. Yasu stared in astonishment as the toad mock saluted. "Hey," said Naruto in response to its greeting, "I need you to report to Tsunade-baachan for me."

"No prob." The toad listened carefully as Naruto explained what had happened.

"Ask her to send a med-nin down to patch Jiraiya up, so we can get out of here as fast as possible." The toad nodded and flashed out of existence with a puff of smoke.

"Will she send someone?" asked Yasu.

"Probably."


	66. Chapter 66

Chapter 66: Six Swords

Pounding on the door tore Nariko away from the guy pinned to the bed under her.

"Nariko!"

Nariko scowled as hands tightened on her thighs. She was about to go back to what she had been doing, but the knocking didn't let up for a second. "Fuck off, Anko!"

"Trust me, Riko, I would, but this is kind of urgent! You've got to go."

Nariko froze when she heard the next voice. "She's here?"

"What the hell?" grumbled the guy that had been about to make her evening.

"Shit, shit, shit," Nariko hissed as she stumbled off the bed to grab her shirt. "Sorry about this. Maybe the next time I'm in town we'll find each other again."

The guy sighed and grumbled similar expletives. "Ninja friend that was at the club with you?"

"Yeah. Someone else too. There must have been an emergency. Anko wouldn't dare otherwise. I'm really, really sorry."

"Nah, it's okay. When you're back in town."

Pulling her hair out of the back of her shirt and grabbing her coat, reflexively checking to make sure that her wallet was still in her breast pocket, Nariko headed for the door and slipped on her sandals.

"Riko! Seriously!" Anko whacked the door again.

"I'm coming! Geez!" She spun one last time towards the door to the bedroom. "See you."

She got a half-hearted reply and grimaced as she fumbled with the lock on the apartment door. "This had better be good," she snarled at Anko and Yuugao, who looked completely shocked at the state she was in.

"You…" Yuugao's mouth worked, but no sound came out.

Nariko might have laughed if an entire evening spent hunting down a likely guy in Otafuku Gai's numerous clubs with Anko for company hadn't just been wasted. "What the fuck?" she hissed instead, which brought Yuugao out of her funk.

"You'd better not be too wasted. There was a toad. I'm not allowed to talk about it; I'm supposed to get you before Tsunade as soon as possible."

Nariko's anger evaporated. _Toad…_ "Then let's go."

Yuugao nodded briskly, leading the way down the apartment building stairs.

Once they were out on the street, Anko sighed. "My prey's probably slipped away too…"

"It's only midnight," Nariko said as she zipped up her coat. "You should have some of time to find someone else if he has escaped the net. Thanks for coming with me, and sorry for yelling at you when you were just helping Yuugao find me. Sorry about my explosion at you too, Yuu."

Yuugao grimaced and waved it off. "I can sort of see why you were pissed. No harm done."

"Same," said Anko. "Thanks for keeping me company again. We'll talk about next weekend soon, 'kay?"

Nariko nodded, waved her off, and turned to Yuugao.

"Up for a piggyback ride?"

Nariko gritted her teeth. "If it gets us there faster, I'm all for it. It can't have been good news."

"No, it wasn't. Tsunade-sama figured you needed to hear ASAP." Yuugao got her forearms hooked under Nariko's knees once she scrambled onto the ANBU agent's back. She shot off with ridiculous speed over the town's rooftops and along the twelve kilometer span that separated Otafuku Gai from Konoha. A little ways down the track, Yuugao sighed. "I didn't think…"

"That you'd ever catch me tagging along with Anko?"

"… Yeah. I thought you were…" Yuu sighed. "I don't know. You always seemed so proper. I mean, I teased you about Senpai just to rile you up because you seemed so straight-laced and I knew you two didn't get along. And you always laughed and shook your head at me, so I thought… Well, I guess I thought that you were holding out on us, that you had somebody from your home village or an arranged marriage because your clan seems kind of traditional. I didn't expect… this."

Nariko sniggered, making a mental note to introduce Yuu to Concetta when the retinue came to Konoha just to show her how "traditional" her clan was. "Ah, yes. It is an art I have perfected since coming here. They call me a bitch, which, as far as I'm concerned, is far better than being called a slut or a whore. If someone had called me one of the latter in my mother's presence, all hell would have broken loose and at least sixty-five percent would have been concentrated on me. Besides, having to explain the term to Naruto before he reached fifteen wouldn't have been pleasant. It's not like I've done it often. This is the second time I've gone with Anko since coming back from Suna. I didn't want to leave Ryuuka with Seiji-san too much. He has trouble keeping up with her."

"Why all the way out here? Why start now?"

Nariko grimaced. "Yuu…"

"It's because there's hardly any ninja there, isn't it?"

Nariko closed her eyes against the wind of their passage. "Yeah, but you know, it's nice to get away from it all. I just didn't want to go alone, so it was great that Anko took me under her wing."

Yuu sighed, a lengthy sagging of the shoulders under Nariko's arms. "Riko… Why now?"

"It's just… Well, I just wanted to forget for a while."

"And if you get pregnant in the process… I thought you were joking when you said you'd do something like this one of those nights a while back."

"Hm." Nariko opened her eyes in time to see Konoha's wall appear before them before Yuu's mighty leap took them over it. She bit her lip on her scream as the bottom fell out of her stomach when they plummeted on the other side only to bounce off a rooftop.

"It's a little weird to see you in jeans and a shirt that isn't brown or grey though, you know," Yuu teased.

Nariko chuckled. "Come on, purple is totally my colour."

"Hah! I thought Mikoto very clearly told you it was red."

"Ah, but she's not here now, is she?"

Yuu snorted as she ran up the wall of an apartment building. Nariko decided that being carried across the desert was far less trying than this gravity-defying journey. "You picked the occasion of your rebellion very well, I'll admit. But she'll be back, and you can bet she'll hear about this."

"From you?"

"She's perfectly capable of hearing about it without me even opening my mouth."

"Fact."

Yuugao skidded to a halt just outside the windows of the Hokage's office.

Tsunade shoved the window open and beckoned Nariko inside, raising a brow as she took in her decidedly rumpled appearance. Nariko was grateful when her boss didn't ask questions. "Naruto sent us a toad. Kyuubi slipped his hold enough that Naruto lost control. Jiraiya was injured in the process of pushing Kyuubi back."

Nariko would have collapsed on the floor from her knees giving out had Yuu not snagged and dumped her limp form into a chair. _No._

Tsunade kept talking as Nariko struggled to get past the horror and the buzzing in her ears. "I've sent Shizune and her apprentice south to get Jiraiya back on his feet so he and Naruto can get out of the area as fast as possible."

"W-where were they?"

Tsunade grimaced. "At your home village."

Nariko slumped in her chair, her knuckles white from clenching the armrests so hard. _Kami-sama! Fuck, fuck, fuck…!_

"Kyuubi broke out beyond village limits and was contained without anyone other than Jiraiya being hurt. Once Jiraiya is stable, he and your father's tutor should be able to fix Naruto's seal." Tsunade glanced away as Nariko started sobbing.

Yuu wrapped her arms around her and rocked her back and forth. "It'll be okay, Riko. It'll be fine."

Nariko knew better. No, this was only the beginning.

* * *

Hinata had never felt so slow. Usually, the rush of speed that came when she used chakra to supplement her forward momentum caused a thrill of excitement to run through her. This was not the case now. Every minute that Naruto and Jiraiya-sama had to wait for them was another minute that Akatsuki could use to get Naruto. They had to hurry. She glanced desperately at Shizune-shishou, pleading for permission to go faster, but her shishou shook her head.

"Sorry, Hinata," she said sadly, "but if we push too hard early on, we won't have enough stamina left later on. I know you're worried, but we have to think ahead. It's a long way to the village. It's right near the border with Tea Country, on the southern peninsula where there's all that volcanic activity. That's almost as far away as Suna from Konoha. It won't be a straight run either because we'll have to follow the coastline. We've got another two days to go if we go non-stop."

Hinata nodded and performed the necessary scan around them with her Byakugan. Anyone might be tailing them. She found no one.

* * *

Naruto lay on his back on Neechan's futon as Shiro and Itsuki sat silently beside him, waiting for Daichi-sama to show up with his verdict. The seal master had gone to interrogate Jiraiya, who had managed to wake up recently and had indicated that he understood the severity of his condition well enough to explain about Naruto's seal so a patch job could be done even if his injuries were fatal.

"This sucks," muttered Naruto sullenly.

Itsuki nodded in commiseration, not really up to talking: worry tended to make him withdrawn and quiet.

Shiro sighed. "Your sensei's holding on okay. They've got him on every life support device the hospital has. There's always someone watching over him. And you'll be fine too. Daichi-sensei knows what he's doing."

Silence reigned for a few more seconds as worry congealed in the air. Daichi's entrance reversed the process momentarily. "Naruto, please remove your shirt and channel some chakra," the old man said distractedly as he analysed a bunch of notes he had with him.

Naruto obliged him, and Daichi-sama spent the next couple hours carefully tracing all aspects of his seal while Itsuki and Shiro stood guard. Daichi-sama wouldn't actually be able to do anything until Jiraiya was able to help him though. For that, they needed the medic-nin.

* * *

Hinata almost cried with relief when she saw the lights of the town through the twilight gloom. She was nearly dead on her feet after almost no rest: stamina had never been her strong point. She followed Shizune-shishou through the lantern-lit streets until they found the address that they were looking for. Within moments, they were inside the small village hospital at Jiraiya-sama's bedside.

"It's after visiting hours," muttered a nurse.

"I am a ninja from Konoha," Shizune said and then indicated Hinata. "This is my apprentice. We were sent to heal Jiraiya-sama."

"But the doctor had no instructions…"

Shizune shot Hinata a significant look, and the chuunin squared her shoulders and prepared to assert her authority.

"Miss, I will accompany you to get the doctor. He will understand that my shishou is fully capable of handling Jiraiya-sama's care. Our Hokage provided us with the appropriate documents before we left…" Hinata gently steered the nurse along, using her calm manner to keep the nurse's complaints about procedures to a minimum. When they finally found the appropriate doctor, Hinata produced the promised documentation and left it for the two to peruse as she made her way back to the ward. When she got there, she found that her shishou had already started the necessary healing technique.

"Hinata, please come and assist me. This will be good training for you."

Hinata nodded and moved to the other side of the bed, setting her hand and stump over the sutured gashes and the burns. The extent of the damage made her eyes widen. Naruto-kun had done this? She pushed that thought aside and focused on moulding the correct chakra and focusing the flow into her hand and not-hand. When she was certain that she had gathered enough chakra, she began the emission into the cells of her patient, keeping a steady conversion of chakra going on at the same time so she wouldn't run out. She was not as good at this technique as Sakura was, but she was capable. Her specialty lay in herbal remedies, but this healing called for more immediate reaction from the traumatized tissues. She was so focused that she didn't even notice her patient's reaction.

"Shizune?"

"Jiraiya-sama, please stay still. Hinata and I should be finished soon enough, despite the resistance of the flesh to our efforts. It seems that the youki has inhibited our ability to heal this wound. There will be scarring."

"Don't worry about it," muttered Jiraiya, still very weak even though his condition had been stabilized. "I'll be happy so long as I don't have a gaping hole in my chest."

Shizune nodded and forced more chakra through her hands as Hinata struggled beside her.

"Hinata, please study the internal damage," said Shizune.

Her student nodded and activated her bloodline limit without removing her hands from the wound. She was silent for a while, assessing the chakra flow and analyzing the cellular damage. "Scar tissue is inevitable. There was a great deal of structural damage in the ribs and the intercostal muscles. His outer pleural membrane has been damaged, but our efforts are repairing that quickly. His lungs are bruised, but the alveoli and the capillaries that were affected are repairing themselves without too much trouble with the help of our jutsu. His heart was under severe strain at the time, but that has eased considerably, though the effects remain. We should concentrate some of our efforts upon that area."

Shizune nodded and did as recommended.

"The doctors here have done an admirable job. It looks as though there was damage to two major arteries, but it was repaired to a manageable extent. I'll mend what damage I can there." Hinata moved her left hand slightly higher to repair the weakness to the right subclavian arterial wall and then continued her lengthy analysis.

Hours later, the effects of the soldier pill Hinata had consumed upon entering the hospital wore off, and her knees buckled under her. Shizune hardly looked any better, but she managed to stay on her feet. Jiraiya was even more stable now, but it would take at least another day of healing before he would truly be out of danger. He was sleeping again, his face slightly more peaceful, but Hinata could hardly find the energy to care.

Another nurse knelt down at her side and helped her to a chair. "There, there, dear. You've done amazing things, but you look absolutely bushed! Do you have somewhere to sleep?"

Hinata shook her head feebly. "We came as soon as we arrived. We had to get to our patients as quickly as possible."

"Who is your other patient, dear?" the nurse asked.

Shizune discretely shook her head at Hinata, something the exhausted girl just barely noticed.

"I don't know," said Hinata. "He's staying with the same people that this man was lodging with."

"Oh," said the woman, deftly picking up the charts and checking over who had checked Jiraiya in and whose contact information was marked down. "That would be Matsuku Yasu. I'll tell him that you're here. Someone should be sent over from the clan compound to collect you both if they are expecting you."

The nurse left to use the phone, and Hinata slumped over in her chair, watching as Shizune followed her example ten minutes later. They sprawled in an exhausted stupor until the nurse returned with two men trailing after her.

"These two here will show you to the Matsuku clan compound, ladies. They're here under Matsuku-san's orders."

"I'm Shiro," said one, "and this is my cousin, Itsuki. Can you walk?"

When it became apparent that it would be difficult for both master and student without help, the men traded glances and offered their assistance. Itsuki braced Hinata's arm over his shoulders as he stooped to compensate for the huge height difference until it became apparent that this wouldn't work. Sighing, he apologized, plucked her off her unsteady feet, and proceeded out the door as quickly as possible. Hinata tried to stave off exhaustion, but she was lulled to sleep as she rocked back and forth in Itsuki-san's arms.

* * *

Mikoto stood on the north-eastern cliffs of Ukitake Island staring out at the stretch of ocean between her and Water's guarded shores. Some one-hundred-forty kilometres of water rolled in gentle swells in the gathering dark.

"Are you sure you want to do this? Kilam Island is closer to Water's shores. Of course, security along the nearest shores is tighter, but…"

Mikoto ignored the local Konoha Intel Division agent. She wasn't supposed to have contacted any of Konoha's forces, but this man hadn't gotten the message and had recognized her besides. He had graduated a year after her and had run many missions with her over the years.

He sighed. "Mikoto-san…"

"That is not my name."

"Of course." He was a Hyuuga who was vigilant enough with Henge no Jutsu and colour contacts that he could blend in with civilians without question. It was dangerous to have him so far from Konoha, but he was a branch house member; his eyes would be locked with death. "Obasan, then. Obasan, you must be careful. There is one among those who come and go from Kiri that has a very strange eye."

Mikoto frowned, not having come across this in the notes.

"We are not certain, of course. His eye is under a patch. But I can see. The distance I have attained, not the clarity of vision or the detail, is the reason I am in Intelligence. I can see a lot farther than most eyes.

"He will see beneath and see what you hide rather than what you try to show. Be sparing with your chakra. Be sparing with your eyes."

She nodded to him and leapt off the cliff. The moment her feet hit the water, she let herself sink a bit to make sure her legs wouldn't shatter before bringing herself to run across the surface of the water.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Hinata woke up aching.

Soldier pills came with a price. Chakra had to come from somewhere and physical energy was the bigger boundary in most cases. Sure, the pill charged the system with energy in the form of glucose and stimulants like caffeine, but what actually wasted away were the muscles. Muscles atrophied with every use of a soldier pill.

She tried to sit up first since the need to relieve the pressure in her bladder was strong (also a side effect of the soldier pill), but the abdominal muscles shrieked, and she whimpered and halted the attempt.

Not good.

She could barely rotate her neck to look for Shizune-shishou, who was still passed out on a futon next to her. Concerned since she didn't actually know where she was, she activated her eyes and took a deep breath to see what her nose would tell her.

The room smelled of lavender. Light curtains blocked off sunlight from the north-facing window. Hinata also spotted three people in this house and many more besides within the range of her vision. Only one had enough chakra flowing through his system to be a ninja. Naruto-kun was here. Hinata relaxed. She recognized the tainted look of his chakra, though the taint was worse than the last time she had viewed him with her sight—during the second exam. Virulent orange was bleeding slowly but surely from his navel into his yellow chakra, which was not quite as pure a yellow as she remembered. Hinata squeezed her eyes shut as worry wrapped cold fingers around her heart.

Her time to brood was cut short by the sound of soft footsteps in the hall. Her eyes told her that an old man was coming, one that was probably Matsuku Yasu if the mission specs were to be believed.

He knocked on the door. "Are you awake?"

"I am," Hinata called back, "but my shishou is not."

"Are you well?"

"Ah, no. I cannot sit up," Hinata admitted.

"Is it alright if I come in to help you?"

"Yes, it is alright, thank you."

The door opened, and the frail man stepped in with a concerned smile. "Thank you for coming so quickly. I am Matsuku Yasu, Nariko's father and Naruto's grandfather." He bowed before kneeling at her side and helping her to her knees, her teeth gritted against screams or whimpers.

"I am Hyuuga Hinata of Konoha," she said, moving to bow back until Yasu-san shook his head and stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"It is alright, Hinata-san; I know you are in much pain. No need to stand on formality. I bowed because I am grateful that you managed to do so much for Jiraiya-sama yesterday. Naruto was very relieved to hear the news. He wished to come and thank you, but my wife and I stopped him. We felt you needed all the sleep you could get. Are you hungry? Do you need to go to the washroom?"

Hinata blushed. "Ah… Um…"

Yasu patted her shoulder. "I'll get my wife to help you. I am sure you will be more comfortable with that. A moment." He got to his feet slowly, as though his joints pained him, and soon returned with a steely woman who was indeed Takara-san. She helped her to the washroom with a no-nonsense attitude that kept Hinata's face from spontaneously combusting.

"I have eggs and anything else you would like to have waiting in the kitchen. Are you hungry?"

"Very," said Hinata, keeping her eyes on the floor.

"Come along then. Naruto's in the library; would you like to see him after breakfast?"

"Ah, y-yes!"

Because Hinata's eyes were so firmly fixed on the ground, she didn't see Takara's smile. Once the med-nin was settled at the table with eggs and toast and rice and bacon before her, Takara sat opposite her with a cup of tea. "Hinata-san, do you know Hatake Kakashi?"

Hinata managed to swallow a piece of egg with difficulty. "Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes. Naruto said that Nariko was helping him with some trouble. She's mentioned such in her letters, which reassured us because it meant that she was overcoming the prejudice the village and I instilled in her, but Naruto made it seem…"

Hinata frowned. "Takara-san?"

"As though there was more to it than that."

"Ah." Hinata was hard pressed not to laugh. "No, um, Nariko-san is not fond of Kakashi-sensei. She helped him quite unwillingly and made him pay her back. They are currently not on good terms. She and Uchiha-san and Mitarashi-san have been… um…" Hinata ground to a halt and wondered how to say this to this steel woman. "They are using women who are… very fond of him to irritate him."

Hinata stared when the steel woman relaxed enough to laugh.

"Very nearly like with Shiro," Takara-san murmured, staring out the window into the gardens with a soft smile on her face. "I imagine Kakashi-san is not best pleased?"

"No, not very much. He and Nariko-san haven't been seen speaking since a very public fight just before I left."

Takara-san's smile evaporated. "And what did your village make of this fight?"

Hinata would have shifted uneasily, but it hurt too much; poking her fingers together was no long an option, so instead she picked up her knife with her not-hand and cut a slice of bacon in half. Takara-san was not distracted at all, so Hinata chewed, swallowed, and found some words. "The village greatly admires Kakashi-san, so… Many were not pleased. But Nariko-san is one of the Hokage's aides and the fight was about money and property, so many felt it best not to get involved or get angry about it. Rumours spreading are all that has happened."

Takara-san nodded grimly, but she didn't look convinced.

Conversation was sparse after this, but Hinata was sure that Takara-san would be interrogating Shishou as well the moment she came to.

Yasu-san helped her to the library. "Will you heal yourself?" he asked as she shuffled down the hall, leaning heavily on him.

Hinata shook her head. "I must save my chakra for Jiraiya-sama. When Shishou is up, we will be going back to the hospital."

"I will get Itsuki and Shiro to help you again, even carry you if you will permit it. As your host, I cannot let you suffer like this."

Hinata insisted it wasn't necessary, but she was grateful and didn't protest too vehemently.

"Naruto-kun is studying in here," Yasu-san whispered outside a door. "He has been much out of sorts. If you can cheer him up, I would be grateful."

Hinata fought her blush and lost, but nodded just the same.

Yasu-san smiled at her and knocked. "Naruto-kun, I am coming in."

There was no reply, but Yasu-san slid the door open just the same. Hinata didn't spot Naruto-kun immediately—he was in a corner behind a half-sized shelf, sitting at a desk, staring intently at a scroll covered in intricate lines and explanatory text. His hand was carefully making his own rendition of what she supposed was a seal. As Yasu-san helped her shuffle closer, Hinata could see that Naruto-kun's lips were moving as he made each stroke on the page in black ink.

Yasu settled her in a chair just inside Naruto-kun's peripheral vision, but made no move to interrupt his grandson. "He's working on a third-level seal," he explained. "It's very complicated, so it's best not to distract him. If he is actually infusing chakra into it, making him lose focus could be a disaster."

Hinata nodded. "I'll be careful."

Yasu-san patted her hand. "Then I'll leave you here with him and see if your master has woken." The door shut softly behind him, but Hinata did not turn.

Naruto-kun was still mouthing words and painting lines. If she studied him with her Byakugan, she could see whispers of chakra infusing the lines he painted. She could tell when he had completed a particular section by the way it glowed with his yellow chakra in her sight and the chakra began circulating slowly through the pattern that lay beneath the lines the ink defined.

He set aside his brush suddenly, and the chakra glowed almost painfully brightly as he shut his mouth, closed his eyes, and raised one hand in half the _tora_ seal before holding his other hand over the seal and channelling chakra into it. The seal began sucking the chakra from him, but as Hinata managed to stifle a gasp, she realized that instead of sucking all chakra, it was specifically sucking out chakra of a more orange colour. The yellower chakra continued circulating, mostly undisturbed. This looked very promising.

Until the paper burst into flames, the yellow lines overcome by the orange.

Cursing, Naruto pulled another piece of paper from a side table and smacked it down on his burning experiment. The flames guttered and died immediately, and the orange and yellow chakra dispersed into the environment, leaving the scent of cloves and dandelions in the air.

"It wasn't strong enough to resist Kyuubi?" she asked.

Naruto jumped slightly; perhaps he had forgotten or had never known she was there. He turned to her with a huge grin though. "Hey, Hinata. Thanks for coming all this way to help me and the perv out."

Hinata ducked her head, but managed to get words out. "I-I-It's no t-t-trouble."

"Heh, we're a long way from Konoha. I'm sure it was at least a long run. How's Ero-Sennin?"

"Stable. The doctors here had done a good job keeping such damage from—" Hinata broke off belatedly, noticing the pain in Naruto-kun's eyes. "I apologize."

"Nah, it's okay. We both know who did it; you know better than me how close to packing it in he was."

"It could have been a very near thing if you had not sent for us so quickly."

Naruto-kun nodded, looking neither pleased nor distressed now. "Yeah, I figured I needed to even though Grandpa wouldn't let me out of the house. I haven't been able to see him at all, but they were keeping me updated." He grimaced. "All I can do is study and sit around. At least you and Sakura can do things when things are like this."

Hinata inspected her folded hands. "Your family was very worried that you would be controlled again. They feared for your health as well."

"Yeah. My skin all burnt off when Fox-bastard started pulling out all the stops. It felt really weird when I woke up. Hypersensitive."

"Is it still like that?"

"Ah, no. Not really."

She didn't quite believe him. To test her theory, she sent a chakra thread to poke the shoulder farthest away from her.

He twisted away from the contact that should have been no more than a tickle. It took him a moment before he turned to her with a frown that lacerated her soul. He had never frowned at her before. "What was that for?"

It took several long moments to pull the mask of the medic over her agony and terror. "You are not a good liar."

She swore he muttered, "Goddammit, Neechan, still?" In a louder voice, he said, "That was those chakra threads the bastard said you were using in place of your hand, huh?"

She quickly inserted Sasuke-kun in for bastard and nodded.

"It looks like you're getting really good with those. Kiba told me he's nicknamed you 'the Weaver' now."

Hinata barely managed to keep from spontaneously combusting. She could only be glad that Kiba-kun had not mentioned the other nickname he had quickly abandoned when it had distressed her—"the Spider."

"Even the bastard mentioned that sparring against you was interesting, which is a huge compliment from the emotionally constipated asshole. Would you be willing to face off against me? Daichi-sensei won't be by for more notes and lessons until after noon so—!"

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said slowly, struggling with her medic mask, "this must wait until Daichi-san and Jiraiya-sama fix your seal. I can see…"

His eyebrows pinched together. "What?"

"Kyuubi's chakra comes out orange now and all the time. When I last saw you, it did not do that. It came out neutral, purified."

"Fucking fox!" Naruto dug clenched fingers into his belly through his shirt.

"Naruto-kun…"

"You're right. Sorry. This can wait. Besides, I can see you're really sore. You never would have dared to sit down otherwise, I think."

Hinata blinked. He had a point—her younger self would have balked at the idea of sitting in this chair positioned just to watch Naruto-kun. Instead, she would have lingered outside the door, peering around the frame. Naruto-kun had known her, but not quite well enough. The knowledge was enough to heal some of her soul wound though. "When the cap is in place, we c-could spar?"

Naruto-kun grinned at her. She was blinded. "It's a promise!"

A knock at the door made them both turn. The man from yesterday, Itsuki, slid the door open and grinned at them. His wink made Hinata's face burn despite her wishes. "Your master is up and ready to go back to work. Uncle Yasu asked me to come see if you'd accept my help getting to the hospital."

Naruto's concerned glance at her did not help get the red out of her cheeks.

"Ah, yes, that would be appreciated," her fried brain managed to get past her lips.

Still grinning, the tall man swept forward and scooped her up despite her protests. Naruto-kun's chuckles didn't help.

"Oh, would you rather be carried like a sack of beans then?" Itsuki-san asked. "Or perhaps like a tot, on my shoulders?"

"Oi, niisan, carrying her piggyback would be totally less embarrassing! You're denting ninja pride here, dude!"

Hinata was pathetically grateful when Naruto-kun's suggestion won out.

"See you, Hinata! Say hi to the perv for me and tell him I'm making stuff burst into flame in his absence. That should encourage him to get better real fast."


	67. Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Pagan High Priestess

Naruto watched anxiously as Daichi and Jiraiya painted lines all around his seal. They had determined that a cap would be the best thing. It would be temporary, yes, but it would work better than tampering with the seal without proper preparation and it would take much less time. As Naruto kept on insisting, they needed to get out of here before they endangered the entire Matsuku clan further. Riko was forgiving, but he doubted that she would be able to bounce back from the death of her entire clan. Sasuke was living proof of this.

"How does that look?" said Jiraiya from Naruto's left side, where he was creating the seal's complementary formation on paper. It would be easier to control on a scroll than if they attempted to do so right on his flesh. Lines were difficult to draw perfectly on things that weren't flat. Daichi glanced over Naruto and nodded.

"That should do. Yasu-san, please stand guard on the door with Hinata-san. Shizune-san, we may need your assistance if something goes wrong."

The three nodded and moved into position as Daichi moved to kneel by Jiraiya. Both men glanced over their lines one last time before activating the control. Naruto writhed in pain as lines crept across the floor from the scroll onto his belly, engraving themselves around his original seal with bursts of flame. The original seal darkened as the cap integrated itself into the design, forcing the original seal to recognize the changes. An hour later Naruto lay still: pale and tired. Daichi came forward and inspected their work, humming softly to himself as he traced each new line with his finger and compared it to their drawing.

"It looks as if everything is in order. Naruto, this should keep you from accessing the Kyuubi's full power. You might be able to access one tail's worth of it, but no more than that. The original seal's function has been shored up; your reserves should constantly be topped up by the Kyuubi's power, even in battle. This was what the seal was originally doing, only at a much slower pace until Jiraiya-sama tried to improve this function with the key. As you saw, his changes worked too well."

"So I'll be okay now?"

"As far as we know, yes. Now, please try to keep a hold on Kyuubi in any case. Letting him use his chakra directly destroys your body on a cellular level. Relying on your own power and your own chakra reserves is a much better idea. Yes, you won't be able to do amazing feats of wonder like you could with Kyuubi's power, but you will still be very powerful. Jiraiya-sama tells me that your natural reserves are at a high jounin level, comparable with his own."

"That's right, gaki," said Ero-Sennin. "All you need to really work on is your skill level and your control, and you'll be set. Outlasting your opponents isn't everything and often isn't a good battle plan. We'll work on that for the next six months. Now go start packing. We're leaving the day after tomorrow. I'd make us split right now, but your grandma would skin me alive if I didn't give you the chance to celebrate your birthday here."

* * *

Nariko stood at the gates, Ryuuka at her side, ignoring the curious glances of the two chuunin. She had decided jeans and a red shirt (bowing to Mikoto's wisdom) would be best, and had decked Ryuuka out in her favourite clothes.

Greeting the clan in slacks or a formal robe was a big no-no.

She could see them moving along the road with their cart of belongings. They had phoned her from Otafuku Gai, warning her of their imminent arrival. She knew the track to the neighbouring town very well now, so she had known just when to come and begin her vigil.

"Oniitama's coming back tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, Ryuuka-chan. It was just a quick courier mission this time. Your brother is very fast, right?"

"Yup!"

"Then we might even see him tonight."

"Then I can stay in my own room again?"

"If Sasuke wants to. You know he doesn't like cooking."

"So we'll stay with you?"

"If you like."

"Will you make ribs with the crunchy white stuff in them?"

"You mean cartilage? Sure."

Ryuuka clapped and hopped around, but Nariko kept her eyes fixed on the seven figures that were now only five hundred metres away. Five minutes, and they stood before her. She struggled not to cry as she smiled so hard that her cheeks hurt. "Emilio—" she nodded to the carpenter, who was holding the ox's lead. "Katarina and young Emilia." The curvaceous brunette smiled in return from the front seat of the cart as she cradled her baby. "Your skills as a landscape artist will be put to great use, I promise. I'll babysit to see it so. Agata, Donato." She waved in return to the children's exuberant reactions to her knowing their names.

"And you're cousin Nariko!"

She nodded. "That's me. And Fausto and Giraldo, both plumbers by trade, yes?" The two other men nodded. They were close cousins of Katarina while Emilio had come to the Boteri in Grass from a clan compound in Rice. "Welcome to Konoha. Thank you for braving the expansion and this new journey."

Emilio grinned. "Well, we were told you knew your way around and you'd make sure no one would knife us. And who's this with you? We heard you weren't married and were still working on children."

"This is Uchiha Ryuuka. Her mother is my friend and her brother is my brother's friend. Both are away, so she's taking care of me while I cook for her."

Ryuuka, shy before these strangers, nodded from behind her leg.

"So, have you got a place for us to stay?" asked Katarina briskly. "I heard there might be trouble there."

Nariko twisted her lips into an evil grin. "No, it is done. Come, I will show you. It stands, but it is not pretty by any stretch. I can promise that it isn't haunted. The owner who bequeathed it on the one I bought it from died in Lightning."

She watched the family trade glances at her morbid humour. They weren't sure if they were meant to chuckle or commiserate.

"I'm sorry. Humour in Konoha tends to be on the darker end of the spectrum. Lighter jokes don't get a laugh, so one learns quickly. I'm hoping you'll change this along with the others that come. It'll be nice to be able to laugh at a joke that doesn't have anything to do with death or pain."

She watched the gate chuunin inspect the family's paperwork with a gimlet eye, enjoying how they were wary of her. Since fighting publically with Kakashi, life had become much better—the fangirls ignored her and chuunin and genin were more likely to obey her. She should have done it years ago.

Once the baggage had been inspected—far more delicately than hers had all those years ago, which made her torn between smiling and scowling—she led them through the streets, naming roads and landmarks far more clearly than Naruto had. She made sure to stress the things she had never been told. "Konoha is as much prone to attack as any civilian town, only here they will attack with a large force, as we saw a couple years ago. The difference is that here the attack is expected. There usually is some forewarning—ninja have ways of discovering things. There is a point made of trying to get civilians and ninja too young to fight out of the line of fire. Inside that mountain is a series of safe houses. If you ever hear of an attack or notice that people are making their way there, don't delay. Once the enemy attacks, it becomes much harder to gain entrance."

They turned onto a road that led into the farmland within the walls. Nestled between three farms and Training Ground 17, the former Kakuho mansion looked desolate.

"That?" asked Katarina.

"Yes. I told Grazia it wasn't a looker."

"No wonder you were happy to see me! The grounds!"

Nariko nodded. "They're in very bad shape. It seems the owner stopped noticing them about thirty years ago."

Katarina hopped off the cart and knelt to inspect the overgrown grasses. "Yup, it's all gone back to what's native to the area rather than whatever they planted. Oh well, at least I won't have to override their garden style."

"So long as you're happy."

Katarina smirked. "I can be made so. Let's see the inside."

"I've had the previous owner and some chuunin go over everything again to make sure there weren't any traps left."

Emilio raised an eyebrow. "Were there?"

"Some in the cupboards and so on. It was rigged like a mad house the first time I came here to help clean. I couldn't even go in until they finished dismantling what they could find that was pretty obvious. I wasn't allowed to touch anything that hadn't been inspected. It should be safe now. I enlisted a couple Hyuuga to check inside the walls and floors just to be sure." She laughed at the adults' leery looks.

She handed over copies of the keys they would need before letting them in only to find Kakashi lounging in the hallway. "Hatake-san."

"Matsuku-san. Are these the new tenants?"

"Boteri from Grass." She named them all. "This is the previous owner, Hatake Kakashi, jounin of Konoha and my brother's sensei. He is still moving things out of the house, mostly papers that were discovered in rooms that oddly enough were his clan's full records. The previous owner apparently rescued them for him. I hope you don't mind if he's in and out for the next two weeks. Missions interrupt his progress."

Kakashi nodded to back up her statements, but she didn't bother looking at him.

"Do you have a key?" asked Fausto.

Kakashi shook his head.

"He doesn't need one, unfortunately," Nariko said as she slipped off her shoes and walked past the jounin. The older children quickly followed her before running off upstairs to claim two of the many rooms. Ryuuka obligingly glommed onto Kakashi's leg and babbled at him.

Emilio inspected the walls and floor as he followed Nariko to the kitchen while Giraldo and Fausto went back out into the yard to begin unloading the cart. "It's sound enough. It just needs to be updated and painted, I think. Who else is coming in terms of skill sets?"

"Interior designers, painters, more carpenters, someone specializing in mudding and taping, a cabinet maker, and there's more, but I can't remember them all. Grazia and the Nineteen were thorough. Not all of them will be staying, but they'll help us get this place on its feet."

"And what's the situation next door?" asked Katarina, Emilia propped on her ample hip. "Any chance of expanding the property?"

Nariko shrugged. "I dare not talk to them. I am not especially well-regarded here, so it's best if you represent yourselves to the neighbours right now. I'd rather not prejudice them against you."

"Still that bad even though Naruto's been gone almost two years?" asked Kakashi, who was trailing after them, uninvited.

"Hm." Nariko began opening cupboards, showing the couple that she had gotten them the basics: rice, flour, beans, potatoes, salt, sugar, and spices. "Once the ox is picketed in the yard, we can pick up some things in town; that way I can show you where the market and the stores are. Also, I'm to feast you. What sort of food do you feel like?"

Emilio and Katarina traded glances. "Tacos."

Nariko chuckled.

"Home-cooked," added Katarina. "I want to see what this stove is capable of."

"Then we'll definitely need to go shopping."

"How much did the clan front you for the efforts here?" Emilio asked.

"Far more than enough and there's more coming. I'll be covering all meals and needed equipment until the house is settled."

Giraldo, who was carrying in a crate of pots and pans, whistled. "She really wants this to work, huh?"

"Grazia is very fond of this idea, yes."

Nariko helped them unload and settled boxes and bags inside the house and then led them through the streets again, Ryuuka perched on her shoulders.

* * *

Kakashi stood in the living room and looked out at the ox tethered in the yard. The house seemed oddly bereft without these new occupants. Sighing, he put his hands in his pockets and wandered up the stairs and down the long hall to the room just past the last bathroom. The door obligingly slid out of his way.

Scrolls and papers in boxes littered the floor. They were covered in dust, as though Snake had just forsaken them in here after Kakashi, only seven then and newly orphaned, had dumped all the clan records in the trash in a fit of cold fury. She must have dug through the bin very carefully because Kakashi had yet to find a missing record, not that he knew them all, of course. He remembered the weight and the impression of the multitude of scrolls though containing bloodlines and family jutsu.

Snake must have been furious that he had dared throw out the heritage his mother had married into.

His mother was listed here. Her name and mother clan were included in the details. Kakashi figured Snake had forgotten why she had saved these too quickly to go digging up her old friend's name.

Poor woman. He grimaced. Poor Beniha.

What to do with these though? Staring at them all made him aware of just what sort of weight was riding on his shoulders. Washi-san had had the right of it. Clan Hatake was going to die.

Children's voices—Ryuuka's in particular—wafted up from the front lawn. They were all back.

For a moment, he hated the Matsuku as never before. While his clan had died, theirs had grown at a ridiculous rate despite the dangers of their stance. His father should have remarried after his mother had died and had more children, but Sakumo had loved his wife and hadn't seen fit to betray her memory even for the sake of his bloodline.

So, now it was on his shoulders.

He chuckled bitterly and slipped out of the house, leaving the records to their dust, for now, as Nariko and her family chattered and cooked in the kitchen.

* * *

Nariko dried dishes as Emilio washed. Giraldo and Fausto were wiping the table and the counters and putting away whatever still needed unpacking in the kitchen. Katarina was putting the children to bed, and Ryuuka was passed out in the living room on Fausto's quilt. It had been a long day for her.

"So, what do you think of this?" asked Nariko as she wiped a mixing bowl.

Fausto cocked a black eyebrow. "This entire plan of Grazia's?"

"Yup."

"Well, we're here, aren't we?" said Emilio.

"You are, and that says a lot, but not everything, perhaps. Did she tell you about her plan for marriage with ninja?"

Fausto sighed. "She mentioned it. I take it you're opposed?"

Nariko set down the bowl so she wouldn't be tempted to throw it on the floor to watch it shatter. "It's not going to go as smoothly as she's hoping. We can't…" She gritted her teeth. "Any child with a ninja parent is going to be far more open to that possibility than any 'boring' job their clan parent might have. My father told me this, and I agree. What glamour is there in being an accountant, a plumber, a carpenter?"

Fausto leaned against the table, frowning. "Hey, it's not glamorous, but it can be fun!"

"Yes, I agree, but what child is going to see that when they can watch the ninja bouncing effortlessly across the rooftops?" Nariko shook her head. "No, it's not going to work. Not well and not quickly."

Katarina leaned against the kitchen's doorframe. "So the clan will lose some children."

"Yes, almost definitely. We might even lose some of our own children to the glamour."

"No child of mine—!" growled Emilio.

Nariko cut him off with an upraised hand. "I know! Believe me, I know. My brother… I would have stopped him if I could, if I had had your power over your children over him, but he wasn't _mine _and the option Grazia is bringing—another school—wasn't available."

"But children enter the Academy here at five or six, right?" asked Katarina. "The parent has total authority then. No clan parent would allow their child the option."

Nariko shook her head. "No clan parent would allow, but the child may come to resent that lack of choice."

"Not if we educate from birth."

_Indoctrination, just like the ninja, only for the other camp_. "Yes, and I'm sure everyone will, but what of the children that will have a foot in both worlds? What if they choose the ninja?"

Giraldo sighed gustily. "You speak of being cut from the clan and the resentment that may come from that."

Nariko nodded. "I personally know the feeling. I know I am slipping. I have been warned a couple times already that I'm treading dangerous ground, and that terrified me more than I can say. This wouldn't just be a slip though; this would be a full betrayal of clan values. The children would have to embrace their other family name, which they might not mind so much if they are choosing the ninja heritage. But they will resent being denied by us. I can see it. Naruto resented it, and I mostly made him keep his name as a tie to his deceased parents."

"I can see your point, but really, what is a name?" asked Katarina. "I am Nigin with Emilio. Giraldo and Fausto are Boteri by name. You are Matsuku. It is not the name. It is the spirit, the value."

"But no one else will see that. That is why Grazia wants those that stray cut. Konoha and the Fire Lord will see Yiri and Boteri and Matsuku running around as ninja and ask us what the problem is."

Giraldo sighed. "Look, if they turn, they turn. They cannot be with us if they are against us. Very black and white, but how can we argue this when we are pushing for the elimination of their occupation? They can be family, but not Family, you know? We can make their taking on their ninja parent's name a big ceremony of graduation from the clan, something solemn and mournful, yet impressive enough that they remember that the clan acknowledged their choice."

Nariko shook her head. "That line is going to cause us all grief. It's not a firm line at all. And what of later? Those with ninja heritage, should they leave the village and seek their fortunes elsewhere, they will be victim to anti-ninja sentiment the way my cousin Risako was from her own husband."

Katarina pursed her lips. "I think I heard of Risako. That was years ago, wasn't it? And she…"

"I had never thought of her as weak until she shattered like that. To throw away everything, to throw away her _son!_" Nariko shook her head. "But if she wasn't just being pathetic about it, then…"

"We'll be vigilant and supportive." Emilio patted her head. "I can see how you are in trouble now. But trust us. We are clan. Family is family. Your brother is your brother still, right? There will be arguments, but we will work through them. Family is stronger than united opinions and a silly bunch of names."

The others nodded, and Nariko let the matter drop, but was still troubled. Time would tell though.

* * *

Hinata had never been happier. She loved the Matsuku and their compound and wasn't sure she was ready to go home tomorrow. Jiraiya-sama was healed now: he would have a scar, but no other lasting damage remained. With her job done, she was expected to return to the hidden village. However, she didn't want to leave this quiet and welcoming place. Yasu-san, who told her stories and played checkers with her as her own grandfather never would, was here, and she got to talk to him a lot as he studied. Takara-san was a wonderful cook and kind even though she was quite strict.

The children here were all in awe of her Byakugan, and they all whispered about how she was some kind of faerie princess. Hinata had never been subjected to this kind of attention before, but after a while she found herself enjoying it. The attention here was earnest and well-meant rather than scornful and degrading.

Also, Naruto-kun was here. He was in much better spirits now that she had assured him that orange chakra did not bleed into his own any longer. She had never been the only one of his friends around him for a long period of time, but now that she was, she found herself enjoying it. Unlike before, she could talk to him. It had been so terrifying, but now she didn't think anything of it. The best thing was that he talked to her too.

From those conversations, she knew that he wasn't nearly as happy as she was and she understood. He had lost control of his demon and had injured Jiraiya-sama: of course he would be deeply burdened by guilt. It was during these conversations that Hinata first got to practice what she had learned from Fuu-sensei. Naruto might not have appreciated her actions had he understood what was going on, but since he didn't understand that she was "shrinking" him, he talked to her without reservation.

They celebrated his birthday the day after Jiraiya-sama and Daichi-san created the cap for his seal. Yasu-san and Takara-san's house was packed, and a large portion of the celebration moved out into the gardens. It seemed as though Naruto had become quite popular during the weeks of his stay here. There was good food, games for the little ones, singing, and dancing, and she and Naruto were pressed into showing off their flashier techniques against each other in a mock spar.

During this bout, Hinata learned that Naruto had mastered the Yondaime's famous technique, Hiraishin no Jutsu. He was so fast: one moment he was there, the next he was gone. It awed her, but she quickly adapted her chakra beam defence and another variation where she used a single rod as a lance to keep him and his tagged kunai at bay. He had difficulties with the latter in particular since Genkichi-sensei had taught her well—Naruto-kun couldn't see chakra and she made no move, so he couldn't tell when or where the lance was coming from. She also relied upon chakra threads to choke and deflect, something that worked better than her other techniques against Sasuke-kun because his Sharingan could only see the chakra cloud—threads were too thin for him to detect accurately.

When Naruto-kun pulled Rasengan out of legends to use against her, she nearly panicked. Concentrating, she wove a net of chakra threads and caught his attack long enough to dart out of the way. When he detonated the swirling ball of chakra, her net absorbed the damage, making Naruto stare at her with awe.

"How did you do that?" he asked when the demo was over. Even Jiraiya-sama looked astonished and worried.

She explained the theory of her move until Jiraiya-sama was nodding.

"That would work. It sounds flexible enough to take the damage. That's like putting a towel over a water balloon that's about to explode. The towel will catch the explosion and deform to dissipate the force. That's amazing, kid," he told her.

She blushed even as Shizune-shishou looked absurdly proud.

"Gaki," the Sannin member said to Naruto, "you and I are going to have to come up with a way to counter this. If this gets out, Rasengan will be useless against people that can do what she does. Where did you get the basis for that technique?" When Hinata explained that it was a variation on a personal technique, Jiraiya relaxed slightly. "Okay then, we'll just have to watch out for you."

Such praise almost made her want to fall back into her old habit of poking her pointer fingers together.

"Jiraiya-sama, you depart tomorrow at dawn?" asked Shizune.

"Yeah, the kid keeps whining that we can't endanger the Matsuku by staying any longer. I figure it's best to head south. Kid's never been that way. Pass on my regards to Tsunade, eh?"

Shizune grimaced. "She will be relieved to hear you lived, but…"

"Hah, tell her to stop sending ANBU that keep peeking at my rough drafts for spoilers!"

Hinata decided she did not want to know what it was when Shizune-shishou blushed like that and Naruto laughed fit to split his gut.

* * *

Grandpa Yasu knocked on the door while Naruto was stuffing what presents he had gotten that would be useful on his travels into his pack. He had given whatever couldn't go with him in the morning to Hinata to pass on to Riko-nee in the form of a scroll so she wouldn't have to lug some of the heavier stuff in her pack.

Naruto took the neatly folded clothes his grandpa offered him that his grandmother must have just finished with.

"Are you ready?"

"Just about. Once these are in, it'll all be good. Geez, Uncle Hotaka did a good job with these… I can't tell they were ripped at all!"

"There are some longer pants in there for you as well since yours were showing too much ankle for Takara to stomach quietly. They're good fabric, so they should serve you well. A sneaky birthday gift from us, if you like."

Naruto laughed. "Sure. It's good to be sneaky."

Yasu smiled and pulled a couple pieces of paper out of his pocket. "Naruto-kun, now that you've been welcomed, I feel that it is safe enough to give this to you." He unfolded the first page. It was a map of all the nations. There were many marked spots on it, carefully labelled. "These are all the locations of clan compounds, be they Matsuku, Yiri, Boteri, or Contadino. Present this letter"—Yasu passed him the second paper—"and you will be welcomed. Please be careful with this information though."

Naruto nodded. "I don't want to endanger you guys."

Grandpa Yasu grimaced. "Naruto, we have always been in danger, from the very beginning. We are civilians. In this day and age, a civilian is at the mercy of everyone: their lord, their country's lord, and every ninja and ruffian that walks the planet. We are simply less likely to be at everyone's mercy all the time since the implementation of the one nation, one village system. Naruto, you can never say that a civilian doesn't understand, because we are powerless. We understand all too well that the moment a ninja enters the equation, unless we are very lucky or wealthy enough to hire our own ninja, we have lost."

"I've seen a lot of people that hate ninja since leaving Konoha," Naruto said, grimacing as well. "I didn't understand it at first—how could they be mad at us when they're the ones who hire us? But then we started stopping at places and people started telling me their stories. So many of them hate us because we fought wars right on top of their homes, literally, and then we dropped that roof on them.

"I don't know what to think anymore." Naruto scrubbed his face with his hand as he clutched his forehead protector. "I mean, I never thought that the villages were so hated when I went through the Academy. The Old Man never said anything like this. And now I'm out here and I can't wear my forehead protector or _anything_ that shows I'm from a ninja village because people will spit on us if I do, or worse, they'll be too scared to even talk to us. And then I think about those old rules from the book and start to see where each rule fits into the stories they tell me."

Grandpa Yasu ruffled his hair. "It is hard, I know, to see how the world views you. But at the same time, seeing is better than sticking your head in the sand. You say you will be Hokage. You are being given the perfect opportunity to decide what your policies will be as you tour the nations. Decide what you support and what you don't. Find plans for accomplishing the goals you decide need setting. This is your education, my boy. The world is your teacher. Learn and decide what the truth is and shape yourself accordingly."

Naruto somehow smiled and hugged his grandpa, grateful that Grandpa Yasu of all people, who believed so strongly in what he and his clan were doing, was encouraging him to decide for himself. "Can I visit?"

Grandpa pinched his ear even harder than Neechan ever had. "Of course, you silly boy!"

Naruto pressed a seal into his grandpa's hand. "Then I need you to keep this safe for me."

"Of course, Naruto-kun. We'll keep it right in this room. Drop by whenever you want, even when you're Hokage."

* * *

Mikoto had arrived on Water's shores without too much difficulty other than chakra exhaustion. Her supplies hadn't been spoiled by the long journey across the ocean, so she had been fit to continue the next phase of her intricate plan. She had known upon learning of Denryuu that he was her thread. Planning access had taken a bit more creativity fuelled by facts. Information was essential to this mission. It was a good thing that Tsunade had allowed Mikoto the run of Intel's archives and the help of two experts on Kiri's situation. One thing she had learned was where two of the rebel leaders were hiding out.

Denryuu was a Kumo runaway. That was why Mikoto was dressed as a Kumo hunter-nin as she pushed her way through the crowded brothel's back door with little trouble. Whores in the kitchen melted away the moment they saw her mask and the cloud engraved in the porcelain. The dingy cook shook when Mikoto pointed a gloved finger at her.

"Tama," she whispered into the thick silence.

The cook glanced around desperately, but no one would meet her eyes. Apparently, Tama was not someone the cook was supposed to lead anyone to without prior prompting.

"Now," Mikoto added lightly, spinning a pair of kunai around her pointer finger.

The cook went running. Mikoto stalked after her. No one got in her way.

ANBU loved this rush of power. At its direction, she efficiently clobbered the guard that took offence when she walked into the room hidden in the depths of the brothel. She filed away the symbol of Grass upon his forehead protector and his panicked movements—a chuunin. His partner and the four other occupants of the room tensed when she stepped over his insensate body without breaking stride and took a seat before the desk. The old woman, Tama, glanced meaningfully at the cook, who sidled along the wall and escaped out the door as fast as her knobbly legs could carry her when Mikoto made no move to intercept her.

"There are proper channels set up if contact is desired—!" growled the other leader, the less important one as far as Mikoto was concerned. Kyoubou, leader of this district's attacks on royalist forces and in charge of liberating certain materials, didn't have anything she wanted. Tama was the head of rebel intelligence. A whorehouse was the perfect place to gather it.

"This is rather urgent." Mikoto turned to Tama. "I think what I can offer in return for your assistance would be… desirable to your cause."

"What is it you want, oinin?" demanded Kyoubou. "Kumo has already promised us two more chuunin contracts from Grass in return for placing yet another of your comrades only last week." Mikoto grimaced. Kumo had one up on her. She was going to have to make sure the real oinin didn't get in her way. "It seems they won't be much use considering you took one out in two seconds. This offer had better be… better."

Mikoto resisted the desire to laugh at the middle-aged man's limited vocabulary. He struck her as the kind of man who deeply resented his lack of education. It probably fuelled his devotion to taking down the aristocracy. "Kumo's need to silence Denryuu if we cannot capture him requires my positioning as a safeguard. The general is competent and well liked now, as you know. I need to get into Kiri undetected, preferably in a capacity that would allow me to move through the village without suspicion. I am not unskilled at gathering… delicate information, and I would be willing to share."

Tama took the bait, waving aside Kyoubou's angry words about doing her own infiltrating. "Your comrade was ungenerous in this regard, but I am afraid that what you require would cost us quite a bit."

ANBU raged that she out to just force her will down these peasants' throats, but Mikoto reined in the arrogant impulse. She could control everything, but delicacy took extra skill. Tsunade had insisted that only Mikoto was skilled enough to make absolutely sure that this entire mission went off without any association with Konoha. There was a threat hidden in that compliment: if she failed, Konoha would abandon her. The treaty had to be officially honoured, so Mikoto would be sacrificed on the altar of international politics. That couldn't happen because her reputation was so tied to Naruto's. If she fell, so did his chances at Hokage and all of her plans.

With all this in mind, she leaned back in her chair and stretched out her legs, the picture of ease despite the Grass chuunin seething behind her. She could sense the third team member in the ceiling, sweating with anxiety over how she had dealt with their strongest teammate. "I hear that you liberators of Water have had difficulties smuggling weaponry in."

She had them. Kyoubou was practically hanging on her every word now. He was ill-equipped.

"Kiri recently secured a large shipment of iron ore and coal from Fire, covertly, of course. The Water Lord is still opposed to opening the borders for any reason, fearing a break for the rebellion such as I am offering. Kumo cannot risk a similar move, of course, but I understand that Kiri's weapon makers are hard at work, particularly those in remoter areas where the Water Lord is less likely to notice their industry. Perhaps I could arrange a shipment of these new weapons to go astray. In one stroke, you could deprive your enemies and enrich yourselves. Of course, most would be shuriken and kunai, but the arrows and swords you are accustomed to would surely be in the works as well."

Hook. Line. Sinker. ANBU smirked as Kyoubou struggled to hide his greed.

Tama stared off into the distance for a time before nodding to her stripling underling, who smartly appeared at her elbow from the corner he had been shivering in. Tama murmured something in his ear, and he retrieved folders from the closet. "There is an agent who is due to go to Kirigakure in her role in less than a week. I have another post in mind for her, so if you can effectively take her place, perhaps by posing as a relative that my agent will bring in, and then pass away visibly at the end, it would be helpful. She is a handmaiden in the employ of Lord Anben, the feudal lord Denryuu's second-in-command—a real general, not a ninja—once owed fealty to before rising so high in the Water Lord's army, so he is invited to a planning session. We have other agents positioned to watch this meeting, but anything you manage to glean is ours. Of course, taking Denryuu out of the picture would be… helpful."

Mikoto laced her fingers together in her lap, supremely content. "I always aim to be helpful."


	68. Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Seven Silver-Plated Swords

Naruto and Jiraiya watched the desolate shore of southern Wind Country flow past them as their schooner skimmed lightly over the waves on its way up the sheltered inlet to Port Mure. It was only after the schooner rounded a bend that Naruto finally got his first glimpse of Wind Country's most populous city. It was the richest as it was the easiest to import and export from in the entire country because of its sea access and its protected harbour. Naruto hadn't expected it to be such a patchwork of sand, wood, and canvas of many colours, though it looked much more modern higher up on the hills with gleaming glass towers. It was a multi-coloured stain on the barren desert, sprawled all over the banks of the inlet and the river that fed it.

There were so many different ships of so many different makes and sizes in the sprawling harbour that it looked like a company of strangely coloured birds were roosting together. The sails were all brightly decorated and many ships flew the pennants of nations Naruto didn't recognize. Highways of floating piers and docks enforced order on the flock

As the schooner's crew docked their vessel, Naruto watched people bicker and bargain on the crowded docks, which were weather and water-stained, yet smooth from the passage of so many feet. The people awed him: they were sailors for the most part, but they were all the most fantastic looking people he had ever seen. Their skins covered the entire spectrum of brown, from milky pale to dark chocolate, while their clothes flashed the rest of the spectrum in a myriad of patterns and styles. All of them looked incredibly tough under their jerkins and vests: their corded muscles, formed from years of working with the lines and sails, rippled under flesh that gleamed with sweat from the heat of the day.

There were so many different languages being spoken that Naruto couldn't even catch the words he recognized. It was only by watching carefully that he realized that the men wearing turbans and long beards in the flat-bellied ship berthed across from them were attempting to sell their load of silks to a sly looking merchant with black hair so tightly curled that Naruto wondered how he brushed it.

Ero-Sennin passed him the money to break with the captain while he wandered off. Rolling his eyes and making sure that he hadn't left any of his ninja gear in their cabin, Naruto settled things and scurried into the crowds only to find that Jiraiya had been drooling over a particularly well-sculpted figurehead on a ship quite a ways down the dock. Even though he could understand why his guardian was slobbering all over the place—the mermaid was better looking than those pictures in the magazines he had seen—Naruto whined at a decibel he saved especially for these occasions and managed to get the old man moving again, albeit reluctantly with many longing glances over his shoulder.

Naruto got to enjoy the vast array of different smells as they searched for the exit from the labyrinth of docks and piers to the city: fish, brine, soaked wood, oils of all kinds, more fish, silk, canvas, leather, tar, the tang of metal from various steel and copper implements, cattle, horses, chickens, goats, and other livestock, and that was only the beginning. He could have wandered around the docks all day just trying to figure out what all the different scents were, but now that Ero-Sennin was going, there was no stopping him. As they slipped through the heavy crowds on the gangway into the city streets, Naruto wondered what Kiba would have made of this place, never mind Akamaru.

The pair wandered the metropolis in search of a hotel, examining all the exotic wares at vendors' stalls and watching the other people in the market. The streets were just as interesting as the docks. No one here wore the drab desert-coloured clothing that was so popular in Suna. Instead, there was a riot of fabrics among the locals, making foreigners easy to pick out of a crowd. Those from the desert tribes dressed as the Suna ninja did in colours that hid them among the harsh sands. Traders from Tea Country were just as drab, but their palette came from forest colours. There were also people from many other nations that had sea access: Water (though these guys didn't look like they had any intention of going back any time soon), Lightning, Snow, Wave, River, Fire, and many smaller island nations were among those represented.

The people were not the most interesting things though: the streets were a warren festooned with various aspects that drew the eye. Some stone or wattle and daub walls had been painted with huge murals while others had somehow been made into mosaics of coloured stones or shards of glass that glittered in the desert sun. Most homes on the poorer streets were a mess of mud walls and canvas hung on poles carefully roped together. Some 'walls' were even made simply of a brilliant tapestry hung to keep out the dusty wind. Palm trees and other hardy species were interspersed between stalls and shops on every street.

Peddlers cried out their various wares while street performers juggled torches or did acrobatics that most ninja could have copied with ease. He had to drag Ero-Sennin away from a troop of girls dancing clad only in pants and scarves with rings through their navels and their lower lips and studs all the way around the shell of their ears before they finally got to the main bazaar.

As they wandered through the market, Naruto bought gifts for those whose birthdays were coming up. For Hinata, he got several brightly coloured silk scarves with beaded edges and a couple of fancy hair ties. She had told him that she often braided her hair up now that it was so much longer. He got a book on bugs native to many different nations for Shino, figuring that the younger ninja could put the knowledge to use in battle someday. He also picked up samples of all the strange spices he could find for Chouji: his friend always liked to experiment with new flavours. Bangles and two jutsu scrolls were for Sakura, and a couple books on eastern nations were purchased for Gaara now that he had to be politically up-to-date and culturally informed in his role as Kazekage. A pair of interesting daggers and drawings of more intricate weapons that he couldn't afford with his relatively meagre allowance would cover Tenten.

"Ero-Sennin, I'm stumped for a present for Riko-nee," he complained over the endless chatter of the crowds and the sound of a mandolin being played by a street performer as they ate lunch at a ramen stand. It was tucked in between a stand selling metal teapots and urns and a stall with canvas sacs full of beans and lentils being argued over by two women; one was old with a filmy dark blue veil over her hair and the other was young with bangles piled on her forearms with as much regard for colour coordination as a parrot, which he had seen in person for the first time only twenty minutes ago at a map seller's stall. They both smelled of musk incense and temple wine, and their language wasn't one he was familiar with: the syllables rolled liquidly and languidly over each other despite their harsh voices.

The much older man rolled his eyes. "Brat, how would I know? You still haven't sent a toad to pick up the presents that everyone got for you."

Naruto shrugged. He had delayed it so that he could make a quick escape from Riko's hometown. A bunch of presents would have slowed him down.

"Might as well send for them now," Jiraiya pointed out. "We'll be heading into the desert in a couple days. Some of them might be useful."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully and resolved to do just that when they got back to the hotel.

When he finally did, he was not disappointed. There was a veritable pile of presents. Gamakichi was weighed down just by the notes that had been sent for him. Most of them contained worried enquiries about his loss of control and confident statements that he would prevail over this. His friends' faith in him was astounding.

He opened the presents while Jiraiya was out catching up on the steamier end of his research. Iruka-sensei had sent him a set of maps more detailed than he had ever seen. These would be very useful for coming up with sites where all the jinchuuriki could meet up for training, and Naruto had some fuzzy plans about planting carefully concealed shiki all around the country as well as having all the jinchuuriki carry them. That way he would be able to get to their locations quickly if they were ever attacked. Gaara had one, but Naruto had yet to test it. He resolved to do so before he went to bed.

His friends had sent him various shinobi gifts: kunai from Sasuke, shuriken from Sakura, a kodachi from Tenten, training weights from Lee, paper and scrolls from Shino, energy replenishing pills from Chouji, a pack of cards and a small book of instructions on card games from Shikamaru, a dark grey-green sleeveless top from Ino (he had no idea where she had gotten his size from, but he blamed his sister and Sakura), his yearly bonus from Tsunade, bandages from Neji, soldier pills from Kiba, a water skin from Mikoto (something that would really come in handy here), and a scroll full of jutsu from Ryuuka. She had added scribbles in the margins and little notes in her broken script. Mikoto-obachan's present had included a note explaining that Ryuuka-chan had recently started learning how to write. Hinata and Shizune had given him presents at his party: medical salves and other items for his first aid kit. Hinata had informed him that she had manufactured the salves herself.

His last two presents were rather odd. Kakashi-sensei had sent him a book. At first, Naruto had been terrified that he had been given a pervert book like the ones that Ero-Sennin wrote, but this book was marked with Konoha's leaf symbol. When he opened it, he found pictures of various ninja and a list of stats on them. Uchiha Itachi was in this book as well as his fishy partner, Hoshigaki Kisame. A note had been slipped inside the first page.

_Naruto,_

_This is called a bingo book. You may have heard of them before. Each shinobi village produces them for their elite forces. They mark targets that the hidden village wants taken out and specify what other villages that criminal is wanted by as well as the total bounty on his head. It includes useful stats such as taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu ability. The first six pages explain the rankings. Since you are wandering around through various countries, it's a good idea to be able to pick out those who might cause trouble during your visit. Also, you will be able to see how you rank according to Akatsuki and how to fight against them. I've marked the known members' pages: this is not the newest copy, so such information is not included. Jiraiya should be able to help you come up with counters to their known moves._

_Kakashi_

He grinned and stuffed the book into his kunai pouch for future reference before digging out his sister's parcel. The note on top was set aside as he ripped the brown paper to shreds and pulled out a flax-coloured garment. He lifted it up and let Gamakichi look it over.

"It looks like a robe or a coat," said the toad, and Naruto nodded, studying the golden, spiral sun-like designs on the shoulders before slipping it on. The sleeves ended a several centimetres below his elbows and the robe hung several centimetres above his ankles. He noticed that the bottom hem was very wide: obviously this garment was meant to grow with him. He found a pair of dark tan cargo pants in the tattered remains of the paper wrappings and slipped them on in place of his usual shorts. They had a weave that would allow airflow, perfect for the desert.

"How does it look?" he asked Gamakichi and scowled when the toad laughed at his nervousness.

"Hah! You sound like some girl!"

Naruto flipped him the bird. "If you're gonna be snarky…!" He sighed. "Well, I guess the presents were heavy. Here's some stuff I picked up at the market today. See what you think of it." Naruto tossed over a parcel filled with what treats he had thought Gamakichi wouldn't have tried: pakora, samosas, shrimp dumplings, candied apples, and so on. The toad grinned and gave him a thumbs up as he popped a dumpling into his mouth. Debt paid, Naruto snatched up his sister's note, hoping for some kind of explanation.

_Naruto,_

_Congratulation! I'm so proud of you! Fifteen already! You make me feel so old at thirty. I figure now you can officially start helping pay rent when you get back. Tactless of me, I know, but it's better to say it here than to your face when you've been back for two weeks. Speaking of the apartment, your plants are doing really well. I've added the trees you sent back with Hinata to your collection. I'm sure that you'll research their care when you get home and do a much better job with them, but I checked with the notes Haruka-obasan attached to them. She was really impressed by your green thumb. I'm glad that you two seemed to get along so well._

_Regarding the coat, it's a joint present from Uncle Hotaka and me. He measured you and your clothes while you were there, and I picked the colours, figuring that you'd be back in the desert soon enough, knowing how you smother Gaara because of your mother hen tendencies. I gave Ino a hint for her present. The whole kit should look pretty cool. Take a picture and send it to me, hm? I haven't got any recent pictures of you. Our photo album is sorely lacking._

_If you like the coat, we can make up some more in other colours too; that way you'll match your background no matter what! It was inspired by some of the photos of the Yondaime I've stumbled across. He wore a white coat with his title written on the back with red flames leaping from the bottom hem. Pretty cool, though it didn't really match everything else he was wearing, according to Mikoto, who insists she is an authority on fashion and colour._

_I'm sorry about Kyuubi. I know it's scary—I was terrified when I heard—but you've dealt with it, right? You've got that cap according to Hinata; she said your chakra looks better now. I trust you. I know you can overcome this. Trust yourself. Rely on yourself. Control your temper and study hard. She told me about your seal experiment. It sounds like you're getting there. I'm keeping my fingers crossed._

_Wheels are turning here. I don't know how much I can tell you, but I'm going to explain it all when you come home. I know that can't be reassuring, but what can I say in a letter confidently? I know nobody at home told you. They weren't sure what to say either. It's hard to know when your stance is the one that seems to be shifting, according to the note Hinata passed to me from my father._

_Mikoto's away, and Ryuuka and Sasuke have been staying with me on and off, depending on whether Sasuke feels like cooking or not. It's been nice. I've been less lonely with them around—the apartment doesn't feel as empty._

_Like I said, Dad told me you've been feeling less certain about your role in the world. Let me say this: there is no way to make everyone happy. What you need to do is find out what makes _you_ happy and stick with that, though I hope you take laws and whatnot into account when you decide. I can ask no more than that. No one else takes into account what the entire world thinks when they decide to be a doctor or a mechanic or whatever. However, unlike them, you can't randomly pick another career path now that you're a ninja. What you can do is shift your stance as many times as you like. Your opinions aren't set in stone. They never will be. What you believe today may not be what you hold to be true tomorrow. Don't assume that you've got to set your course before you get home. You'll be changing until the day you die._

_Philosophy aside, Shiro and Itsuki probably mentioned that they're coming up to Konoha to visit. I'll stick Shiro and Junko in the guest room, but I want to ask your permission to put Itsuki in your room. I'll hide anything you don't want him to see, but he's a little tall to sleep on the couch. Let me know soon, please._

_Anyway, Dad said he gave you a map and a letter of introduction. Use it. You'll save yourself tons on hotel fees, and you'll get free food and guides. The clan always feasts their own._

_Good luck!_

_Nasake_

With a grin, Naruto set aside her letter and lay back on his bed to think over what she had told him. He was a little worried about what she hadn't said, but figured it wouldn't be that big a deal. If it was something dire, Neechan would have found a way, probably by bribing Gamakichi to memorize her explanation and repeat it to him verbatim. Still, it was nice to be told that he didn't need to know what he thought about ninja and everything right now. Even better, he was allowed to change his mind.

He turned to his pile of new stuff and sighed before taking out his luggage scroll and sealing away most of the stuff before sealing away the presents he had bought in a separate and carefully labelled scroll. It was pretty cool that his luggage could be reduced to this in no time flat. Sealing was just that awesome.

What was also cool was that Neechan had practically admitted that she painted to him. She had probably guessed that he had seen her works; using her artist name as her signature acknowledged that fact. He pulled the coat off to slip on the shirt that Ino had given him and donned his coat again before memorizing each of the notes and writing replies to all of them. "You up to delivering these tonight?" he asked Gamakichi, who shrugged. He had gotten a lot bigger over the past few months, Naruto noted. He would have to start sending a smaller toad with his messages and reserve asking Gamakichi for help for only bigger and better things, if the toad let him, of course.

"It's night-time in Konoha too, you know, but I should be able to do it. Give 'em to me now." Naruto passed them over, and Gamakichi gave him a piercing look. "You gonna do something stupid?"

"Yeah, I'm going to test my jutsu. I'll leave a shiki here to aim for."

"Maybe you should wait…"

Naruto used a match to incinerate all the messages his friends had sent him. It would be too easy to lose them if he kept them on his person. "Ero-Sennin won't be back until dawn. He won't even know that I was gone. I really want to talk to Gaara too. His last message worried me a bit. I'll summon a toad if something goes wrong."

Gamakichi rolled his bulbous eyes, but disappeared in a puff of smoke, bound for Konoha.

Naruto carefully attached a shiki to his bingo book and tucked another under his pillow. Ready at last, he gathered the chakra, activated the shiki he had left with Gaara, and aimed himself through the jutsu towards the marker. Like the hundreds of other times he had used this jutsu now, the bending of space twisted his stomach into anxious knots even as his vision seemed to go dark forever. That was the strange thing about Hiraishin: though it seemed as though no time passed to those watching the user, the user experienced a seemingly endless transfer as space and time bent around him. It was ideal in battle: allowing the user time to think about his new situation and prepare for it.

Naruto emerged on the other end in the Kazekage's office very weary and just barely on his feet: he had gone through almost an entire tail of power. Somehow, Naruto wasn't surprised by what he found: since Gaara couldn't sleep, it would be like him to use the night hours to catch up on paperwork. Sand surged around him until he pushed it away weakly with his chakra aura. That forced Gaara to recognize him, and the sand quickly pulled away.

"Naruto?" said Gaara, shocked to see him. "Last I heard from you, you were in Tea Country."

"Actually, I'm in Wind Country right now, or I was less than a second ago."

"Suna is still in Wind Country, Naruto," Gaara said in a longsuffering monotone. "You are testing Hiraishin?"

"Yeah, I wanted to see if it worked like it was supposed to. How have things been here?"

"Quiet so far. You heard about Sister Blonde's success?"

"Yeah, I thought she did great. She sounded really smug. Maybe we should send her out more often."

"Maybe," said Gaara cautiously. "You might want to meet with Sister Clay anyway. Yugito could have been fooled. She doesn't expect the same sort of loyalty you do, and sadism doesn't inspire it. I still think you should make contact with her, maybe in a neutral place like Bird Country. They don't even have a ninja village and they send their requests to no specific village. It would be the perfect place."

"Why are you so suspicious?" asked Naruto, a little grumpy since his euphoria over having another member added to his "family" was now tainted.

"Because you are too trusting despite how humanity has treated us. I want you to meet with her before we try to organize training sessions. We need you to see if she will prove false. She was able to successfully integrate herself into a community without anyone learning of her jinchuuriki status. That takes skill, and even Konoha wasn't certain she was one. Suna doesn't seem to have noted her existence at all, but then we have been rather shorthanded for a long time. Yugito didn't find anything on her in Kumo either. Only Konoha knew about her. You must meet with her. Make sure you have backup."

Naruto nodded and bowed his head.

"That isn't all," said Gaara at last. "I've received rumours that Oto isn't as quiet as we would like."

"You mean Orochimaru is moving again?"

"That's right. I don't know where he plans to strike, but he seems to have recovered a portion of his former strength."

"He'll go for Konoha," said Naruto without hesitation. "He admitted that it was what he wanted to destroy."

"Yes, but that may not be everything. Suna will be ready though if Konoha calls upon us."

"Thanks, Gaara."

The redhead smiled briefly and stood up to look over Sunagakure. "Did the patch work?"

"Yeah, it seems to be. It won't last long: the original seal is already working to destroy it, but it should hold out for at least a year. I have to work something out by then. Maybe I can get Ero-Sennin to show me the key that he mentioned once."

"Have you spoken to Kyuubi since then?"

"No, I haven't really wanted to. I don't want to hear whatever he's got to say."

Gaara nodded and glanced over his shoulder when Naruto shifted.

"I should go. I've managed to recover my reserves now. Hiraishin isn't meant for covering such long distances. The chakra requirement works out to the distance covered squared or something like that, so doing this takes a lot out of me. I probably won't be able to do much when I get back to the hotel room."

"The seal tops off your reserves though. You should be fine. If you didn't have the bijuu though…"

"I'd be toast, I know. Later!" he waved and disappeared.

* * *

Mikoto knelt before the door of the rooms her lady was occupying during their stay in Kiri. She slipped the door open and bowed low. "Kinu-hime, your bath is ready."

"Shiori, why do you always take so long? Your cousin Kaori was so much faster! What if _he_ comes while I'm in the bath to pay his respects? I can't miss him!"

Seventeen-year-old noble girls were a pain in the ass. Infatuated seventeen-year-old noble girls on the cusp of meeting the object of their affection actually surpassed that. Mikoto enveloped herself with Shiori's personality as she gently washed her mistress' hair and combed it—"one hundred and seven strokes, Shiori, don't forget!"—while her charge vacillated between girlish squeals and panic over baby fat that only Kinu-hime could see in the mirror. Mikoto was placidly—and falsely—assuring her mistress that her breasts were not too exaggerated by the drape of the kimono when the message came. A hurricane would have done less damage to the room.

"Shiori, make sure you're not here," Kinu-hime ordered her with an eager smirk, "just in case."

Burying the desire to cackle, Mikoto nodded demurely and walked out of the guesthouse through a servant's exit. Shiori disappeared in the streets and a fat little boy took a tour of the misty streets of Kiri. With her chakra suppressed to a level that wouldn't look suspicious in a weak Academy student since going to a civilian's chakra level was beyond her, Mikoto wandered Kiri, listening while making sure that she didn't stand out.

Over the past few days, Mikoto had learned a great deal. The two Kiri jounin that had survived the raid on Fire were apparently embroiled very deeply in whatever struggle was going on at Kiri's highest ranks. The Saito woman was not loyal to the Mizukage, though she diligently attended him every day. The Mizukage knew this though; Juro was surprisingly subtle for such a brute of a man. He watched Saito carefully and reported on her daily. Whom Saito was reporting to was surprising though.

The Seven Swordsmen—there were really only four actually in the village—didn't seem to be as loyal to the Mizukage as most supposed. Saito reported to them. Mikoto didn't know whom they reported to, but she could guess. Madara had made sure that Kiri would remain his quite neatly. The Seven Swordsmen were the perfect blade against the neck of the puppet Mizukage since they held a respect that in many ways outmatched his. No wonder Zabuza was so well-informed.

As if this intrigue wasn't enough, Denryuu was nose deep in his own. The Kumo traitor hadn't been given the post as general without due consideration. Whoever was trying to keep Water mired in civil war was good. Denryuu was the last person that should have been given the post if the royalists wanted to win because his loyalty was in question and he inspired no nationalistic feelings in his troops, or he hadn't initially.

Denryuu was charisma personified. His effect was staggering actually. Charming, electric, and well able to connect with any level of society, he had been severely underestimated by the person who had had figured that Denryuu would keep Water in a stalemate. If Mikoto left things alone, Denryuu might well win the war in six months. The twenty-eight-year-old had wrangled support from almost the entire army.

Mikoto was certain he was her lynchpin. Unfortunately, Kumo wanted him dead or back in their hands and could make him so any day now. Mikoto was racing against the clock, desperately trying to find the Kumo plant. She needed to kill him before he killed Denryuu. It was the height of irony.

There was no way he could be placed as well as she was by the rebellion. Henge was dangerous around so many jounin and finding a facial match was next to impossible, so they must have placed him as they had placed her: nearby, but not too close. Tracking down spies was not an easy task, needle-in-a-haystack work. Mikoto had been unsuccessfully scouring the usual spots a spy would frequent for four days now. It was intensely frustrating. Thanks to her Sharingan, Mikoto had an advantage: she looked for henge very carefully under colour contacts to hide her eyes and with only the slightest chakra to avoid detection from the Hyuuga eye holder, though she had yet to run into him, so she hoped. Too many here had eye patches to tell.

Sharingan was how she had discovered Saito and Juro's machinations and many other intrigues besides that made her regard many of the marriages here with a cynical eye.

As the fat boy, she wended her way through all the usual information sinkholes—bars, brothels, and the like. No sign. She was out of time. Shiori was needed back at Kinu-hime's side no matter what the tart thought. Kinu's lord father Anben knew his daughter's ways better than she suspected.

Denryuu, her lord, and her lord's general (Denryuu's second-in-command) were still talking of the war's progress when Shiori arrived. Kinu-hime had been dismissed and was in a royal snit when Shiori passed by the thin walls. Fortunately, Shiori had been assigned other duties by the housekeeper.

She was arranging flowers in the parlour when it hit her. Kumo's oinin had no need to spy if he placed himself properly. He just needed to get near to Denryuu under his own face. _Dammit! She had been over thinking things again and had almost missed her chance while chasing after shadows!_

The sinking feeling in her gut made her sure that she had lost her edge. No more chances.

_What if there was a match within Denryuu's staff though? What if Kumo had done some recon before taking a risk on the rebellion and had sent the right man for the job…?_

She slipped a senbon out of her sleeve and poked a small hole in the thin walls of her lord's office right near the shadow of a tapestry. After checking the hallway, she activated her Sharingan under her henge and snuck a peek.

Three aides were huddled at the fringe of the discussion. One wore the colours of her lord, another wore the colours of her lord's general, and the final two wore Denryuu's. One was a ninja; the other was disguised as a regular military aide. There was no henge. There couldn't be, not in the presence of a jounin. Instead, the plain-faced man wore slight touches of mundane makeup. Sharingan could trace the careful blending job of a master's hand. To be sure that this was Kumo's man, she only needed to inspect his right shoulder.

That night, she slipped out of her bed and donned dark grey.

She sprinted over the rooftops with stealthy abandon. Security around the military's quarters was tight, but Mikoto was an old hand at this. She and Snake and the rest of the squad had used to race from the outskirts of the target villages to the target's home when security was thick. She slipped in through an upper window. A shadow, she scouted the rooms, listening carefully to every occupant's breathing before entering to inspect his face. She found her man on the second floor.

He woke with a start and nearly belted her through the wall when she made moves to bind him. With Sharingan to guide her attacks, she got past his guard quickly, and a hard blow to the chin sent him back into unconsciousness. She ripped his robe off his shoulder and rubbed the coat of makeup away. The cloud within a cloud of Kumo ANBU appeared.

Mikoto sat back on her haunches, sucking on her cheek. What would be the best way to kill this man to have the most desirable effect? Having him just disappear would cause hysteria. She could make it look like a suicide, but that would be clumsy work. Faked suicides had been Snake's specialty and had usually taken weeks of working with poisons and manipulating events so that the suicide was almost expected by even the most distant friends. Mikoto could almost picture her mentor sneering at her for considering resorting to such shoddy work.

_Why had this professional waited though? Or had he?_ She looked through his belongings carefully, cautiously sniffing every bottle of 'ink' and examining the texture of the substances on paper with the light of a candle. Ah, henbane. Arsenic in this clear, colourless one. Both of these could get into Kiri's water supply naturally. So, Kumo was aiming for a slow death that wouldn't arouse suspicion or at least making Denryuu weak enough to capture without trouble, whichever was the most convenient.

Hmm, well, she didn't have time for that. Zabuza had asked for Kiri to fall into chaos. What better way than to fuel dissention's fire?

Mikoto efficiently slit the Kumo-nin's throat and propped him so more blood drained from the corpse. Grimacing, she propped the slack jaw open and poured all the bottles of 'ink' in to make things look like the work of vicious terrorists. Taking one of his brushes, she used the blood as ink and set to work scrawling her message on the bedding.

"_Water bows not to Lightning. Let this one be a warning to you. All who serve the Kumo plant will meet the same end._"

Now to make sure that no one suspected that this man was from Kumo. Mikoto steeled herself and set to disguising the ANBU tattoo and anything the rest of the careful makeup job had been covering so that no autopsy would discover any discrepancies. It was bloody, sick work, but necessary. Afterwards, she smashed every inkbottle that had contained poison and ground the fragments before putting them in his mouth so the poisons wouldn't be associated with the glass and thus cast suspicion on the oinin. No, this aide had to die loyal, innocent.

Mikoto stopped off at a safe house she had created in an outhouse that was used in by the fieldworkers for a farm and cleaned up before numbing herself and returning to Shiori's bed, dispersing the simple illusory bunshin she had left behind to ensure her alibi.

* * *

Ero-Sennin had left Naruto to his own devices again today. The old perv had lots of writing to do if he was going to meet his publisher's deadline. For once, Naruto didn't mind. He slipped on his new clothes, grabbed some breakfast rolls from a stall down the street from the hotel, and went back to the hotel room to hunt down relatives.

Naruto glanced at his map again, making sure he had the Yiri clan compound right before checking the hotel room phone book and noting down the address. There sure were a lot of them, and those two pages in the phone book for Port Mure were only the ones with the clan name. Making sure he had his letter of introduction on him, he wandered the streets, asking for directions, steadily making his way higher into the hills Port Mure sprawled over before heading down to the inlet.

The buildings went from ramshackle to concrete and marble. The people and businesses here were obviously living the high life. Silk became the cloth of choice in an array of bright colours and the people became cleaner and fancier smelling until he stood before a collection of elegant apartment buildings built around a huge central courtyard full of trees, a similar layout to the Matsuku compound in Kaijin. The main door was behind a row of marble columns, each engraved with a hawk. The foyer of the complex had glass windows that looked into the carefully cultivated jungle just beyond. An artificial waterfall trickled over a collection of boulders and into a water garden in the left half of the foyer while a receptionist and a doorman chatted across a granite-top receiving desk. Naruto had handed his letter over to both of them only minutes ago, and they had promised him that someone would come to meet him.

Two wooden panels just beyond the receiving desk pulled apart as a soft chime of a bell sounded over the waterfall's chuckle. A woman dressed in an off-white linen business suit stepped out of the elevator and strolled across the expensive marble tile floor towards him after glancing at the receptionist, who nodded towards him. "Can I help you?"

"Ah, yeah, I just wanted to see the Yiri compound. Matsuku Yasu gave me this." Naruto handed over his letter again, and the woman grinned at him before scanning it.

"Oh, you're Nariko's brother! Welcome! I'm Yiri Gloria. My father, Rahim, is assisting your sister's efforts in Konoha."

Naruto frowned. "Efforts?"

Gloria cocked her head at him. "You don't know? What did you say your name was?"

"Uzumaki Naruto."

A shadow slid across her sunny smile. "Oh, I understand now. Come, my father may have more up-to-date orders. Grazia-sama is expected here in the next couple weeks, but she may have sent him instructions."

Naruto followed Gloria into the elevator, careful to make sure that his coat didn't get stuck in the door. The elevator went up one level and then gently came to a stop. Naruto was grateful. The sensation of having the ground shifting under his feet while he was powerless to stop it hadn't been pleasant. The bell chimed again, and Gloria led the way out the doors and into the glass-walled walkway that opened up into wide marble stairs lined in trees and waterfalls that went down into the central garden.

"The elevator is just for business clients, really," Gloria explained. "It goes up to the offices located above the reception foyer. Family uses a pass code to get out on this floor. We prefer the stairs." She giggled. "Some of the men my father works with, whoa! They huff and puff just from walking from the elevator to the offices!"

Naruto snorted as Gloria pattered down the stairs ahead of him, leading him through the dense jungle. He could see that there was a wall between what the foyer saw of the gardens and what Gloria was leading him through, though the wall was carefully concealed by vegetation so foyer viewers were none the wiser.

Gloria laughed. "Yeah, we only let them see a bit of what we've got in here. It'd be kind of creepy if just anyone could stand in the foyer and watch us playing in the gardens."

"This is way bigger than what I saw in Kaijin. Is it all family living here?"

"Yup! Not all the apartments are occupied, of course, but most of them are. A lot of the clan members come here to make their break into the business world. Port Mure's a fun place to live too. You've been to the market?"

"Yeah, or at least I've been to one of them. There was so much stuff!"

Gloria nodded and waved to a bunch of screaming kids with skins of all colours that ran by, pursuing a dog with a Frisbee in its mouth. "Yeah, and then there's the beaches and the sailing. And floating down the river and the canals. We're on the mouth of the River Mu's six arms here. The Mu comes down from the mountains just west of here that I'm sure you saw while wandering around the city. They're more visible from higher up on the hills here. There's canals running from the Mu all through the hill districts and down into the lower city, though most of them end up in pipes feeding the fountains down there."

Naruto stared around, half listening. The garden here didn't give off quite the same vibe as the one in Kaijin. There, all was quiet and peaceful. It was a place of leisure. This garden had a tension to it, making everyone in it seem high-strung. They had purpose and even the children knew it.

So this was the difference between the actively fighting Yiri and the Matsuku of Fire, who were biding their time. The Yiri were at war and knew it every second of their lives. Yet somehow, the same calm that seemed to permeate every Matsuku was here too. It was self-assurance perhaps—these people knew that they belonged and felt comfortable with that. Naruto felt awkward because he had never belonged to as large a group as this.

Gloria led him into one of the apartment towers, all soothing stone floors with deep rugs once they left their shoes in two of the multitude of cubbyholes. A teen and his ward were wielding a vacuum and a broom respectively in the hall as another duo wiped the windows that gave a good view of the gardens. Gloria commended the quartet on their work and walked barefoot along the hall to where the entrance to the stairwell and the elevator was amidst a shaft walled in glass with trees and vines growing up lattices between the glass and the stairs' railing.

"Stairs or elevator? We're going to the seventh floor."

"Stairs," said Naruto, moving closer to inspect the vines.

"Up we go then." She jogged up the tiled stairs and nearly reached the next set before Naruto thought to follow her.

"You guys are loaded, hm?"

Gloria laughed as she glanced at him over her shoulder. "As a group, yeah. We built carefully with future generations in mind by pooling all the branch's resources. Wind succeeded where Water failed the clan through our business savvy. This isn't even the richest of Wind's branches. That one's in the west, working in refining rediscovered technology that the ninja age wiped out for the most part. Their research and market profits are supporting every possible venture of the clan's multitude. Port Mure's Yiri weren't noticeable until my dad's test worked out so well. His success was our honour."

Naruto stared past the foliage that was still growing up the chute at the fourth floor and out the windows over Port Mure. He could see the inlet from here and the channel that led back to the ocean. The southern shore was barren, apparently because it didn't benefit from a river from the mountains to the west.

"Those get covered in snow in the winter, they're so high," she told him, pointing to the tallest peak that was a brownish blue in the distance. "We call them the Fence Mountains, because they're keeping us sheep in here. Ah! Finally!" She gestured to the bridge from the stairwell/elevator chute seventh floor landing over to the main part of the apartment tower. She wasn't too out of breath, so she must have usually taken the stairs.

"What do you do?"

"You mean my job? I'm management for a company that manufactures farming implements. I handle exporting to Lightning, so I'm in charge of making sure that all the shipments that need to go to individual retailers there all go together as much as possible to save on shipping and customs, and so on."

The hall she led him down was as refined as the one downstairs, but with fewer plants because the hall didn't have access to natural light, being interior. She knocked on the door to suite 708. "Dad! I've got a visitor here for you!" She pushed open the door and waved at the blond woman reading on the couch, who raised an angular brow at her.

"Gloria, who's this?"

"You remember what Dad was talking about earlier with Grazia's big plan? This is Nariko's brother, the ninja Uzumaki Naruto." Gloria turned back to him. "This is my stepmother, Sonya. She's working as a sales rep for a women's clothing chain."

The blond raised the other eyebrow now too. "Nice to meet you, Uzumaki-kun. Gloria, your father's in his office fielding phone calls from those doofuses in marketing at Graff. Get the boy some tea or something. I'll find the crowbar and pry Rahim away from the damn phone."

Naruto, feeling more than a little overwhelmed, sat down on the other couch as Sonya set her book down on the table along with her reading glasses, ran a hand through her boyishly short hair, and strode off deeper into the apartment. Gloria returned from the kitchen with a tea tray and served him milk tea.

Sonya returned with a smirk. "Boy, he wants to talk to you."

Gloria shook her head at her stepmother. "Mom, you're being really mean to the poor kid. First, he looked like his eyes were gonna fall out of his head from trying to look at everything at once, and now he's squinting in the face of your snarky manners.. Geez."

Sonya swatted Gloria upside the head as she reclaimed her couch space, her glasses, and her book. "I have to be ultra-polite at work. Here, I'm allowed to be snarky, so hold in your righteousness, Miss Manners."

Naruto abandoned his tea as Gloria led him to a door down the hall. A bull of a man sat behind a wooden desk piled with papers. The window behind him had an awesome view of the river coming from the mountains and some of the other tall buildings of Port Mure.

The bull man hid a yawn behind a huge hand as he waved his other to indicate that Naruto could sit down in the leather chair before the desk. "So you're Uzumaki Naruto. I am Yiri Rahim. Welcome to the office where I plotted and am still plotting the downfall of your friend Gaara's Suna."


	69. Chapter 69

Chapter 69: King of Swords

Naruto stared, rage struggling to the surface, at Yiri Rahim as the bull man folded his hands nonchalantly.

"Of course, Suna is not my only target. There are slaver groups, mercenaries, and pirates that I bring the full weight of my animosity to bear on. Suna is simply the target that most affects you."

"You hurt Gaara and I'll—!"

"And what, Naruto-kun? You'll beat me? You'll kill me? Believe me, the ninja of Suna bear no love for me, but it would be far too obvious if they killed me. However, that hasn't stopped them. They managed to kill my first wife a couple years before the current Kazekage was born. The Yondaime Kazekage was less than pleased with my success in getting his funding cut."

Naruto clutched the armrests of his chair, torn. He wanted to hit this man, but he was helping Neechan out somehow and he had already suffered.

"My wife's name was Karin. She was from River, and she hated our desert, but she bore it for me. She loved the canals and the rivers here. We would go swimming in them with Gloria. Once, she put on my shirt on our way home." Rahim shook his head. "Contact poison. She was dead within a day. So, young man, don't threaten me. There's nothing more you can do to me that will hurt more than knowing my success caused my wife's death."

Naruto gritted his teeth. Another story of tragedy with ninja as the villains, but this time the protagonist admitted that he had brought his fate upon himself. That didn't make it any easier to brush the story aside. Still, he had one card to throw. Grandpa and Neechan talked about getting rid of the hidden villages, but not other ninja. "You target Suna, but what about Akatsuki?"

Rahim cocked his head and smiled. "I like you, kid. A good question, that. What is to be done with Akatsuki? What would you have me do? Tell me, gaki, what is Akatsuki? What is their weakness, oh master ninja?"

"Akatsuki is a group of outlaw ninja, who have abandoned their home villages. They're hunting the jinchuuriki…"

"Is that all you know?" Rahim chuckled. "Goodness, aren't you their prime target, Kyuubi boy? Konoha must love keeping you in the dark. Even I, a simple business man, have better ears all over to hear with than you that walks with Konoha's most widely travelled informant, though he is not the best at hiding.

"Let me tell you about Akatsuki, boy. They are a group of ninja for hire, much like any group of ninja in a village, except they are bound to no nation, no lord. They respond much like a business man like myself—go with the money. They harken back to the days before the one-village system, save that they are not a clan unit; they are instead bound by the purpose you stated—capturing the bijuu, which they haven't actually done all that much with."

"Huh? They've been hunting me for ages!"

"Really now? That's why you're still walking around? Trust me, gaki, if they wanted you right now, they'd have you. They haven't started collecting yet, though they have been checking in on all their targets, as I'm sure you've heard."

Naruto froze. This meant that Snake had died for _nothing_. Absolutely nothing. Why had Itachi and Kisame attacked and killed her if they hadn't been after him?

"My boy, Akatsuki is nowhere near as sinister as you seem to think. They walk abroad, advertising their services freely. Even Hidden Rock in Earth Country has hired them. Apparently, Kumo worries that village, but my brothers in Earth have been active enough to keep Rock from scaling up to match Kumo's militarization."

Naruto gaped for a few moments. "Iwa hired them?"

Rahim smirked. "Sure. Why not? They've got a good success rate for a good price. Subcontracting out to Akatsuki isn't illegal."

If that was true then did Iwa not care about their jinchuuriki? Did they not worry about their bijuu being stolen? Naruto was positive Ero-Sennin had sent messages to the Tsuchikage about Akatsuki, same as every other village the Shodaime had given bijuu to. Gaara's command to meet with the potter was suddenly much less irksome. "How do you know so much?"

Rahim laughed. "Ah, boy, running a business is much like being a Hokage. I need to know many things in order to keep my business above the water. Languishing on my money would be a sure recipe for failure. I am a man of business, not some man who sits in a chair and counts my cash. I am captain of my empire, general of my army, and leader of my business nation. I stand toe-to-toe with your Kazekage and Hokage. Someone like me doesn't do that and live by being a sloth.

"Now there's a royal mess if I ever saw one. That Tsunade woman shouldn't be in charge of your village. She has no vision, no drive, or at least not much consistently. She treats paperwork as the bane of her existence instead of streamlining it and making the system work for her instead of accepting the nonsense of 'tradition'."

"Oi, don't insult Tsunade-baachan like that! She didn't want to be Hokage, but she's doing an okay job."

"'Okay' is right, boy. She's slogging along, nothing more. What policy changes has she made? What sweeping improvements has she implemented? I noted that your hospital got an expansion, but nothing more. Rather sad. She's just being a placeholder."

Naruto spluttered, but he couldn't deny this. What had Baachan done, really? Neechan only talked about small improvements in her alcohol intake or that she was only three weeks behind on work instead of a month. Naruto couldn't remember anyone having said something similar about Old Man Hokage or the Yondaime. Neechan had told him that they had fixed the Academy and other things. Baachan though… "So you know how to be a good Hokage, Rahim-jiji?"

Old Man Rahim snorted. "Is my business still running? Is the alliance of trading corporations I led still keeping Suna's funding down?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "I'll take that as a yes. So you can teach me how to be a good Hokage?"

Rahim-jiji leaned back in his chair and howled with laughter until tears leaked from his eyes. "Gods, gaki, you've got guts!"

Gloria pushed the door open and set a glass full of water and ice cubes before her father. "Breathe, Dad."

Still chuckling weakly, Rahim took a long drink. "Now I understand. That she raised you… Hah! Alright, brat, you win. Bring your guardian here. I'll teach you what I know for however long you're here. Gloria, help the kid move into that suite upstairs, 814. You'd better be around to learn for at least a week."

Naruto followed Gloria out to the sound of her dad's snickers. At least Ero-Sennin would be happy about being able to do more research.

* * *

"Shiro-nii!" Nariko howled, pelting through the crowds and knocking people flying in her haste. The well-loved profile turned to face her assault, terror engraved all over his face as she made a flying tackle, knocking the wind out of him and laying him flat out on the dusty earth. He wheezed and pushed at her ineffectually as she secured him in a headlock just as Uncle Hotaka had taught her when she had been four.

"Dear kami," muttered another well-loved voice that was much deeper than she remembered. "I swear that the two of you switch genders whenever you're around each other. I thought that Shiro was supposed to be the boy and you were supposed to be the girl, not the other way around. Riko-nee, are you sure that testosterone didn't fuel that incredible tackle?"

"Brat," she growled even as Shiro struggled pathetically in her grasp, still gasping for breath. "Be glad I didn't make you eat dirt, Itsuki-_chan_." She swiped his unwary feet out from under him and grinned as he landed on his butt in the dirt. "It sounds as though you have forgotten who the elder here is. I shall have to teach you this lesson again, eh?"

Itsuki frowned darkly and rubbed his sore arse as the woman her older cousin had married laughed at their antics.

"Riko, I can't breathe!" gasped Shiro, his hands flapping urgently.

Nariko released him slightly and allowed him to find his feet as Itsuki pouted on the ground and fiddled with the dirt, ignoring the incredulous stares of those around him. "Aw! The future papa can't stand up to his little sister?" She jumped up on his back and grabbed his girly hair in her fist.

He whimpered ineffectually as he looped his arms under her knees to keep her on his back.

Ah, it was good to get a piggyback ride out of him after all of these years. She had missed it. To show him just how much, she tugged his hair cruelly and grinned when he whined under his breath about bratty kids that didn't know how to grow up. Taking pity on him, she let go of his hair and slung her arms around his neck, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "I missed you, Shiro-nii."

"I know you did, little reed."

She closed her eyes for a moment, revelling in the joy that being back in her big brother's presence brought her. If he had ever gone away completely, she didn't know what she would have done. He was her anchor, her teacher, her mentor, and the one who's opinion mattered to her the most. He was her aniki. Leaving him behind had been so hard… She glanced curiously at the woman that had managed to get past the wound that the loss of Shiro's guardian relative had left.

Shiro must have guessed at her thoughts because he cleared his throat nervously and released her left leg to gesture at his wife. "This is Junko. Junko, this is Riko, my imouto. She's nastier than Kiku."

The gravid woman smiled wryly and extended a hand.

Nariko was so glad to see that familiar gesture that she let go of Shiro's pretty hair again to shake the proffered appendage.

"It's good to meet you at last," Junko said. "Shiro has cruelly abused your image since you weren't around to defend yourself. I've managed to remain optimistic and unbiased despite his best efforts."

Nariko grinned at this new sister/cousin-in-law and tugged Shiro's hair as punishment for spreading stories. "I'm certain you know not to believe a quarter of what this lout tells you. He cannot keep gossip to himself for the life of him."

"At least I don't meddle in things that will end up getting me killed," Shiro rumbled from beneath her.

Nariko patted his head patronizingly and shook her head at Junko as if to say, "You see?"

Junko hid a laugh behind her hand as Itsuki finally got to his feet and dusted off his pants.

"What am I, chopped liver?" he asked, extending his arms entreatingly towards Nariko.

Shiro let her down, and she pulled her other little brother against her. He was taller than she was now. It made her scowl. She had missed so much… Her melancholy thoughts were interrupted when Itsuki tickled her sides and tugged on a lock of her hair. She squirmed as far away from him as she could with her hair held ransom and glared at him.

"That's what you get for abusing me," he said before releasing her hair and hugging her sincerely. Poor little poet, she could feel all the desperation and old restlessness in him. She could tell that as soon as they got to her place he was going to pull out his notebook or his pipe and start the creative process. Coming to Konoha had obviously inspired him.

"You know it," she whispered in his ear before twisting it lightly. He sidestepped out of her grasp and grinned widely down at her. That height was starting to get really annoying. "Aw, my little poet is turning twenty-five already! I am such an old hag," she wailed, sniffling dramatically as she sized him up, circling him in a manner similar to a lioness evaluating its prey. "Such a strapping man grew out of a pimply youth with gangly legs and big feet. Poor creature! To think that you lost your innocence looking like that…"

Itsuki glared when a couple of females in the crowd moving about them snorted.

Nariko grinned. She had fulfilled her sisterly duty to embarrass both of her brothers thoroughly.

"Riko-nee," he growled, but she rolled right over his protests.

"I'm sure you're all bushed!" She grabbed one of Junko's packs while the boys saw to their own things. "Come on, I've got room ready for all of you. I'm sure you want a bath, a meal, and a long nap, though perhaps not in that order. I'll leave off bugging you until after you've had your fill of those three things."

"Thank the gods for that," Shiro quipped, shouldering his rough pack and falling into step beside his wife as Itsuki used his long legs to take his place at Nariko's side.

He smirked down at her, his mop of curly hair lightly coated with travel dust and grit his close encounter with the ground had provided. Grinning at him, she wove her fingers in his despite the way they were twitching towards the leather case he carried his pipe in and swung his arm in time with hers. He ended his attempts to work out a new tune for the moment and submitted to her desire to savour being in his presence again. It had been far too long. The way he let her touch him without any trace of a flinch reminded her just why she considered civilians superior. She loved the trust and the tactile bond she could enjoy with her ward and her guardian. Being cut off from people physically had grated and being punished for being tactile around ninja had not been fun.

* * *

Itsuki watched his big sister with quiet sorrow. He had felt it in the letters, but he hadn't quite realized just how much she had changed. Oh, her core was mostly intact, but something was off. She wasn't quite the same. He figured it was because of the ninja. Being subjected to their whims and ways for so long had obviously twisted her. He scowled and wished he were strong enough to make them pay. He wasn't though and violence simply wasn't the way of the clan. Ten years of being subjected to their lack of compassion…

She was chary about physical contact. She tried, but there was a lingering fear as though she was resisting the urge to pull away and maintain physical distance. It bothered him, and he could see that it bothered Shiro too. The drums really had gotten to her. It made her less than she had been in his eyes, and that hurt because there had been so much potential before she had come here. She could have done great things for the clan, but she had strayed from the proper path. The gentleness and purity of will was gone. She had fallen. Violence was not as abhorred by her as it had been. That wall was weakening. He could almost see it crumbling. Oh, she was aware and she was scrabbling for purchase on old understanding, but she was sliding. It was only a matter of time…

This was Naruto's fault, but Itsuki was a Matsuku to the core and beyond. He would not assign blame, and he would not hold a grudge. Naruto had not known. Naruto was blameless.

"Aneki," he murmured as they sprawled on her balcony, staring up at the late autumn stars.

"Yes?"

"You know, don't you? You know how far you have fallen."

"Yes, I know." There were such apologetic overtones in those simple words that he forgave her. She hadn't wanted to fall.

"Come home."

"It's too late." She sighed, ruffling his hair. "Dysfunction of Utopia is inevitable in the face of humanity. You know this. I can't ruin the harmony of home. I'll stay here. The clan and the compound, they are a small piece of Utopia. They aren't perfect, but they come as close as I have ever seen. Naivety is required to maintain that though. Even our Utopia has flaws. Humanity isn't perfect: any perfection we achieve will be ruined by our flaws. The clan isn't perfect, but my presence and my changes will infect what is good about the clan. The clan's principles work because the clan is so naïve. I don't think I'm naïve enough to be welcomed back into the fold anymore. Too much blood stains my hands."

"It will kill us someday, you know," he said. "Your job, it endangers us. You keep your name and thus you keep your connection to us. Someday, someone is going to get to you or to someone you are connected to by attacking us. I told you this."

"You did," she admitted. "I seem to be unable to follow my own advice. I told Naruto once that the name didn't make a connection, but I need the name. I need it more than ever."

He smiled forlornly at her. It was strange, but he felt older than she was in this moment. She was asking him for forgiveness and advice. She was making him into a sage when he was five years her junior. It would have amused him if it hadn't made him so terribly sad. Gone were the days when he had chased after her and Shiro and Risako. He mourned their passing.

"It is a perversion though." He traced one of the familiar constellations with his finger. "Can you truly say you uphold the principles anymore with your actions?"

"I try," she murmured. "To 'expect agony' is something we do every day. My job brings more agony than most. Mere money for life. It still disgusts me. I hate them all sometimes."

His eyes slid shut, and he squeezed her shoulder. She hated. She really had changed. She hadn't even been able to hate Kenta for Risako's sake, and he of all people should have been hated.

"How can they do that? How can they take what was not theirs in the first place? Humanity is so destructive. I have no doubt we will bring about our own downfall again and again until there are none of us left to poison the world."

"So bleak, Aneki." Yet only too true. Yasu-ojisan's lectures said the same thing. Again and again, the human race threw itself into conflict despite all the history that warned against it. Shinobu had been so hopeful though.

"Sometimes, yes. Watching those you paid last month disappear from the roster gets to you. I get too many orders to release funds for burials. It scrapes away at old scars."

"I think you learned too much."

"I wouldn't teach it to you now," she said, referring to that old letter, the first he had sent her.

"I wouldn't want to learn," he admitted, running fingers through a lock of her long hair and beginning to braid it. "Are we done with philosophy for the night?"

She laughed merrily at him, her sombre mood gone as though it had never been.

"What progress have you made?"

"With the new branch here or with my efforts to have children?"

"Your attempts to make me an uncle."

Itsuki stared when she grinned. "I wasn't making much," she admitted. "I'm a little too set in my ways to be as mercenary as my friends advised. I was being foiled by latex and wasn't about to resort to sabotaging its efforts with things like pins." Here she paused.

He snorted, and she tugged on a curl resting on his forehead, a slight pout on her lips. "Still so much to learn," he teased, though he was grateful that she was still that honest. It would have frightened him if she had done something so underhanded. "I sense a 'but' in your sentence…"

She beamed. "I think I've done it," she whispered, pressing her hands over her pelvis.

He sat up with a start and stared at her. "Really?"

She nodded, her eyes shining suspiciously. "I think… Yes. I really think I did it. I haven't told anyone else yet. I didn't want to blab until I was absolutely certain. I mean, I'm still not certain (I'll probably go into the clinic to get definitive results), but current evidence says that I've…"

Itsuki pulled her into his arms and squeezed her, ignoring how his shoulder got soaked as she laughed wetly. Suddenly, he pulled back. "Do you know who the father is? Will you tell him?"

Her smile faded as she wiped wet trails off her face. "I'm pretty sure it's a guy in Otafuku Gai I've been spending my weekends with. I didn't think he was serious when he said we would meet up again after my friend dragged me out of his place because of a message from Naruto the first time, but we did end up hooking up most weekends. Kaname. I don't know if I'm going to tell him. He knows I'm not looking for a relationship. There are a couple other possibilities, but not as likely."

"And what if he wants you to abort it?"

She paled. "Yes, there's that as well. Another reason I'd rather not say anything."

"But will you keep seeing him? It had to have been nice to have sex on a regular basis, Madame Chaste"

"Huh, well, occasionally it was. You see, he usually enjoyed it more than I did, but I was patient." She smirked at him. "But as much as getting sex on a regular basis has its perks, I miss chastity. I got more sleep then." Something in the set of her jaw told him that they weren't allowed to talk about Kaname anymore.

So he let her shift the topic. He sniggered. "Still, it's not that bad."

It was her turn to snort at him.

"I was hardly old the first time. If I recall correctly, I took the plunge with your encouragement."

"You always were a sucker for motivational speeches."

He poked her, a little miffed at her jab.

"Well, you are! Words could get you to jump off a mountain with no regard for common sense, little poet."

He huffed, crossing his arms petulantly because he knew just how truly she spoke.

"It's a good thing that you are just as talented at manipulating language. You may eventually come to see through the speech because you recognize the mechanism it uses."

He grinned at her, glad she had acknowledged his superiority in his chosen field.

"Have you come up with any new tunes?"

He pulled out his pipe and put it to his lips, staring up at the brilliant heavens as he let the music flow. Upon finishing with a flourish, he was a little startled when a ram-masked woman standing on the roof of the building across the street clapped.

"Ram-san," she explained under her breath when he glanced nervously at his aneki. "Wave politely; she might seek you out on the streets in two or three days. She's supposed to be very good-looking according to my friend. It wouldn't hurt for you to get to know the local girls while you're here."

"I thought you were against Grazia-sama's stance on getting involved with ninja," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth as he did as she bid, praying that she wasn't going to lead him into trouble.

"I am," she whispered, "but with you it would be funny. Relax, little poet. This is my turf. I'm hardly going to send you to bed with some Hyuuga daughter." When he raised his eyebrows at her questioningly, she explained further. "You met Hyuuga Hinata. That's her ninja clan: very traditional. They can see through the backs of their heads and through walls. There is no way you would escape them alive."

That hardly reassured him.

* * *

ANBU wanted to skip and clap. Things were going so nicely now! It really was heartening to see how much chaos one death had caused.

The previously ignored malcontents in the army under Shiori's lord's general and Denryuu who had been bitter about being led by a former Kumo-nin were now notorious. They had all been taken in for "questioning" by Kiri, who was responsible for keeping the peace at this gathering that was supposed to be a show of solidarity. The Mizukage was beside himself at how this had gone on under his very nose. Unfortunately for the poor puppet, his attempts to restore the peace had only fanned the flames. People had begun to sympathize with the malcontents when some of their number came back quite damaged. Denryuu's desperate speeches calling for national pride and unity sounded false to prejudiced ears.

Really, things were going so well!

Fights were breaking out in the loyalist camps now and some groups were calling for Denryuu—the genius behind their current momentum—to resign at best or be killed as a Kumo spy at worst. So far, Denryuu's favour with the Water Lord and the Mizukage was holding. He was doing his absolute best to keep it that way, going so far as to abstain from his former womanizer ways completely.

His measures only made Mikoto rub her hands together. Oh, she loved being god again! How she had missed this omnipotence!

A couple weeks and things would be ready to go even without using genjutsu to create feelings of desperation.

Really, Denryuu's randy tendencies were so very easily used!

* * *

"Keep it down next time, will you?" Shiro's little sister grumbled as she slouched over her mug of tea and curled up into a ball on the couch. "It's hardly good for my peace of mind to be able to hear you and Junko going at it in the next room. How am I supposed to keep regarding you as the epitome of wisdom when I can hear the two of you discussing positions? Some of the things you said! Geez, I thought you had the book memorized, but what you said…! I seriously question you. I had to plug my ears and hum to save myself from bearing witness to the rest of your blaspheme against the book you told me was a sex god's bible."

He smirked and stretched as he walked through the dining room into the kitchen. "I've found a new book, and I brought you a copy. Do you need me to read it aloud to you or help you go over the pictures?"

"No thanks, brother dearest," she said dryly.

He was still a little surprised by how his artistic touch to Riko's table had turned into a hole for a tree called Ribosome. It was just a little weird. Oh well, at least Naruto was displaying the creativity that all the Matsuku prided themselves on possessing. Maybe he could make an art of gardening and complete the chain of artisans. If only Riko would take up her art again, then the chain would be perfect and unbroken again. Sure, she had never been a genius at painting, but it was the effort that counted. His sculptures hardly ever came out as he had intended them, but they were art all the same.

"Aw, jealous?" Shiro teased, pouring himself some coffee. Poor mite looked sleep-deprived. Maybe they would have to keep it down in future… That could be fun… He glanced out the window by the kitchen sink and watched the ninja bounce from roof to roof. It was just as odd as she had described. They looked like they were skipping or something. Shaking his head, he carried his coffee back into the living room and took a seat in a slightly dented chair. He wondered who was responsible for that as he arranged himself carelessly over the armrests. Sometimes, being tall wasn't an advantage.

"No," she grunted, looking rather disturbed by his word choice, "it's just six levels of weird right there, Shiro. You're right across the hall, you're my brother, and your wife is pregnant. Tone it down or something please. Unlike you, I have to work."

"Someone sounds bitter," he crooned in a singsong manner, poking her shoulder as he took a sip of his coffee. "Are you lonely and horny?"

"Hardly," she grumbled. "Do you have any idea how many people I interact with every day? Leave off, insatiable pervert." Her evasion of his last point made him smile. Poor girl. She really should have come home. She hadn't had problems there.

"Denial!" He laughed, ruffling her hair. "You're so funny. How many years was it before our fair cousin Concetta swooped in to save you? Twelve?" He couldn't imagine. Six months would have driven him insane. She had to be patience incarnate. That or she didn't have a sex drive. The latter made him snort. As if. He had raised her. She would have been an insult to his reputation if she had been so lacking in that regard. There was no way he would admit to having raised her if she had turned into a killjoy.

"Shut up," she growled, making threatening motions with her mug. "Don't think I can't hear that gloating tone. Subtlety was never one of your qualities. It's only been nine. Coming here was the cut-off."

Shiro was so glad that she hadn't become a prude over the years, though her pride had apparently become quite bloated without proper teasing. He would have to fix that. It was wonderful to still be able to talk to her like this and not have to worry about squeamishness or embarrassment on her part.

"It just goes to show that you are way too impulsive. You didn't have to adopt Naru-chan right off the bat. You could have waited a week or two, made some firm friends, and _then _gone out of your way to take him under your wing. You really have got to learn to plan these things. If you had, you might have actually gotten some even after taking him in. I'm surprised you're still sane after all these years," he mused aloud, grinning wickedly.

He considered lauding his own accomplishments over her, but it was likely she would maul him for being so mean about her forced chastity. Maybe he would get Itsuki to sit on her first and then he would regale her with tales of his prowess with Junko as backup… Yes, that would be fun. He made a mental note to put his plan into action the moment she got back from wherever she was up so early to go, provided that Itsuki was back by then.

"I'm not you," she said, shrugging. "Unlike you, being a pervert isn't my driving force. You're so lucky Junko is worse than you are or I think you would have never gotten married. Your mother was beginning to express concern to me, you know. She was beginning to ask me if perhaps I could lecture you or something."

He rolled his eyes. His mother, ah, poor woman… She could relate to his sister, but not to him. Kiku held this over him on a daily basis, but she wasn't married. That was a friction point between her and their mother, and he used it against her in retaliation. Ah, such wonderful sibling battles. At least Kiku never pulled his hair the way Riko did.

"Itsuki still thought you were a virgin until Concetta helped you, you know," he added conversationally and was relieved when she smirked. At least her sense of fun was mostly intact. He had been worried when the tone of the letters had changed quite a bit over the years. It had only been the last two years that he had noticed the reversal of the change.

"I know." She grinned, taking a swig of her tea. "It helps keep his ego bolstered. He thought that he was beating me. Every year, he gloated about how the gap was widening. It was hilarious. Don't enlighten him. It totally undermines his 'austere poet' image when he goes on about his various conquests. His letters always make me laugh."

"You're mean, you know that?"

"Of course. It's my prerogative. What else am I supposed to do?"

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "Has he told you what he wants you to give him for the parting gift?"

She shook her head.

"He doesn't approve of your non-traditional idea of childrearing," Shiro began to explain. "You know how two-faced he can be. Double standard: one for guys and one for girls. You really didn't beat him enough. Women get the traditional rap. Kiku's starting to kick him every time he scowls at her when she comes home rumpled. Okano is simply getting me to help keep things from him. He really has no clue."

Nariko chuckled and shook her head fondly at this example of how dense her ward was. She would laugh; she didn't have anything to worry about, being all the way out here. He doubted that she would have been half as forgiving if she had still been living in the compound, especially if she had been attempting to maintain a steady relationship.

"I think he's using the gift to try to punish you, much the way you demanded that highly embarrassing streaking episode from me for your twenty-fifth birthday present. I can't believe you managed to get Kiku to take pictures of that, by the way."

"I've still got them. No, I won't tell you where. I've hidden them. Naruto hasn't even been able to find them, and he so wanted to after hearing me scream with laughter at them. I can't believe you actually ran around town naked for six hours."

Shiro couldn't quite believe that either. It had been required though. The twenty-fifth birthday of the ward was the last year that the guardian officially had to look out for her. That year required the guardian to give any gift the ward requested. He had never gotten the chance to demand anything from Risako since she had died when he had been twenty-two. Riko had been the one that had given him his first taste of this generally embarrassing custom. She had thought she had been so clever. It had been quite rewarding though…

"What can I say?" He shrugged. "I hardly minded that I got the chance to show off just why Junko is so incredibly lucky."

"You're an arrogant ass, you know that?" she told him, a leer chiselled into her face. It looked distinctly odd there. He pitied anyone that had had the misfortune of witnessing that incongruous expression upon her features before.

"You should avoid that," he told her gravely, gesturing at her face. "Seriously, it makes you look like a mass murderer or something. I am hardly arrogant. Look at this face! How can it be arrogant to rejoice in such perfect features? I'm hardly ugly everywhere else." He gestured at his exposed chest as she rolled her eyes. He preened. She knew he was physically perfect, she just didn't see the point of admitting it. It wasn't her job as his little sister. That was Junko's most endearing trait instead. She knew, and she wasn't averse to telling him on a daily basis, not always verbally.

"You still have no shame." Riko sighed, shaking her head at him wonderingly. "I just can't believe it."

"I can't believe you come off as modest most of the time when you're so full of yourself. How did that happen?"

"I tried to balance us out. You had to be the conceited one, so I had to appear to be self-deprecating."

Shiro nodded and patted her head. Poor child. She tried so hard to make him look better, but there really was no need. He hardly needed her help.

She seemed to understand his thoughts because she yanked on his hair. "You are such an ass," she grumbled as he whined. "Why is it I always end up trailing after ridiculously self-confident people?"

"You are drawn to our charisma," he told her sagely. "Who besides me and Naruto?"

"Mikoto. She's brilliant. You should see her. She can twist an entire street around her finger with minimal effort. She's got this motherly exterior and then there's this hardened jounin underneath that is incredibly good at reading people. She's taught me so much of what I use every day to stay safe. I owe her so much."

He grinned at her. He would have to thank this Uchiha-san. "And?"

"Hmm, well there's this guy called Maito Gai." An almost dreamy expression came over her face, and he suddenly was very worried. If she was pining over someone, he was likely to be an idiot. She only ever pined after fools. She knew better than to do anything about those stupid crushes though. He had taught her better after letting her make a complete ass of herself a couple times first to make sure that he would have blackmail on her later as well as ensuring that she would be receptive to his teaching. "You should see him. Built like anything, though his nose and his haircut ruin everything. Gods, those eyebrows are frightening too. He wears spandex."

Shiro suppressed the desire to shudder. Sure, he had streaked through Kaijin no Mura for six hours, but wearing _spandex_ every day… When did that get fun?

"Unfortunately, he's not the sharpest kunai in the set."

He blinked at her, wondering where the hell she had picked up such odd slang.

"Not the sharpest chisel," she clarified for him belatedly, and Shiro nodded. Typical for her. Actually, it was pretty typical for females as far as he had observed. They lusted over buff idiots in their spare time and only some of them actually did something about it. Thank the gods that Riko knew better. He would have kicked her if she hadn't learned that at least from him. "He's all fluff and no real mental substance." At least she admitted to it. He was proud. "He exhorts on youth, love, and passion. It's all pretty odd. It's such a pity he's so damn annoying. I'm sure he'd be much more popular with Konoha's women if he just learned to shut up once in a while. Even my friend won't touch him, and she's as shameless as you sometimes."

"No mental substance, eh? Pity. So he's like your first real boyfriend, the one Kiku helped you out with?" Shiro had always resented Kiku for going behind his back like that and setting Riko up for a fall. That hadn't been nice at all, and he had been put in the position where he would have had to defend his ward's honour or some stupid shit like that if Riko had gotten in a mess. He would have gladly, but Kiku should have known better than to have manipulated things like that without getting his consent. He had been Riko's guardian, not her. The boy involved had been such a boulder too—dense as anything.

Riko grimaced at the reminder and nodded.

"Sweet in a painfully sad way? Pathetically mentally challenged—"

"You can stop now," she grumbled. "I wasn't exceptionally smart at seventeen. I'll admit to it."

"I'll say; you still aren't if half of what you've told me is true. You let that kid talk you to tears of boredom. I remember you complaining about him shortly before he ended it to chase after some other much prettier girl. I thought I was going to have to slip you alcohol when you told me, but then you went on and on about how relieved you were and how he had never shut up about the stupidest things. I still can't believe Itsuki didn't notice."

"He was eleven going on twelve, Shiro-nii. He was watching over Okano and teaching her how to begin managing Irezumi. Of course he didn't notice, not with you helping me out. It's not as if it lasted very long anyway, though I did outlast your shortest fling. What was it… only two days before she realized that she couldn't keep up with you?"

Shiro grimaced at her reliable memory. He was beginning to regret not being more discrete around her. Maybe relating his conquests in such vivid detail wasn't always a good idea… He didn't appreciate it when she laughed at him.

"I hunted her down afterwards and asked her why, you know," she added slyly.

He rolled his eyes at her. Of course she had. She had hero-worshipped him to a degree that had almost been embarrassing, though it had been very good for his ego. She had always scolded the girls that had dumped him. It had been fun to watch her when they had been younger.

"She said you were too… hmm, how did she put it? 'Too experienced and too inventive.'"

Shiro huffed, offended.

She laughed and tugged on a lock of his splendid hair before making her way into the kitchen.

"You have work?"

"Yes, I did say that."

"Anybody not quite as annoying there?"

She came out of the kitchen and frowned at him. "Shiro, they're all _ninja_. How crazy do you think I am? I've already put the clan in enough danger by taking on my job. Do you really think I would completely disregard the possibility that any ninja I might go out with might have enemies? Do you really think I want them to link back to home? No, Shiro, I can't do that."

He sighed with both relief and exasperation. She was severely limiting herself with that decision, but he agreed. Things were dicey enough. To have the clan name tossed around in the highest ninja circles was dangerous. He was torn between being proud of her for surviving in that atmosphere and being nervy about her having kept their name.

"They'd all be in awesome shape though," he pointed out, mourning her loss and the fact that he was married. Itsuki was a damn lucky bastard if what Riko had hinted at yesterday was true. The boy hadn't come back last night. Nariko had said the girl was ANBU though… What that meant was anyone's guess. Shiro supposed he would find out once Itsuki came back.

She cocked an eyebrow at him and waggled her finger. "Bad Shiro," she warned him, her tone sharp.

"Junko's more than enough for me," he admitted, letting go of the slight regret. Being randy was hard to get out of his system, but he was getting there. "Probably more than I deserve." She was his better half and even he admitted she was better looking than he was, especially when she was pregnant with _his_ brat. It still made him a little spacey. He was going to be a dad… How awesome was that? Junko would make a wonderful mom. His kid would definitely be the best-looking brat in the compound, heck, in the village. Boy or girl, the kid would never lack attention.

Riko nodded firmly at him and disappeared back into the kitchen. "They all have really bad haircuts," she joked. "Seriously, half of them wouldn't be bad looking if they let a competent barber near them. I swear that most of them simply take a kunai and chop away at things up there every six months or so. Naruto's best friend, Sasuke, his hair is terrible. It's like he doesn't know what a brush is or his hair simply isn't acquainted with gravity at the back."

Shiro snorted and fingered his hair. He was so glad that he didn't have to shave it off all the time anymore.

"And then there's Naruto's sensei, Kakashi. His hair is just awful. It's not so bad when he lets it hang down properly, but he ties it up most of the time. If it wasn't this silvery-white colour, I would mistake it for a tussock of grass."

Shiro snorted. He didn't doubt that she had pulled it already. The grass comparison was all he needed in the way of clues. He pitied this Kakashi. Poor bastard must not have known to run. At least Shiro had always known.

"Ah, _that_ Kakashi," he drawled and wasn't surprised when she emerged with a piece of toast in hand and a suspicious expression on her face. "Your parents are almost convinced there's something going on there." He sniggered at her absolutely horrified expression at the suggestion.

"Oh gods," she whispered, cringing and wrapping her arms around herself as she squeezed her eyes shut. "The mental images… Make them go away!" she whimpered, and Shiro moved to embrace her.

"There, there," he crooned, stifling sniggers. "We won't let the bad hair get you. It's all Naruto's fault. He said something, and your parents got the wrong impression from it."

"I'm going to kill him."

"Hey, calm down." He chuckled. "You adopted him, and he's fifteen now. He's been closely exposed to the biggest pervert on the continent for two years now. You can hardly blame him."

"Can too," she muttered into his shoulder. "Do you have any idea how wrong that would be?"

"Aye, your hair is so much prettier…"

"That's not what I meant."

"I know." And he did. There were lines that even he wouldn't cross. "Don't worry about it. I'll placate Takara-obasan and make her leave you alone."

"And that's why you're my favourite older brother."

He smiled into her hair, holding back the obvious reply that he was her only older brother. He was so glad that she had become wiser than Risako. If she did the same thing, he didn't know what he would do. Junko would always be there though. That alone kept the fear of abandonment at bay. Junko was _his_. No way was he ever going to let her go.

"I'm glad you're not going to get married," he told Riko, squeezing her gently. She needed some approval from somewhere; Itsuki and her mother certainly weren't going to give her any. Besides, he really was grateful to her. "I'm glad you won't forge that bond."

"I know," she murmured, obviously holding back the insults she wanted to spit out about the entire incident. She didn't respect Risako anymore, and that hurt almost as much as the loss. "That's why I'm doing it. I won't follow her path. I won't leave you alone. If I ever do become infatuated like she was, I give you full permission to lock me away until I come to my senses."

"Can I sit on you too?" Itsuki asked, stumbling through the door and looking distinctly rumpled.

Shiro glanced at the clock. It wasn't even eight thirty. There should have been time for another round.

"She had work," muttered the boy at Shiro's incredulous glance.

Riko slipped out of his embrace and swatted her charge over the head. "Damn chauvinist," she growled at him. "What's this I hear about you being a traditionalist? Is that why Kiku always sounds so pissed off whenever she mentions you in her letters?" The poet shuffled nervously as Nariko reached up and grabbed his ear firmly, dragging his head down to her level.

Shiro smirked at just how distinctly mussed the boy's curly hair was and the dark circles under his eyes. Maybe these ANBU weren't bad…

The boy gobbled like a turkey, trying futilely to come up with an excuse in his sleep-deprived state. Riko merely swept his legs out from beneath him. Shiro laughed at the pout on the boy's face. That was the second time that Itsuki had been made to connect his butt to the ground. The kid was going to be sitting quite gingerly for the day.

"If I didn't have to leave right away for work, I'd stay here and kick you across the room for being a pig," she growled at him before stalking into her room.

Itsuki glanced up at him beseechingly, but Shiro grinned wickedly. The kid had earned this. Why women should be less allowed to experience the joys of life was beyond him. "You deserve this, kid," Shiro told him. "You did just have extramarital sex, and you didn't complain that the woman didn't want you to marry her first. How was it?"

Riko didn't give them a second glance as she stalked out the door, burdened with papers and a heavy frown.

Annoying her was so much fun even after thirty years.


	70. Chapter 70

AN: some snippets of phrases are straight from _The Deadline_ by Tom DeMarco, which is one of the best textbooks I have come across, which I do not own, so credit goes to Mr. DeMarco and his publishing house.

* * *

Chapter 70: Murdering the Page of Cups

Yuugao was in the kitchen when the phone rang. She tucked it between her shoulder and her ear as she stirred the soup on the stove. "Hello?"

"Yuu…" Nariko's voice was shaking.

"Riko? What's wrong?"

"Yuu, I need to do something, and I don't think I can do it alone. Please, is there some time in the next two days that you could come somewhere with me?"

Yuugao shut off the burner and moved the pot to a different element. "Right now if need be. Just let me eat."

"If you're busy, it can wait."

"Riko, what is it?"

"I…" A sigh came over the line. "I've got to get someone to sign some papers for me. I need you to witness it."

"Why not your brothers?"

"Yuu, please?"

Yuugao pursed her lips. "Come to my place in an hour."

"Thank you."

"I'm gonna want a better explanation."

"You'll get it, I promise. Just… just not over the phone."

Yuugao set down the receiver as Hayate walked in with the mail. "Lunch," she told him.

"Who was that?"

"Riko. She needed a favour."

* * *

A little over an hour later, Yuugao walked along the dirt track at Riko's side, burning with envy. "I can't believe…"

"I'm sorry." Nariko whispered. "I know how much you want one of your own. I just… It was tactless of me to ask you along."

"No, it's fine. It's just, I'm… I've been trying for so long." Yuugao's eyes stung.

Riko quickly grabbed her hand and squeezed. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. It was a total bitch move on my part to ask this of you. I knew and it didn't even register when I picked up the phone. I dialled your number in even before I finished telling Shiro and Junko the news. I mean, the doctor wrote the results on paper and everything. It was so final that I panicked."

Yuugao took a deep breath and let it out as steadily as she could. "No, this is okay. I'm glad that I'm the person you want with you. I can't believe that your brother is making you do this, though I suppose it is for the best."

"It's his twenty-fifth birthday. He can ask me for anything he wants. This was the first half of the present. I guess I should be glad. I'd always regret it if I didn't come clean."

"Are you absolutely sure it's this Kaname guy?"

Nariko nodded. "I'm pretty damn sure. Not one hundred percent, of course, but pretty damn sure. The timing fits best for him. I could ask for a DNA check if he wants, but I'm content thinking he's the father."

"And the forms?"

Riko passed them over.

Yuugao scanned them, frowning. "He's going to release all paternal rights."

"That's right."

Yuugao frowned. "You really are in this only for the child, aren't you?"

Her friend nodded, her jaw set.

"And what if he says no?"

The woman grimaced.

"Ah, so that's why I'm here."

Riko spun to her, aghast. "No! I want you here because you're my friend. I'll handle him. I just need you here because I trust you and doing this by myself or even with Itsuki or Shiro would be too hard. Those two expect me to be at least affectionate with this guy. They've got this idea in their heads that we were pseudo dating. They don't know…"

"They don't want to understand."

"Exactly."

"You're never going to get married, are you? Ever."

Riko nodded, her eyes cold and hard, seeing something Yuugao couldn't and didn't want to.

It went fairly well. Kaname-san didn't look too shocked. Riko hadn't kept her intentions from him. He didn't insist on DNA. He sighed and signed away his paternal rights, shaking Riko's hand once the deed was done, Yuugao's signature on the witness line.

"I suppose I won't be seeing you anymore," he said.

Nariko was silent for a time, but a half smile twisted her lips. "Maybe, maybe not. Don't count on it though."

"Are you sure you're not a ninja?" he asked just before closing the door behind them.

Yuugao froze.

Riko wobbled, her eyes wide. "No…"

"Huh." The door closed.

Yuugao grabbed Riko's shoulders to steady her.

"No… I'm not sure anymore."

* * *

Itsuki found her curled up under the covers of her futon.

"Get out."

He ignored her and sat down at the end of her bed.

"Itsuki, dammit, get out! I don't want to see you right now!"

"Riko, I know you're pissed with me. But what about the man? You've taken away his child."

"It's mine. He signed without me needing to needle him at all. He knew what I wanted."

Itsuki frowned. "So it wasn't anything more than fuck buddies."

"No. Not even really buddies."

He stayed quiet for a while, processing this. "I don't like this. Why you let Kenta's betrayal warp you like this—!"

"This has almost nothing to do with Kenta!"

"This has everything to do with Kenta and Risako! Don't you dare say otherwise!"

They were both silent for a time, both seething.

"Look, Riko-nee, I know you… I know you don't respect her for… for everything. For…"

"For fucking disembowelling herself with the kitchen knife Shiro gave her as a wedding present, the pathetic, infatuated bitch." Riko was unapologetically blunt. "She had to go off and be all tragic and symbolic about it. They were only married for three years; Kenta wasn't worth that! She could have _talked_ to us, but _no_. And she didn't even do it properly. No, she had to make the poor surgeons in the hospital try to put her back together and feel horrible when they failed." She paused for a few moments, introspective. "I thought I was done with this—I told Dad I was. I _was_ done with this; I moved on when Shiro pieced himself together—she wasn't _my_ sister the way she was his. I guess something brought it up again" she said ruefully.

He grimaced. "She hurt us all when she did that. Especially Shiro."

"Always Shiro. I look at him and I see her behind him, but not as much now. We're so lucky he found Junko. But there's Irezumi too."

"Not so much Irezumi. He was only two. He hardly remembers her. I've asked him."

"You asked him!" She sat up and stared at him.

He nodded. "I asked. Nothing. But everyone else hurt. And you got angry when Shiro fell apart. I get that. But this… this anger. It didn't used to be like this. You were angry, but it was quiet anger, almost calm. And then you were calm. Now it's loud and you're pouring it all over."

She frowned. "You have a point. Sorry. I think I know why. I'm pissed that she dared to waste her life when I recently found out that Naruto's going to have to fight Kyuubi for every year. That she just went and cut things off without even trying to find her way back, without even trying to force Kenta to see how ridiculous he was being about her grandma, it pisses me off now. She just gave up and whined about her lost honour and love. No, she just couldn't exist without him by her side when she managed just fine for years before he came into the picture. That level of infatuation is terrifying."

Itsuki cocked his head. "Her grandmother was a ninja though. Kenta was within his rights to not want to associate himself with that, however little I agree with him. That's why we couldn't punish him."

"I don't want to punish him. He's an idiot. The clan is better off without him. Whatever. But how was it her fault what her grandmother was? Gods, people sometimes… Anyway, I don't want to get married. I don't want someone to have the power to break me like Kenta broke Risako just by walking away from her. I refuse to let myself be that weak, that passive, that fucking submissive! And if I ever hear that you cause similar grief, I'll kick you across the room."

He grimaced. "I'll keep that in mind, though I hope you don't seriously think I'd be so pigheaded. But what if you do someday feel you could trust someone? What then?"

"Then you can point and laugh and say 'I told you so,' though I'll probably stick with a common law arrangement like Grazia and Concetta have. Happy? I've been made to realize twice today that I was being a total bitch already. If I can go the rest of the day without screwing anything else up, I'll be okay. I just want to forget today happened. Kaname rightly managed to hit me way below the belt. Thanks for talking this over with me."

Itsuki sighed, having a good idea what "below the belt" meant in this case, and lay down beside her, poking her until she let him under the covers so he could wrap his arms around her. "You and I and Shiro are not Risako. Risako was a diamond. We are quartz: less beautiful and highly prized, but without that fatal flaw. We're not ninja by blood or anything else. We never ever will be."

"Never?"

He tucked her head under his chin. "I promise you, never. And your baby won't be either."

* * *

_Be my shadow and learn,_ Rahim had said. So, his shadow Naruto was.

And his errand boy, the person that brought him lunch, the person that hailed rickshaws when they travelled from place to place, the person that got him coffee, and the person that looked over his paperwork. Though he was perfectly placed to learn anything he wanted to know about how Rahim was fighting Suna, Naruto felt rather like a slave by the end of the first day when he again sat across the desk from Rahim-jiji.

"So, gaki, what did you learn today?"

"That you take coffee with way too much cream."

Rahim frowned. "If you're going to waste my precious leisure time, boy, you can leave."

"Right, sorry, sorry." Geez, Old Man Rahim was touchy! "You're always staying on top of things before they happen. Like that shipment that came in. It was in your agenda, and you were there to meet it even though you couldn't have known that it would come in with the wrong parts."

Rahim tapped his nose. "When I looked over the papers describing that order, I had a bad feeling. That was my gut feeling, and I knew that I had better be there just in case. I didn't need to be; there were people that could have handled it. But it would have taken much longer. The person who signed off on the shipment received would have to file a form to inform the supply office that something was wrong and then they would have gotten some subordinate to haggle with the company to figure out whose fault it was that we received a hundred thousand units of the wrong piece. There would have been polite blame tossed back and forth and meanwhile my customers would be waiting for their finished product for no good reason."

"So you've got a feel for when things go wrong. How am I supposed to do the same thing?"

"Do you know how I know that something was going to go wrong, gaki?"

Naruto shook his head.

"I walked through my buildings and observed the people. I noted that one person in Supply looked particularly beleaguered. I pulled his paperwork at the end of the day and noted that the order made form looked a little sketchy. It had the right data, but I noted the details down in my calendar so I could be available _just in case_. You can't lead if you sit in an office. I have no idea what my people are doing unless I get off my ass and go talk to them."

Naruto nodded. That made sense. Wasn't that common sense though? "Doesn't everyone do that?"

Rahim laughed. "You tell me, gaki. How many times have you seen your Hokage or a CEO walking around talking to the grunts at least once a week? I make sure all my friends and family know what I think of them when they don't, but I can't force them. What else?"

"One of your people came to talk to you about a problem with a boat."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Isn't she supposed to fill out forms on that or something?"

"Yup. But you know what? That might be too slow. This was a people problem. The captain was being an ass about his contract, and it was a problem with a contract her superior had written up. The superior was insisting there was nothing wrong with it because he was following my guidelines. That's great, but we weren't making the deal. She told me, so I knew there was a problem, but her superior didn't even consider it. Why didn't he just tell his superior or me that there was a problem?"

"Because he's following your rules and he doesn't want to be the one to tell you they're not working," said Naruto thoughtfully.

"So he's being timid. I can't punish that without making him more timid, but I can warn him. What if it was his policy that was causing the problem, not mine?"

"He probably wouldn't have liked it and maybe would have fixed it on his own…"

"Maybe. I don't make money on maybes or on pussyfooting around my employees. If something's crappy, I need to know. I can't always trust the people just below me in the chain to know what's going on because sometimes they're the problem. What guy who clawed up the chain for twelve years is gonna tell me that his personnel have a problem with him because he's making mistakes? No, I have to be out there so those guys below him can walk up to me and tell me that something's wrong. I can't do that if I'm sitting on my thumbs. How did I deal with that supervisor?"

Naruto frowned. Was this a trick question? "You didn't, I think."

"That's right. Do you know why?"

"Because he was right there. He would have known that the woman told you about the problem."

"Exactly, boy. What subordinate is going to tell me about problems with their superiors when they know that I'm going to get them in trouble with their superiors? No, there's gotta be some anonymity for the 'snitch', which they aren't, because telling me about a problem isn't being underhanded, it's using common sense. So, I'm going to wait to confront the supervisor about this, but I'm going to handle the problem and then I'm gonna watch to see what this supervisor does. Will he discover the change I make on his own? If so, what will he think of my fix? Will he be mature and go to his supervisor and admit he made a mistake, apologize, and learn from how I correct him? Or will he get offended and try to find out who ratted on him? If the latter, well, what would you do?"

Naruto leaned back in his chair and thought it over. "He's not really being mature if he's getting all offended… I guess I'd ask him to stop?"

"Sure, but what if he doesn't?"

"Then I guess…" Naruto frowned. "Fire him?" He didn't like that option. It sounded too final, too mean.

"That's right. Demoting him won't help. He's proven himself immature, not willing to take correction. I'd fire him if I couldn't move him to another department to keep him from making a mess in his old one so I can see if he takes the hint and cleans up his act. I don't need him if he can't take criticism and learn from it. I don't want him around being a poison. He can have my reference during his job search, but I won't give him a glowing one."

"You're pretty stern, Rahim-jiji."

Rahim chuckled. "Boy, management is all about people. In the working world, it's no fun if your co-worker has a bad attitude. Work shouldn't be awful. It's something we spend too much of our adult lives doing. I want my employees to feel a sense of accomplishment when they go home, not the need to swing by a bar because their supervisor is a jerk or their day was just awful. If cutting away the rotten people I mistakenly hired is the way to do it, then I'm all for it.

"So, boy, how does this apply to the ninja world?"

Naruto grimaced. "There are ninja with bad attitudes. I didn't like working with some of the members from Team 5 before they got killed. Fuki had a bad attitude towards Sakura and me."

"So what would you have done?"

"I'd have… Well, I guess Sakura and I weren't too good at handling it either. I guess I would have tried to make sure that Team 7 didn't get assigned any missions with Team 5."

Rahim shook his head. "That's not feasible, boy. What if all the teams have some bad blood between them? Are none of them going to work together? It's harder for you; I get that. You can't fire ninja. But this coddling isn't the answer either."

"I guess I'd have to step in and find out what the root of the problem Fuki has with us was. And then I'd have to try to fix it or order her to get over it."

"That's more like it, boy. But you're letting Sakura and yourself off too easily. There might be problems on your part. The best thing is to catch it in the bud. Find out what the problem is. Try to make the parties involved work through it. If that doesn't work, take a more hands-on role. We are the leaders. It's our job to make people work and teams jell and stay jelled, not to sit around or schmooze."

* * *

Nariko sat on the kitchen counter, watching as Shiro and Emilio and some of the other new arrivals compared the house plans with their measurements as the interior designer, Jacopo, sat at the kitchen table and sketched. Some twenty people were squeezed into the house now along with Emilio and his party. Most of them were just here to repair the house, not to stay, though one that had thought he would just be heading home was actually talking about coming back with his sister.

"Oi, Miss Moneybags!" Fausto beckoned her over.

Nariko hopped off the counter and crouched down to look at their plans. "What funds can I provide, good sirs?"

"Sister dearest, we wise ones have decided that we should hack off the roof, build a third floor and maybe a fourth, and then add another building to frame the central garden more, this one also three or four stories high. Have you got the money for that?" asked Shiro, tapping his pencil on an altered copy of the plans as the architect/engineer, Contadino Barbara, nodded.

"The house's current structure is sound enough that it could support the third floor without any changes. With four, we'd have to change the load bearing pillars here, here, and here." Barbara circled them with red chalk on the plans before tapping her spiral bound notebook of calculations. "With four floors, this pillar in particular couldn't handle the weight of the second set of trusses, never mind the rest of the floor and anyone that might be walking around up there."

"So you want to build up instead of along the ground?" Nariko asked, pointing out the window at the farm next door whose owner had hinted very carefully to Katarina that if a marriage took place, they wouldn't be averse to bits of land being put to uses other than farming potatoes.

"I've been to the Yiri compounds throughout Wind and Earth. They tend to build up there, and it looks nice enough," said Barbara. "I've never been a fan of urban sprawl anyhow, and with the wall around Konoha, expansion upward is going to eventually be the only option."

Jacopo wandered over. "Did you want to keep the look of the original house? If not, wouldn't it be best to level this house and start from scratch? Or at least gut it? I've walked the rooms with Hatake-san. He showed me how Kakuho-san widened walls to make secret passages once she restricted herself to one bedroom."

"A facelift," Nariko mused. Snake might not have been pleased by that, considering how scarred Kakashi had assured her the agent had been, but the house… "Jack, you're our designer. What do you say? What look are we going for here?"

Jacopo sat down cross-legged and thought it over, running his fingers over the plans. "I've walked through town a couple times, just to get a feel for what they've got going on here. Most of it looks pretty haphazard while integrating nature as much as possible. As much as I'd like to go wild here since it's unlikely that I'll have this chance again to do whatever the heck I want with unlimited funding, I've got to think with more than my ego. If we follow what I'd truly like to do, we're gonna be regarded as a bunch of snoots."

Nariko patted his shoulder. "Jack, I know exactly what you mean. What should we do then, in your professional and comprehensive opinion, knowing what we need to accomplish here?"

He sighed. "We should gut the house and make it airier and into something more like suites. Clan's great and all, but smaller family units need to be able to close the rest of us out. For the outside, I'll have sketches for everyone's approval by the end of the week. Five or six stories would be best."

"If you want five stories and plumbing and electrical for every suite, we are going to have to gut the house," said Barbara.

"Where are we all going to stay while the house is gutted?" asked Fausto. "Renting for so many of us isn't going to be fun…"

"I can get pavilions like the Nineteen and Grazia stay in," said Nariko, jotting it down on the notepad that was already filled with other things she needed to buy, like pasta and scotch tape. "You can all camp out on the lawn. There should be enough room. We finish the main house first, and then break ground for the next building you want so badly."

"Done," said Emilio, and most of the others followed suit, though there were a couple complaints about sleeping on the ground. "When's the next group of contractors coming?"

Nariko flipped through her notepad. "Hm, not until mid-December. It looks like I'll be hiring locals. Do you mind if I commission a couple ninja teams to help out with the heavier lifting? There's already been some grumblings about the mess and noise we're supposedly already making here. Giving some genin some pocket change could ease that."

Those living on-site traded glances. Most shrugged.

"Bring them in and we'll make them useful," said Emilio. "I just want them to be able to swing a hammer and listen to orders."

"I'll be sure to pick older genin teams then."

* * *

Back at home for the evening, Nariko read to Ryuuka as Itsuki cooked supper while Sasuke watched him suspiciously. Junko was sleeping in the guestroom—her back was aching from the weight of her passenger. Had the past few weeks not happened, Nariko would have envied her so much. Shiro was still at the compound, nattering over the plans with Barbara, Jacopo, Emilio, and the others.

She had told Sasuke that while her brothers were here that looking after Ryuuka was a bit of a challenge, and he had managed to get two weeks of guaranteed time in the village. He was training with Kakashi again, but he kept his sister with him usually. Ryuuka was apparently more than happy to practice throwing kunai and shuriken while Sasuke experimented with Chidori with Kakashi.

"Sis," Itsuki called to her in Italian, eyeing Sasuke, "is there something on my face?"

Nariko struggled to decode the language she hadn't spoken in ages except to curse in. Encoding her reply was equally difficult. "No. Sasuke just isn't the most trusting guy on the planet. You must be making something pretty mystical over there."

"Shepherd's pie is not mystical!"

Sasuke was glancing back and forth between them now, and Ryuuka was pouting at her story being interrupted.

"Just tell him what you're doing. He'll either ignore you because you're talking to him or listen."

Itsuki sighed and obliged her by beginning to explain about the temperature of the oven and why he was layering things in the casserole dish to Sasuke, who looked less than impressed. Itsuki somehow managed to survive until supper.

"Sasuke," Nariko said as Shiro came in and washed his hands before sitting down beside his wife and pressing a kiss to her hair as they whispered, "do you know anything about the current genin teams? I need to hire some, and I want the ones that are actually going to be useful."

He shrugged. "I haven't seen much of them. I don't get called upon to lead genin teams often. You should have access to the roster though. That should tell you enough."

"I just wanted to know if you had any recommendations. I guess I should ask Sakura instead. She has actually led some genin teams lately. Or maybe Shikamaru…"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Don't let them assign you Team 15. They need a lot more work before they should be allowed near a construction site."

Nariko nodded her thanks while struggling to contain giggles at how Sasuke was still competing with Sakura and Shikamaru over the leadership end of his chuunin duties.

When Sasuke finally took Ryuuka home, Nariko played cards against her brothers and her sister in law, mostly poker, which Junko was awfully good at. Nariko had no doubt that she and Shiro played against each other regularly with clothes as the stakes. They were the type.

"The location you managed to get is very good," said Junko as she took a card. "What did you end up paying for the place?"

"Too much," Nariko grumbled. "Hatake-san made things difficult until I phoned Yiri Rahim, who helped me pull some strings. It was more for his amusement than a real threat to the plan's progress though, as far as I can tell, because he did sell to me. I don't know what that ninja is thinking, ever."

"What other places were you looking at?" asked Itsuki.

"There were a couple other options that I investigated when Hatake-san dug in his heels, but none of them would have suited our needs. They were too small or the land was designated for commercial or agricultural use only. Konoha doesn't want to expand beyond their wall, mostly because their more dangerous training grounds are out there, so some property is permanently marked for a specific use. Snake's place was a godsend."

"So…" said Shiro, glancing at her.

"So?"

"Are you going to stay?"

"Not forever. Will you?"

Shiro shook his head. "As much as I want to be here for you, I don't feel safe here. I wouldn't feel safe raising my brat here. Like you said to the group that came in yesterday, this place gets attacked by large forces. I'd rather be in Kaijin with the clan, even if we have no ninja there to defend us."

She nodded and turned to Junko, who nodded as well.

"I'm with Shiro on this one. I don't want my baby here. I think everyone who's coming here to stay is brave as hell, but I'm not."

She turned to Itsuki last.

He shrugged. "I have no desire to listen to the drums at all. If you ask me though, I'll stay here with you and your child. As a writer, I don't need to live anywhere specific the way Shiro does. I'm not going to get married or have kids any time soon, so it's just me I'm risking. Do you need me to stay?"

Nariko bit her lip. "As much as I would selfishly like to say yes, as your sister, I say no. I need you to go home and be safe more than I want you to be here to help me find my feet again. I order you to go home and write pornographic poetry and settle down. Or go wherever you like to settle down, so long as it's not here."

Itsuki squeezed her hand. "Thanks. I love you too."

* * *

Mikoto had just finished diverting the weapons shipment. It was simple matter really: forge a couple letters from the proper aide in the Mizukage's administration calling for the shipment to be temporarily stored at a warehouse in Kyoubou's territory on the excuse that that way the weapons would be closer to Kiri and more quickly moved in when the Water Lord finally left and leave a message for a rebel spy to pass along containing all the details. The rebels would handle the theft and all blame would be mixed up. Shiori would die soon, and then Mikoto would be safe even from rebel treachery.

Shiori was still very useful though, so this would have to wait. She slipped into her mistress' room and found Kinu-hime absorbed in another of her romance novels. Mikoto had been working on her for days now with genjutsu as subtly as she could, and it finally paid off.

"Shiori, I need you to carry a message for me."

"Kinu-hime?"

"Shiori, come on! What's more romantic than a secret tryst? He's been eyeing me; I've spotted him. He must only hesitate because we can never be alone together. You did tell me you'd heard he was keeping from all women's touch lately. He must be pining over me!"

Mikoto smothered a very strong urge to laugh. This really was too easy.

With the meetings and social posturing mostly over, Denryuu was more than ready to go back to his old womanizing habits. She had to wonder if he had missed the shinobi lesson about drink, money, and women. Shiori hesitantly advised her mistress about how to phrase her greeting to keep the girl from sounding like a desperate idiot.

Just before she knocked on the door to Denryuu's offices, Mikoto had a small crisis of conscience. Kinu was just a romantic girl pretending to be a woman, a grownup version of her own Ryuuka, and yet here she was, about to sacrifice this girl-woman's innocence on the altar of Mikoto's godhood. ANBU quickly smothered her conscience. She was steel and stone, willing to use whatever she had to get this mission done because she was ANBU and she was god and everything was a tool in her hand.

She handed the message over to Denryuu's secretary and hovered in the doorway until it was understood that she was waiting for a reply. Shiori watched shyly as Denryuu unfolded the missive and glanced over it. His face remained slightly preoccupied by whatever his advisor was ranting on about, but a flicker of an eager smile went through his eyes before he turned to her and nodded slightly.

Shiori bowed deeply and skittered away.

Almost done.

* * *

She didn't even have to betray them herself.

The housekeeper was on her way to the back rooms to check the work of the maids. Paper-thin walls could hardly keep the woman from hearing.

Shiori wept loudly in the hall while Lord Anben burst in, shouting about a marriage contract now nullified and dishonour. Mikoto grinned as Denryuu fumbled with his pants, watching Kinu-hime and waiting for her to salvage this situation.

The girl had her priorities straight. "He accosted me!" she wailed, ducking her head into her hands and beginning to sob.

Mikoto struggled not to snigger at the dumbstruck look on Denryuu's face before it became resigned. Apparently, this had been the solution other girls had jumped to as well. Kinu-hime was just a little clumsy. Still, her lord would swallow his daughter's story to save a marriage contract. Since Mikoto hadn't been able to dig up information about it, it must have been a prosperous one indeed. Denryuu would take the fall.

Denryuu must have realized this, because he glanced at the window with obvious longing. Unfortunately for Mikoto, he had a well-developed sense of duty.

Unfortunately for him, Mikoto was going to win either way. He was foreign, untitled, poor, and expendable; not a good match. Her lord wanted glory. His general assuming command of the army with only a ninja advisor instead of Denryuu in charge with his general sitting in second was vastly preferable. This "rape" was like a gift from the gods for her lord. Mikoto was certain he would not squander it. Even if he did, his ambitious general wouldn't. With the current controversy over Denryuu being a liability in the unstable royalist army, the deck was stacked in Mikoto's favour.

Denryuu was going to lose the Daimyo's goodwill, no question.

* * *

Shiori was disgraced and on the verge of being discretely done away with for being the only other source of information on what had happened that night. The Mizukage desperately wanted her to speak in defence of Denryuu. Her lord wanted her to speak/lie for the opposite reason. Given Shiori's personality and loyalties, there could be no doubt which authority figure was going to be disappointed.

Shiori took matters into her own hands.

She faked her own kidnapping. It was simple enough to make it look like her kidnappers had been ninja. She left no obvious way of entry or exit, spilled some blood and one of her own bottles of poison on the floor, but left no note. The lack of ransom demand or any other communication would convince investigators that she was not just taken, instead, that she was dead. Leaving a "body" was too risky, so this was the only option.

The rebellion couldn't sell her out effectively now, not that they would. Even if Denryuu wasn't dead, as they wanted, he was finished. They would have to be happy with that. Mikoto had plans for Denryuu.

Other plans came first though.

A few days later, the split between the Daimyo and Kiri was complete. Kiri was under suspicion for negligence at best and obstruction of justice at worst because of the kidnapping of witnesses (Mikoto had quietly done away with the housekeeper and the aide that had witnessed the delivery of Kinu-hime's letter); the Mizukage was adrift in his own country. He tried to make amends, but the embarrassment had been leaked too widely. For the Daimyo to offer forgiveness would be to undermine his standing with his loyal feudal lords. Kiri would obey no matter what. The feudal lords were not so compliant, so Kiri got left in disfavour.

Worst of all, Denryuu got in a semi-public fight with the Mizukage. Best of all, Mikoto got to watch in her guise as the fat boy.

"How could you allow your own people to do away with the witnesses that knew I was innocent?" Denryuu roared, pointing a finger accusingly as the Mizukage failed to look sagacious and collected.

"I would never have allowed that. Denryuu, believe me when I say that I value your contribution to Kiri far too much to feel anything but the greatest horror and wrath on your behalf towards those that contributed to this scheme to sully your good name. However, might I remind you that if you had just abstained—"

"You bastard! Why should I have to be celibate? The girl specifically invited me—"

"I believe you—!"

"Obviously not or you would have kept those witnesses under guard so they could prove that I was innocent! After all that I've done for you, you couldn't spare three measly chuunin to guard two servants and my own aide."

"I had assumed that you had more than enough people to guard them yourself."

Denryuu actually went white. Mikoto could tell it was from fury. "And further expose myself to speculation that I'm using my people to intimidate the witnesses?"

"And that's exactly the reason I couldn't intervene. The Daimyo knows I'm on your side."

"And how was leaving those two witnesses with Lord Anben any less suspicious?"

"It wasn't, but it was less insulting to Lord Anben's capabilities. After the harm to his daughter, it wasn't reasonable to expect—"

"Reasonable? You want to talk about reasonable actions? If some reasonable actions should have taken place, then the Daimyo should have placed those witnesses under his own guard to avoid conflict of interest. Is the man incompetent as well as incapable of uniting his own country?"

Mikoto had to avoid giggling at this point. Public questioning of the Daimyo's competence was treasonable according to the old code. Definitely dishonourable at best. Kiri would be in trouble if the Daimyo took Denryuu's words as representative of Kiri's opinion of him. Goodness, he had placed the last nail in his own coffin no matter how much the Mizukage supposedly relied upon him.

Now the easy part was done. What next?

The fat boy trotted off. Mikoto was hard pressed not to skip and giggle madly.


	71. Chapter 71

Reposted: part of conversation concerning Suna between Naruto and Rahim was mysteriously deleted when first posted.

* * *

Chapter 71: A Glimpse of the Spirit World

Naruto sorted through the notes in the Whisper Box in Rahim's living room. It was the anonymous method Rahim and his subordinates had agreed upon as the method any employee could employ to give bad news or whatever they deemed necessary to whoever needed to hear about it without having to do it face-to-face.

"I'm an intimidating guy," Rahim had told Naruto while unlocking one of the boxes. "Some of my people are comfortable telling me to my face that my deadline is unreasonable and that I'm being an ass. Most aren't, but I need to hear it from them just as much. So we give them these boxes in every washroom, so they can put the note in discretely."

"Don't some of them use it just to write nasty messages?" Naruto had asked; he had had experience with those, though Neechan had usually managed to destroy them before he saw them.

"Sure, but I weed those out. If someone's not mature enough to express themselves without sounding like a rabid dog, then I've got to wonder why the hell I hired them."

Old Man Rahim seemed to question why he hired anyone a lot.

Naruto placed another note in the pile that concerned the head of Supply and fished out the next one. Most of these talked about this deadline being impossible or that part being a poor choice for this design, and so on. Naruto was supposed to mark down what each one concerned and whether he thought that it sounded like there really was a problem that needed Rahim-jiji's attention.

Apparently, many things required Rahim's personal intervention. Naruto had to wonder why Rahim had managers and supervisors working under him if he had to go running all over their authority continually.

"Done, boy?"

Naruto shook his head. "I do know that this guy's pile is huge though."

Rahim-jiji inspected his notes and snorted. "Always. He's a hard ass that likes to make threats. He's all for negative reinforcement. Luckily for him, he never has to make good on them because his subordinates are competent. It would be interesting to watch him try to wield a wooden spoon on them though. He's not a big man. Fortunately, his deadlines are always so ridiculously slack that only a slouch group wouldn't meet them. Most the of the notes about him are from the interns and co-op students from the local technical school who have yet to realize that he's funny, not scary. I'd do something about him, but most would be sorry to see the joke go. He's excellent at handling the stress of the design process, so it would be a waste. Flaws can be outweighed by positive qualities."

* * *

The fat boy sat on a swing, moving it with his toes in the sand. The atmosphere of those that walked past the park was tense, uncertain.

There were many reasons to be uncertain these days.

Denryuu had been banished, cast out of Kiri at the Water Lord's command. He could have been killed according to Water's laws, but he had been granted leniency because of his services to Water. Lord Anben's general had been put in charge of the royalist forces. The army was split now: ninja in the ranks were furious with how one of their own had been treated. Some of the regular military men were upset as well, but there was a growing division between the ninja forces and the regular military. Their war efforts would suffer for it, Mikoto was certain.

Kiri was in a sorry state. Rumour had it that the Mizukage had become paranoid with the loss of Denryuu. Apparently, the man had come to rely on the charismatic former Kumo-nin more than anyone had thought possible. Why, Mikoto didn't know, but there was no denying that Denryuu had a power that was far beyond normal.

Given how Kumo's bounty for him was higher if he were brought back alive and how diligently Kumo had been hunting him, Mikoto was fairly confident that her guess that he was a jinchuuriki wasn't far off the mark.

If that was true, no wonder the Mizukage had invested so much in him. Water had lost its jinchuuriki; Yagura had disappeared without a trace many years ago and then Sanbi had appeared in the North Sea. Ushira must have seen Denryuu as a godsend. And this order from the Water Lord to banish Denryuu must have seemed like a death mark.

So, Ushira had lost his greatest pawn against the puppeteer. He had good reason to be paranoid. Mikoto wasn't sure how thoroughly the ties between Denryuu and Ushira had been severed, but the jinchuuriki was definitely too far away to protect Ushira effectively.

All Mikoto had to do now was set off this powder bomb. But that went against the grain of her godhood. Anyone could make this situation explode, but only she could make it explode a certain way.

But what did she want to accomplish?

Momochi-san had wanted Kiri ruined, and that had been accomplished in a sense. He primarily wanted the shadow Mizukage dead since Yagura had apparently lost himself to Sanbi. So, to accomplish that, what strings needed pulling? If the shadow Mizukage were Madara, she needed to find someone who could kill him. She wasn't that person. Madara wielded the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan according to legend and apparently had for far longer than Mikoto was comfortable with. It was likely that he had mastered Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi and Susanoo and who knew what else. Who would know?

The fat boy narrowed his eyes. If, as Itachi had said, Madara had helped decimate the clan during the Massacre, then there was only one person she knew that would know.

She needed to question Itachi more closely. Unfortunately, the last person that had run into him had died. Mikoto spared a sad sigh for Snake. Her senpai would have found Itachi for her and would have asked him the right questions while Mikoto handled things here. Unfortunately, her greatest support was gone. Damn Kisame.

So, instead, she would have to do everything the hard way.

Shoving her hands in her pockets, she got off the swing and started wandering down the road. Itachi was in Akatsuki. What was the best way to contact him?

And what to do with Kiri, long term? It wasn't feasible to wipe the village off the map. The balance of power on the mainland had depended on Kiri being one of the five major villages. Although Kiri hadn't been asserting their presence or Water's much in years, they were supposed to be a player around to complicate the game, ruling the seas.

Though the power associated with flicking Kiri off the board was heady, Mikoto wouldn't exercise it. The complication of Kiri's existence could be useful yet. Besides, wiping it off the board might give the rebellion the advantage they needed to overthrow their Daimyo and implement their democracy idea. Mikoto wasn't sure what to make of the theory they spouted. Power in the hands of so many fools sounded dangerous, not that power in the hands of a few moronic lords was any better.

Hm, no clean cut choice there. Oh well.

So, her to-do list included luring Itachi into Water so she could question him or leaving this powder keg to explode without her being present to guide it so she could hunt down wherever he had gotten to, figuring out what she wanted to do with Kiri and Water, and eventually luring Madara in so she could somehow orchestrate his demise. None of these tasks seemed particularly easy.

Since Ushira would now be her new thread for dealing with Madara, Kiri would soon be in need of a Rokudaime Mizukage. Mikoto toyed with the idea of picking one out herself, but set it aside. There were too many other factors to take care of.

With Ushira so unstable, it would be easy enough to get him to do something stupid like challenging the power of the Seven Swordsmen. Would that lure Madara? Mikoto didn't know. Hoshigaki Kisame might though. He had been part of the Seven.

Luring Itachi would be easy, and where he went, Hoshigaki Kisame was likely to follow. Both would come, given her bait.

It didn't matter if Denryuu was a jinchuuriki. Mikoto just needed Akatsuki to think he was.

* * *

Nariko walked with them through the morning crowds, clutching Shiro's hand desperately. They couldn't go. They couldn't leave her!

She wanted the walk to be ten times longer than it was, but the gates appeared ahead of them far too soon. Shiro squeezed her hand back as Itsuki pulled out his flute and played a soft, haunting tune of regret and parting.

Junko took off her pack and adjusted a few items before tying it shut again and turning to her. "It's been wonderful getting to spend time with you at last," she said with an easy smile and a gentle handclasp that somehow evolved into a full-blown hug. "We'll write to you when this one chooses to grace us with his or her presence."

"Please," Nariko whispered into the mahogany hair, squeezing the gravid woman as tightly as she dared. "Thank you for being there for him. I was so worried he would fall back into the rut it took months to break him out of last time. I can't repay what you've done."

"Babysitting on occasion should do it," Junko insisted with a final squeeze and then she pulled away to shoulder her backpack again.

"Do I get a hug?" Itsuki complained at his most irritating, but she let him wring the air out of her lungs and spin her around to laud his height over her despite her reservations. "Don't forget: I want your hair the moment you damn yourself. You're lucky I'm not insisting that you completely shave your head. Eight centimetres is being more than generous."

"Says you," she grumbled back. "I might as well be bald as I nearly was during the last half of Dad and Mother's visit."

"Don't do it and you don't have to worry about it at all," he chirped as he set her down on her feet. "I'll send you a copy of my newest book the moment it comes out. You can add it to the rest that you keep carefully hidden in your closet. Are you that worried Naruto will find them?"

"Him and other people," she said direly. "There are all sorts of people that raid my house, though they left off because you three were staying over as guests. A closed door is an invitation to waltz right in to peruse my shelves. Locked doors demand to be picked open. Ninja are very strange people."

"It's that Hatake guy isn't it?" Itsuki laughed. "You don't want him to become a fan of my writing too. You dare deny me a customer?"

"No, actually it's my three friends—Mikoto, Anko, and Yuugao—but you have a valid point there with Naruto's sensei. You don't compare, but Shiro…"

He snickered outright. "I can't believe that you haven't beaten him."

"You try hitting someone that can kill you with a finger."

"Point," Itsuki admitted, kissing her cheek mockingly and letting her return the favour. "Keep safe and please stay out of trouble. I want you to live to see my children."

"You be careful too."

He nodded and set his hands on her shoulders, staring down at her with strangely wise brown eyes. "Keep faith," he commanded solemnly, bending down to kiss her forehead. "Compassion is not a fool's concept. Never forget."

She was almost startled at how well he had discerned her struggle. His words were a balm. Where had the bratty ward gone? What was this wise poet in her brother's body? She missed the child, but she could get used to this wise man. She nodded, and he smiled, the cheeky brat back in his eyes. He chucked her chin and patted her head, holding his height over her one last time before he scurried out of retaliation range and allowed Shiro to take his place.

"Well, youngling, we come to it at last," he said as her eyes began stinging. "You know, we would not have to do this if you just came with us. We four could walk down that road together and leave this all behind. Grazia can stuff it, Naruto would forgive you in time, and it's not as if you couldn't write."

"No, Shiro, I can't do that yet." She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. "If I leave now, anyone who wants info on Konoha would hunt me down and would use you and the rest of the clan against me. In Kaijin no Mura, you are safe. On the road, you aren't. I can't leave until I'm completely ready to do so on my terms. The break will need to be complete, or we will never be safe. It's not time yet. I've still got some work to do."

"You always say that," he teased, messing up her hair. "I keep telling you that work ethic is hardly going to make you beautiful. Nothing can do that, Ugly." He laughed at how she rolled her eyes at him. "With your job, it just makes you old before your time. Well, don't wait too long. You don't have much time left. Okano-chan is beginning to consider whether to call you a liar."

"Not too long," she promised. "He's almost ready, if he manages to survive. Everything is almost ready."

"For what though?"

She smiled and shook her head. "When the time comes, you'll see. We'll all see."

* * *

ANBU walked along the piers, glancing around impassively. Puppets made way for her, flinching under her stare.

The activity at this harbour was lacking. No unauthorized ships went in or out without a Kiri escort. Any ship that left its berth without one would be burnt to cinders, no exceptions.

Sharingan scanned the area from beneath a flimsy henge as ANBU listened carefully, smiling at the whispers.

"A jinchuuriki…"

"Lightning…"

"Even an Uchiha couldn't…"

"…can't believe… in Water…"

The last of the casks of fresh water were loaded onto a boat. A squad of Kiri-nin got on board with the dregs of the sullen sailors. This boat was bound for Frost Country with a cargo of seafood only found in the oceans to the east of Water. An exclusive trading contract wouldn't be abandoned because of a little internal turmoil, not when it made a lord very loyal to the Water Lord so very happy and willing to equip the royalist soldiers.

The ship left the harbour, carrying whispers to the mainland that would grow into a long call. ANBU held the strings of several puppets among the sailors, of course.

* * *

Back in Kiri, Mikoto leaned against a building in an alley; her mind was clear for the first time in weeks with ANBU away playing on the coast. "Kami-sama," she whispered, reviewing her current plans. They were precarious at best, the weavings of one that believed in her power over all things.

When the shadow clone dispersed and ANBU returned to her, would Mikoto be able to seal that part of herself behind the wall again?

Mikoto shook and chafed her upped arms. She didn't know. She really didn't know. Fugaku had helped bind ANBU with the promise that had extended to the clan when they had married and he had become the clan head in truth. He and his were not puppets, never to be twisted by her. But, he was dead and so was her promise to him.

"Boy, are you all right?"

Mikoto glanced up at the jounin she had spotted a couple times, the redhead that believed showing cleavage and shoulders was essential to having a good day on the job. She didn't think much of the woman. Rumour had it that this Terumi Mei possessed the cardinal sin of two bloodline limits, instead of the offence of just one. It was amazing the woman was still alive. "Yes, obasan, thank you," said the fat boy, ignoring the way the woman's eye twitched at her title.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, obasan. Thank you for asking. I am just daydreaming. It is better than thinking about chores."

"Is your mother that strict?"

"No, obasan. My mother is gone. I was a runner at the military headquarters, but it moved to Lord Anben's lands, and I could not follow. I work at a shop now."

Terumi-san squatted down and patted the head of Mikoto's henge, genjutsu adding what reality henge couldn't for Terumi-san's mind. "Work hard," she said with a smile.

The fat boy smiled bravely. "Un!"

* * *

Jiraiya wandered out of the suite's bathroom, his long white hair still dripping from his shower. These Yiri sure knew how to design snazzy apartments. The kid was passed out at the table, with a dozen charts and graphs spread out before him. Jiraiya scooped one up—a PERT chart—and shook his head before patting the kid's head.

Poor Naruto.

Jiraiya frowned when the kid flinched and grabbed his neck, hissing with what sounded like pain. He pulled the kid's hands away and saw no mark. Naruto was dreaming again then. He did this a lot: nightmares had plagued the kid all through the early days of Hiraishin training. It had gotten so bad that Jiraiya had sent Nariko-san a note. She had told him it was the result of kage bunshin memories and that if Naruto talked about them, things would get better.

Naruto didn't talk though.

Jiraiya sat down beside the kid and set a hand on his head until Naruto subsided back into uncomfortable slumber. Maybe it was time to encourage the brat to spill. Letting things hang like this was making Jiraiya uncomfortable and all too aware that Naruto's lack of willingness to confide meant that the kid was still mad at him about the seal and didn't trust him completely. It was another black mark on his record as the kid's godfather.

Jiraiya had taken Naruto from Konoha with the hazy plan of using their time to finally play the role of the proper godfather so Minato would be happy in whatever place lay beyond the grave knowing that he had chosen his son's godfather wisely. It had sort of happened, but not really. The kid clung to Konoha with his letters and to the jinchuuriki with their speedy messages. And Jiraiya had written, caught up in meeting a deadline, and had investigated all the leads he followed for Konoha, from Akatsuki to the secret doings of other hidden villages, often forced to leave the kid behind wherever was fairly safe because the kid had been too clumsy for reconnaissance. Many days had gone by without much passing between them.

Sure, he had taught the kid and had endured his pranks, but Jiraiya felt that a lot of trust was missing from this godfather/godson relationship.

This had to end.

"Gaki," he said, shaking Naruto's shoulder gently.

Naruto answered with a snore.

Rolling his eyes, Jiraiya shook his shoulder harder.

"Gah?"

"Kid, we're gonna talk about this."

"Huh?" Naruto rubbed sleep from his eyes.

"Look, I'm sorry about your seal. I only wanted you to be able to face Akatsuki and I'd heard about how the Eight Tail's jinchuuriki was able to handle his beast without a seal to create a barrier between them. I figured that because half the fox was gone, you'd have an easier time of it."

"Ero-Sennin?"

"I'm sorry, kid."

Naruto blinked blue eyes that were too much like Minato's for comfort and nodded. "Okay, I forgive you."

"Now, kid, what disciple keeps secrets from their master?"

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Brat, you've been having nightmares for months. It's Taijuu Kage Bunshin, isn't it?"

Naruto's eyes widened and then narrowed. "You asked Neechan, didn't you?"

Jiraiya nodded. "Kid, it's not normal to dream as violently as you do, especially when you're supposed to be a stealthy shinobi. Of course I'm going to ask your sister when you don't say anything."

Naruto sighed. "It's an awful jutsu, you know. I understand why Dad banned it."

"Then why are you still using it?"

"Because it's so useful." Naruto's voice was strained.

With a sigh, Jiraiya ruffled the kid's hair and let the kid think that the arm and how Jiraiya's head was turned to look out the window meant that he couldn't see the tears leaking from Naruto's eyes. "Tell me about it, kid. Talk it out."

There was a long silence as Naruto wiped his eyes with the back of his wrists, and for the longest time Jiraiya thought that he wasn't going to talk at all.

"The worst memories are from when my Hiraishin seal was still going through preliminary testing, when I was using two clones…"

When the kid had cried himself dry and talked himself hoarse hours later, Jiraiya hugged him briefly, ignoring how stiff the kid was as he patted his back, and let his godson go so he could ruffle that golden hair bleached pale by the desert sun again. "Go sleep, kid. Tell Rahim-san that tomorrow is your last day. We've got places to go."

"What about your manuscript?"

"What do you think I've been working on while you've been getting that Yiri coffee?"

Naruto managed a grin. "So it's done?"

"I'll mail it off to the publishers on our way out of Port Mure the day after tomorrow. We're heading north. I've got some friends who might be able to help us out way out in the boondocks beyond those Fence Mountains of Gloria-san's. You think you know enough about being Hokage from this civilian?"

Naruto frowned thoughtfully and shook his head. "Probably not, but I'll just send him lots of letters full of questions. He's been managing his company for years; I'm not gonna pick everything up in a couple months. Sasuke and Sakura have gotten to be real chuunin—leading genin teams and everything while I'm training out here solo. Rahim-jiji showed me all sorts of cool stuff, but I won't know whether I can do any of it until I can practice."

"That's a good thought, kid, but it'll have to wait a while yet. There's no genin where we're going."

* * *

"So you're going." Rahim leaned back in his leather chair in his office, turning the seat so he could look out the window.

"Yeah. Ero-Sennin's got stuff to do. I do too. I've been meaning to meet with somebody for Gaara."

"So, Gaki, did you learn enough about my plans to save your friend from me?"

Naruto sighed, not surprised that Rahim-jiji knew what had been going through his head when he had asked for training. "I've got some stuff, but Gaara will know what to do with it better than I do."

Rahim snorted. "Maybe, maybe not. Sabaku no Gaara is a shinobi, not a politician or a lawyer."

"But he's got enough clout that he could hire one."

One corner of the Yiri man's mouth twitched upwards. "So he could. And so would continue my struggle. Maybe they will kill Gloria this time when I beat them back. Or maybe it will finally be my end."

Naruto frowned. He could find no rebuttal for that. Gaara would protect his village in any way he deemed necessary. "Why cut their funding?"

"Because it is easier to convince the Wind Lord to cut their funding than to do away with them completely. As long as there are other villages like Konoha and Kumo and Iwa out there, the Wind Lord will want his own pet shinobi to hold against them. And as long as Suna ninja remain convinced that their country needs their presence, then they will do whatever misguided things they think will work to ensure their village survives. How attacking Konoha with Orochimaru qualifies made and still makes little to no sense to me given that Konoha was strong enough to wipe Suna out had your Hokage decided to declare war in retaliation for the attack, but there it is."

Naruto frowned as he mused over that. Why had Suna attacked them? How did attacking Konoha make sense? Now he had even more questions. Rahim-jiji wouldn't know anything about why Itachi and Kisame had killed Snake, but perhaps this?

The man shrugged. "Desperate people's logic isn't always sound. Orochimaru is not the most convincing of men to the rational from what I've heard, but to those cornered, those who are driven and desperate, anyone can seem like the saviour they need so long as the words sound halfway convincing. Suffice it to say that I don't understand completely and the Kazekage that decided this is no longer around to question. But his council is.

"Have you figured out what you need to do to tackle Akatsuki?"

Naruto blinked and leaned back into his chair to think. Rahim-jiji had said Akatsuki wasn't a clan, wasn't like a village, and was based around an idea. "How do you kill an idea?"

Rahim-jiji smirked. "Very good, boy. By overwhelming it with another one or by destroying every person and object that holds knowledge of the idea. Difficult, but possible. Conquerors write history, after all. Good luck."

* * *

ANBU stood on a high cliff, Sharingan gleaming in the scant reflected moonlight, watching two figures two figures run across Water's northern waters to the rocky coast.

* * *

Naruto slipped out of the monastery into the rocky gorge nearby, having finished the ten variant seal patterns Ero-Sennin and one of the monks had set him to drawing as they took turns lecturing about their prerequisites and effects. He had been made to dig out the weaknesses in the pattern, a daunting task when each dense seal pattern covered eight feet of scroll.

Taking a seat in the shade of a scrawny palm tree, Naruto cautiously did as Ero-Sennin had advised: delved into his mind.

The basement was filled with more water than Naruto remembered, more memories forgotten over time, but there was more light around, whatever that meant. Naruto could hear Kyuubi growling from the centre of the labyrinth and forced himself to follow the sound to the source, keeping a tight hold on his dread as the gate and the fox came into view.

Kyuubi growled at him, showing off his impressive teeth. **"If it weren't for this seal…"**

"Yo, fox man. Long time no see. Wasn't too impressed by your escape attempt way back, but I've decided we need to talk again."

Kyuubi didn't respond to Naruto's courtesy. **"Be glad there is power dividing us."**

"I know, I know; you'd take over my body and wreak havoc on the ninja world. I always wonder what ninja did to annoy you so much, though I guess I should be glad that civilians would be pretty safe."

"**Insolent kit, I would not waste time on you pathetic ninja. You are beneath my notice entirely. No, I would find the one that interrupted my slumber."**

Naruto frowned, wondering why Kyuubi was being particularly forthcoming today. "You mean that Uchiha Madara guy? Well, I asked Sasuke about him in my last letter and he said that Madara was the leader of his clan from over sixty years ago. Hate to break it to you, but this dude is probably dead. He did get into a huge fight with Shodaime. He's been dead for years."

"**Your ignorance would be amusing if it were not so pathetic."**

"Try sizing yourself down to my level and saying that to my face, fox-bastard."

"**Your attempts to insult me are too amusing as well. Your litter-sister is not quite as stupid as I had thought her to be initially if she believes in the religion these Buddhist monks teach at this monastery you and the lame one are staying at. They are not entirely off the mark."**

"What do you mean, fox man?" Naruto asked warily. This wouldn't be the first time that the fox had fed him misinformation. He still had yet to learn about that fox summoning scroll and the wolf that had taken it.

"**Exactly what I say. One as wise as I am has no need to lie to one as dull and slow as you. All I have to do is speak above your level of comprehension, and you will be left just as adrift as you would be if I had lowered myself to lying. Lying is a human trait; one I will not dirty myself with. You ninja do not know the true power of truth. Your pathetic excuse for truth is based upon point of view. Truth as we bijuu know it is singular: there is only one way to understand it no matter who stands before it. It is an absolute that you puny humans have no hope of understanding. Your corruption would cause you to explode in its presence."** The fox seemed amused by this prospect.

"Explain please," requested Naruto at his most polite, intrigued by Kyuubi's concept.

The fox rolled his red eyes and grumbled for a moment before complying. He must have truly been very bored and lonely. **"For you humans, every truth is in the eyes of the beholder. If one human said that someone was a liar, someone else might consider that person trustworthy and would thus consider whatever the liar said true. It is based upon experience, perspective, and taught values. What is true in your puny village will not be true in Iwa.**

"**For example, in Konoha the blonde brat who dared to seal me away is a hero and a legend for his deeds. In Iwa, they consider him a dangerous villain for his actions against their shinobi in the war and a fool for sacrificing himself to end my attack upon your village: two perspectives, two opinions. Children in Konoha who have never met the blonde brat will consider him a hero because they are taught to value him and to value his actions and sacrifice as heroic. In Iwa, children are frightened out of doing bad things by the mere mention of his name in much the same way my name produces fear in enemies for you."**

Naruto contemplated this for a moment before nodding. It did make sense.

"**For the bijuu and for the other kami, there is only one version of the truth. Opinion, perspective, and taught values do not enter into it. We see past these illusions to the core of things. Modifiers like 'hero' or 'villain' are useless bits of baggage used to create ambiguity. We look at a person's soul and weigh it. Petty fears, evil deeds, misconduct; all are viewed and all are weighed and measured to give the true worth of a person. Shinigami gives the final reckoning."**

"Okay then, what is the truth about Yondaime?"

"**Hah, unsurprising that you would ask that. He is dead and has become part of Shinigami's truth. That is his worth."** Naruto glared at Kyuubi, who sighed. **"To us, his deeds no longer matter. He is a mere speck in history now. He is beyond the reach of the living. As such, he no longer matters. My memory stretches back before all wars, back to the beginning of things when we were all merely specks in the great emptiness that is the stomach of the Shinigami. Your Yondaime was a believer in life. He believed in his cause and would do anything for it. I cannot express his worth more clearly than that in your tongue. You have too many words with too many meanings to speak truth as it is meant to be spoken. Your human languages are for lying."**

Naruto growled under his breath at the insult to his dialect and considered his next question. "Why hunt down Madara?"

"**To kill him, of course. Why else waste time on a pathetic Uchiha? He is a great believer in lies of all sorts and powerful enough to make them truths. I would rather that power lie only with those it rightfully belongs to, like me."**

"So your truth is everyone's truth?"

Kyuubi laughed. **"My truth is fire. I am fire incarnate. I am bound by its principles, and it is bound to my will. My power is its power, and its potential is mine. Everything possesses the basest form of fire: energy and motion. This is why I am limitless. My truth is the world's truth, so all must bow before it. Law."**

"So are you a part of the juubi like my grandpa said?"

"**Juubi is past. His truth is division, of which I am one fraction. Juubi is no more and should never be again. What is broken imperfectly must not be reformed. The ten was broken to nine. This is why Madara must die. He dreams of ten where there can only ever now be nine."** Kyuubi levelled a stern glance at Naruto. **"For truth, he must die, brat. The importance of my escape back into the world is nothing compared to the necessity of his death. But, you and I cannot fight him. His blood was part of the breaking, and his eyes are our weakness."**

"So because of you, I'm weak to the Sharingan?"

"**He can hold our minds, for we are fire and Uchiha has fire in their blood. He is moving now, too quickly. Your task is to find someone who can kill him, for age cannot in time. This is more important than your puny dreams of gathering the nine and becoming Hokage. This is for truth."** Kyuubi regarded him like a king commanding a knight. **"Uchiha Madara must die in this world and the next so he can never be found within the limits of existence again. You humans have bound the gods, so you must deal with the mess yourself or suffer.**

"**No gods are left unshackled to answer your pleas, save Sanbi who cares not because his truth has been too distorted to be a god. Death's Messenger is bound in your blond. Wind and Wear is trapped in the redhead. Distortion and Poison is snared in the aged one. Earth and Deceit is blind and deaf. Local kami are too frail. Sanbi is fallen because of Madara."** Kyuubi narrowed his eyes. **"As am I. There is your proof. Now run, boy. Find the person who can kill him."**


End file.
